Sunny Sunday Morning!

The chill of Saturday had thankfully warmed up by Sunday morning. We showed mr. Sun our gratitude by chillin on the beach all day.

The boys were busy jumping in the surf, finding cool seashells, and digging their hole to china. The adults hung out and talked and I floated in between. I flew a kite for a little while. Tried to bribe one of the boys to find me a sand dollar once Dylan found one; it didn't work.

Uncle Brian, Dad and I ended up people watching the boardwalk and eating chips and guacamole for most of the afternoon. It was nice.

And I can't forget the squid fries. These wonderful things were the ones that started them all. (Maybe you remember when I wrote about squid fries a year or so ago. These were even better!)

 And just for kicks, the three of us had to try on the teeniest pair of sunglasses in the house. (They were Jack"s.) I ended up borrowing them for people watching.

 All in all, the trip was purdy nice. Maybe a little short, but it just gives us all the more reason to go back again someday.

Drunk on the Beach

 This is a funny story. And if you know my dad, he is probably the best storyteller in the family and listening to him tell it just does not compare to any way in which I would be able to tell the story. So, I recorded him telling the story to my mom on the phone and that is my skeleton for the following story.

So we went out to dinner with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Brian and the kids. Nice place in old town San Diego. And we decided to hang out at their rental house for a little while afterward. Not being loaded down with three children (boys under twelve, no less.) We beat them to the house and were locked out. So me and Dad are hanging out on the boardwalk and Cam goes off on the beach, which was right there.

And he's sitting on the beach, lies down in the little hollow where the boys' big hole used to be (now filled in by the wind.) And he's just watchin' the stars and hanging out.

A little ways down, there were these college kids who were obviously drunk and one of them says, "Look! There's a dude on the beach!" and they're laughing and pointing at Cam and being drunk. They let well alone for a little while and then Cam gets up and he's packing the sand down to make the hollow space more comfortable. One of the guys shouts, "He's digging his own bed!" And they all laugh at him like he's some kind of fascinating zoo animal.

Eventually they see us and they ask, "Hey! Is that your buddy?"

Dad goes, "That's my son."

"hahahahaha. I remember my first time..."

Dad mutters "whatever" under his breath.

"...Except I was naked!"

We just kind of ignored the guys. But dad was like, "I love drunk people I don't know."

So they're hanging out and they start dragging out the bikes to go cruising down the boardwalk. They come rolling towards us and the one guy (I know I keep saying "one guy" but there were a lot of them and hard to distinguish.) and he says, "Is that really your son?"

Dad's all, "Yeah, that's my twelve year old son."

"He must be really drunk."

And very calmly dad says, "Um, no. My twelve year old son."

"Is he okay?"

Dad says, "Yeah, he's find. He's just doing what twelve year olds do."

The guy says "Alright man." And they go off on their wobbly bicycles, while me and dad sat there chuckling and Cam, still laying in the sand, had not a clue as to the conversation that took place.

The Zoo

This is probably one of those posts which I will return to, once home, and add a bunch of (better) pictures from the real camera. I left my phone in the car on accident and didn't realize it til we'd gotten inside the park, so these pictures are from my dad's phone.

But we had a fun time at the zoo. We ended up riding the trolley around the whole park and snapping pictures of the animals. It was rather fortunate that they let us stand up on the ride (we sat at the top of a double decker bus), as the boys would've been dreadfully disappointed at the number of things they would not have seen. As it was, Jack in front of me kept scaring me, he was so close to the rail! I kept sticking my hand out to steady him now and again.

The monkey exhibit(s) were, by far, the greatest and most exciting. Simply because they were the most active animals and entertaining to watch. (Plus they are my favorite animal.) Alas, we did not get many quality pictures of them. ("Quality" being the operative word here.)

Dad brought me and Cam back to the hotel after the zoo. (We were pretty much fried by the time we reached the monkey exhibit and I'd seen what I wanted to see, so there wasn't much point in staying longer. We'll just have to go back. Brian, Nancy, and the kids ended up staying a while longer). At the hotel, we lounged around, attempted cooking popcorn in the room's crappy microwave, watched the tail end of Indiana Jones (Temple of Doom, if I recall) on cable, and I blogged on Bernard about the road trip until we left for dinner. (which is why I am blogging now, late at night, with my eyes drooping. It's amazing I can focus at all right now.)

I will probably add a few more details regarding the exhibits (because the place was huge and this dinky little post does not do it justice in any sense of the word) when I add pictures. For now, this will do.

Enjoy some pictures:

The Boardwalk

There were lots of interesting things to see and do along the boardwalk and down the street from Uncle Brian and Aunt Nancy's rental house.

After visiting for a little while and letting the kids romp around in the sand for a little bit, we took a walk together.

We saw flowers that looked like birds, a motorized bicycle "gang," a Pomeranian that looked like it was attacked by a hair dryer... We looked into a few shops and saw all manner of dirty t shirts. We stopped to admire the wave house (they simulated waves to teach surfing) and a rollercoaster. And it was as we hiked back that we realized how far we'd really gone. It turned out to be quite far, and we probably walked about a mile and a half just this morning. Fun stuff.

Road Trip!!

So maybe a six hour drive to San Diego for a day and a half's worth of fun wasn't our greatest idea ever... But in my mind, the adventure is worth it.

Things I have learned:

-Cameron does not like his picture taken.

-However, you can snap a picture of him if you wait a sufficient amount of time until he is busy doing something else.

-how to drive at high speeds on a freeway in the wind. (and all this at night)

-"Party Rockers" and "I'm Sexy and I know it" are by the same band. (for some reason, I didn't know this)

The trip was pretty exciting. I drove for an hour and a half into Yuma. Cameron composed his own rendition of "I'm Sexy and I Know It" only it was the window washing edition. (Think, "ahh girl, look at this window...")

Coming from Yuma, we met up with some snow!! Dad said it was like the millennium falcon scene in Star Wars. (But please don't ask me which scene that is, because I honestly don't remember.)

And because I don't have a "real" computer for the weekend and Bernard does not have a memory card slot, I am resigned to posting crappy cellphone photos to document this experience. And the formatting is a little funky, but I can edit it when I get home. This is what I get for blogging on an iPhone app when I'm on an iPad. (Unfortunately, there is not an adequate app for blogging made for the iPad.)

Dark cellphone picture of dad giving me "the look" for snapping a photo.

Easter!

Our Easter began with an incredible sunrise service at a park downtown. It was very refreshing.

Funny story though, on the way there, the police had blocked off the road diverting traffic into a neighborhood. It didn't appear to be an accident as there were no cars nearby. The only explanation we could offer was a possible Denny's holdup(?). Unlikely, but no other explanation presented itself and we were busy winding our way through the unfamiliar neighborhood. Turned out that there was NO WAY OUT! So we had to go back the way we came. We ended up being five minutes late. But the service was totally worth it.

I'll admit, it was kind of the first time I'd really thought about the crucifixion all weekend. It didn't set in as heavily this year as in other years. I think part of it was due to the fact that I got wrapped up around all the little details of the weekend.

After the service, we went out to breakfast with Stacey and Bruce. Good conversation and company all around.

I worked in Sunday school with the kids at church. We had a blast talking about how Jesus forgave sins and the Holy spirit. We made "fruit of the spirit" juice and Ms. Jessica compared the holy spirit to burping! Not an analogy those kids will forget anytime soon, I'm sure! (Their poor parents; I can't imagine!)

He tried to get out of the picture, but I got him!

We spent the afternoon together on the porch once the chores were done. Dad played guitar while I wrote some poetry. Cam came out after a while and mom was weeding while we sang along to dad's strumming. It all reminded me of a country family on a summer's day. I felt so happy.

The poem I wrote went like this:

Listen.
Someone cries in the darkness.
I could not forget those cold bitter nights.
But today-- life is married to death,
In a beautiful picture of love.
Soft yellow sunshine beams light up our mornings,
Flowers spring up from barren ground-
A glimpse of nature's golden smile,
And a thousand tiny stars twinkle above earth,
Whispering, "He is risen!"

This is my easter dress!

The afternoon was leisurely and enjoyable and relaxing. Followed by it was a fantastic dinner with even more pleasurable company and conversation. Altogether, a perfect day if I do say so myself!

For the Birds (2)

There was a time when I thought I would use my blog to imitate Tumblr by merely posting the things that I found interesting. Instead of things that were interesting in my life. (Perhaps there was a small part of me that did not think my life was interesting, but that doesn't necessarily have to translate into, "Hey! My life is boring, here is a funny video I like!") Fortunately (for all of us) I have moved past that time, and while the blogging is slow, it's been better.

So today, we were at the university taking another exam. (I was taking it, to be precise. Human Growth and Development. Passed! Scored a 59.) and Mom and Cam went down to the student Union for food while I was testing.

I finished earlier than they'd expected so Mom gave me directions. I don't think I'm very good at following directions; I got lost. Fortunately, I only ended up a block west of them (where there also happened to be a "parking garage with steps, which she was directing me to.). Oddly enough, I ALMOST found them! If I'd walked just a little bit further, I would've found the red umbrellas she described to me. As it was, I could not look past the blue umbrellas that were right in front of me. So I stopped to call her again. And I wandered around some more, probably looking like a lost high-schooler on a college campus until, finally, I took the way I was more familiar with (which included walking around the whole student union building to the south side and winding my way through the food court. Note to self: Don't try to speed walk in a food court.)

In the end, I found them. Cam was kind of mad because Mom sent him to go lookout for me and then we called for him and I was at the table and he was way at the table... Yeah, I have no sympathy; he's not the one who had to muddle through a crowded campus!

But the point of this story is not that I can't follow directions, or that I took and passed another exam. And it's really not about how lost I felt.

If you look carefully, the bird is on the chair, just below the arm rest!

It's really all about these pictures I snapped. While we were sitting at the tables, me eating French fries, Cam sulking and mom talking, and all of us taking a little rest, if you watched the other tables, the birds were little daredevils! They were jumpin' all over the tables and stealing crumbs. It was funny, there was the college student who was staring off into space and he didn't even notice I was snapping a picture of him! (so says, the stalker in me!)

It was quite comical to watch them flit across the tabletops so fearlessly. I won't talk about hygiene here, or the real tragedy that happens when you give animals human food. Because for one thing, those are posts for another day, and for another thing, today, I don't really care. I just enjoyed the scene.