oceanside 2013

Panoramic pix taken in our first 20 minutes at the beach.

We got home from our fabulous vacation last night. And, since I thought I would continue to be sick for what's adding up to 13 days straight, I'm home from church thinking about blogging, but not really.

I don't have to energy or the inclination to edit all the photos and blog about everything, but I thought I'd do a quick sum up of our vacation.

We have another wild week ahead of us and I'm afraid if I don't blog the highlights now, they will be gone from my mind forever!

• The drive to Oceanside was so fast. We only stopped once for gas/bathroom break. (are our kids amazing travelers? Yes.) The drive was ten hours and it seemed to fly by. We listened to "Okay for Now" on CD and everyone laughed and loved it.
• We rented a different house this year.  The little blue house that we've rented for years and years was booked by the time we could get our act together and inquire about it. However, that turned out to be a good thing!  While we've been happy in the blue house, it definitely had some quirks.  The main problem being that you had to go outside to use the stairs between the two floors, which was annoying. The house we got this year was beautiful, had inside stairs and pretty much everything about it was nicer than the blue house. Except the price. Nicer house=higher price. The new house has three nice bathrooms and three bedrooms. But, go figure, the blue house had more beds. Bekah was happy to sleep on the sofa bed, so it all worked out. The new house had a gourmet kitchen that we loved. The new house had a big gorgeous deck that we spent a lot of time sitting on and watching the action on the beach below.
• Speaking of the deck, on Sunday when I stayed home from church (sick) I sat out on the deck and gazed at the scenery while listening to General Conference. Pretty much the best Sunday ever.
• Monday was gorgeous and warm until about 10:30am when a cold wind picked up. The wind made it pretty miserable to be outside especially if you were wet. Aunt Carol and Uncle Norm came and visited that afternoon.
• Tuesday was beautiful and warm and not windy!  I think the high that day was 77*. The beach by the new house is smooth and flat with a very gradual decline into the water. You could walk and walk and walk out into the ocean for a long time before the water even reached your chest. The waves were crashing in slowly and it was so calm out in the ocean it almost looked like a lake. The kids and Stick boogie boarded like crazy and it was such a gorgeous day and the waves were so ideal that I put on the wet suit (the water is still arctic) and boogie boarded with them!  I don't usually get in the water but this year the conditions were so awesome I just couldn't resist.
• Wednesday was another gorgeous day. We all boogie boarded like crazy all day long. Spencer and Harry even got the hang of it this year and spent hours going back and forth. Rebekah was brave this year too and did a lot (of her own version) of boogie boarding.
• There was a big (Mormon?) multi-generation family a couple of houses down from us. As we were sitting on the deck early one morning, we could see that they were pulling something out of the ocean by it's tail.  It turned out to be a dead sting ray with it's big side wings (?) cut off. It was both morbid and fascinating to look at. Eventually the other family got the attention of some passing life guards and they hauled it away.  My boys were sad that I wouldn't let them cut off the tail and keep it. (boys!)
• One of the days that I was way out in the ocean waiting for the next great wave I looked just to the north of me about 15' away and there was a big hairy brown head sticking out of the water looking at me. I did a double take, because at first it seemed so human like, but it turned out to be a (we think) sea lion.
  
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• It looked pretty much like this, just bobbing there looking at me.  Without even realizing it, I said, "Why, hello there......" causing my kids to all turn and see it too. Everyone on the shore saw it and they said it was enormous as it swam away. Stick also saw a smaller sea lion when he was out paddle boarding.
• We saw dolphins but not as many this year as last.  On Friday when it was dark and grey and the water was crazy and churning we saw more than we'd seen all week. Including two that almost seemed like they were surfing the waves. We even saw them jump out of the waves. Maybe dolphins like wild water and not calm?
• We walked down the pier to Ruby's for Aaron's birthday treat.  While we were waiting to go in we all saw what we thought was a whale, but it barely surfaced and we were never really sure.
• There were hardly any shells. The lowest amount we've ever seen in all these years.
• Most of the days the water was so calm that you could be standing in it up to your chest and see your toes on the Ocean floor below. And the water was full of mica (?) which looked like little gold glitter flakes swirling everywhere. We've never seen this before.
• Late Wednesday afternoon Stick rented a paddle board, a surf board, two skim boards and another wet suit (we are one short). He and the boys tried the paddle board.(I really wanted to, but didn't do it, and then by the next day the waves were too wild. Boo hoo.) It was tricky to figure out for Stick but he's tenacious and eventually did it, by the second day he was a pro. The boys jumped on the first time like they'd been doing it all their lives. It was pretty apparent that the lighter you are, the easier it is.
• Thursday we played all morning. The waves had picked up some momentum and were starting to crash down wilder than they'd been all week. Stick and the kids tried to surf, but it was hard! Which we knew it would be, but still. Next time we will probably get some lessons arranged.
• We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner Thursday afternoon with all the trimmings and then we rushed back outside to play some more before the sun went down at 4:30!
• Harry was a skim board pro after about five minutes.  He was really good at it. It's much harder than it looks. Eventually Thomas figured it out too, but the other kids couldn't quite get it. Stick and I didn't even try after the guy at the rental place told Stick it was a "young guy toy and not for old guys"!
• Friday morning was dark and rainy, so Rachel got her wish and we went to Fallas.  She bought 7 pairs of fake Toms. (Imelda)
• Friday afternoon continued dark and grey but the rain stopped so we went out to play for our last hurrah until the sun went down.
• I probably say this every year, but it really was the best week ever.

Also, I didn't forget our picture! Ha! This is the very first one we took, Rachel is rocking the super model hair......

So much for a brief update.....brevity never was my strong point.

1 Comment

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Wow! What a week! So glad you guys went! Sorry you were sick-- that's not cool

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