Back from the Beach

This past Monday morning we woke up really early to begin our drive to California. We left our house just before 7 and drove down to Maricopa to pick up Tiffany and her girls. The car ride over to Carlsbad went without any problems. We arrived at our campsite around 230pm and started setting up camp- or Scott did. It is good that he knows how to set up camp and lay out the tarps and tables and such because I am lost when it comes to that. Tiffany had just bought a new tent and we all really liked that one. It has 6-7 foot ceilings all the way across- no slanting ceiling. Scott said that we will need to buy one like that before we go again. I said we would be buying an airmat like Tiffany's because it was the nicest air mat I have seen. It was a double layer mat so you never feel like you are touching the ground. Anyway- after we set up we walked down the ramp to the beach to let the kids see the ocean. It didn't matter that the ocean was chilly, the kids loved the water. Blake was undecided at that point. Before we went camping I spent a lot of time working on the food menu and all the food during the week was great. Monday nights dessert was smores and that was the kid favorite. We even tried popping popcorn and that worked okay. Tuesday morning we went to the San Diego Zoo. That has to be the best zoo. We saw Pandas, Polar Bears, African Oxen, Sun Bears, and so many more. On the way to the zoo there was a sign for the zoo: If we don't have it- it doesn't exist. I think that was pretty true. This zoo has soooo many hills so by the end of the day my legs were killing me. It was so much fun running down the hills with the stroller but I forgot that you have to climb back up with that stroller.

A scary thing did happen at the zoo- we lost Madison. We were walking and she forgot to tell us to stop and let her read about the monkeys. About 2 minutes later I was doing my kid count and couldn't find Madison. Tiffany ran down the hill, with the rest of us following shouting for Madison. Luckily, a security guard saw her crying and was taking her to a phone to call us. It only lasted 5 minutes but it was a horrible feeling. We were all really glad that it wasn't really bad.

On Wednesday we stayed at our campsite and went down to the beach. It didn't seem like we were there very long, but we stayed for 4 hours before heading back up the hill for lunch. The kids had a great time building sand castles, digging holes, and playing in the water. Blake had a great time getting dirty and crawling around in the water.

Thursday we went to Legoland. The kids loved this park, but I think it is very over rated. We were there for 8 hours and only went on 10 rides. Blake was able to go on 3 rides. This park is perfect for a family of four since most rides only allow 2 people on at a time. The really neat part was walking through all the things made from legos. New York City, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and they even had a full sized Volvo SUV built. Pretty neat.

Friday morning we got up and packed up our camp site and left just after 8am so we could go home and see Karl who is staying with us this weekend. Overall we had a great time at the beach. The benefits of camping are: no electronics (mostly), being outdoors, cooler weather, a much more relaxed schedule, and the kids loved it. The downside: never feeling clean, and dirty bathrooms. The kids are already looking forward to going again next year.