October 3, 2010

Shilly-Pepper Shenanigans

After spending a whole week relaxing on the beach in Oceanside, California, I have devised a way to resolve all of the world's problems:
When I am President of the U.S. of A. I am giving each & every person a beach front house.
Don't  you want to vote for me already?!
Everyone could start off the day by putting on a swim suit [mandatory] & go for a therapeutic swim.
If only there was enough shoreline to make my dreams come true...YOU would be listening to the waves as you read...
Alas, you will simply have to use your imagination to hear soothing ocean sounds...maybe this will help.
I believe this is one photo that necessitates further inspection.
Day One of our vacation was spent at Sea World
If I told you it was the time of my life - you might believe me.
If I told my siblings, {who were present} it was the time of my life - they would not believe me.
You do the math: 
Theme Park + 7 kids under the age of 7 = Slightly Disastrous
However, considering there were 7 kids under the age of 7, what do you expect:
~ a few meltdowns
~ some tears
~ potty breaks
~ momentarily misplacing a child or two
&
~ lots of happy little faces
because they got to see some pretty cool animals
My pick for highlight of the day: 
 Tim + Teapots
Passersby comments went something like this:
"Oh, My!"
"Look at that little girl!"
"Poor little girl."
"I don't think she's gonna make it!"
Tim is an absolute maniac on these things.  You will never see a teapot spin so quickly!  Somehow he talked his pregnant wife into riding with him after Lydia lived to tell about it.  Actually his whole family rode it.  It wasn't as intense as his first go around due to Tommy's (cutest little 1 year old you will ever feast your eyes on) head literally spinning in circles.  Unfortunately, no picture was taken, but it was one of the funniest things I think I will ever witness.
I mentioned momentarily misplacing a child or two...THIS is why...
Whoa Baby! 
No worries, all were located fairly quickly.
Another highlight of the day =
Snuggling with some really cute, but tired three year olds!
The next 5 days were spent on the BEACH!
Doing some of this...
& some of that.


Occasionally we had to eat out of necessity, of course, no pleasure involved. ; )
Then back to the beach for lots of boogie boarding!
To answer your question...YES, that is a wall of water coming for Adam without his knowledge.  I kindly pointed it out to him just after snapping this shot.  I think I saved his life.
Does it look like we've invaded the shores of California?
We probably could have taken over California with our massive army of Shilly-Peppers, if it weren't for the Water Monsters guarding their territory.
Oh, wait...that's just Tim.
The waves were quite scary due to their LARGE size, but if you braved it, it made for an adventurous ride involving several drops as your wave joined other waves.  I've not experienced anything like it before.  I made the ride even better with my Double Decker Boogie Board.
{It helped that Jordan would help me blast off.}
The water was a tad bit chilly, to work up a little sweat so it would feel more refreshing we kicked a blue ball around. 
Well, I kicked while Jordan laughed at me.
With good reason.  Flying Crane?
Tim loves to dig around a lot in the sand.
This is a giant hole he dug & then not knowing what to do with it built little caverns
for these guys who loved to eat our food.
We saw many friendly creatures including:  dolphins [at least once a day if not twice],1 sea lion, 1 sting ray [caught by a fisherman on the shore where we played], lots of sand crabs, & even 1 jellyfish.
Tim is holding a jellyfish!
The 'littles' liked to play too.

You can see, we had a swell time. We really missed those who couldn't be there.  Thanks Mom & Dad for making it all possible! 
We are so blessed!

In parting, after much picture overload, I would like to share one final picture.
CHEESE!
A

4 comments:

Jen Beckstrand said...

Jealous! What a fun family vacation! Sea World is one of my favorite places in the world! :)

Sharon Mae said...

Nothing like the beach! I'm glad you had a great time. I'm also glad it's not too far away!

Chris and Heather said...

Oh that Tom-Tom! Maybe I will make the day trip out to see him, just to munch his cheeks! The Juanita's pic is priceless.

Mom said...

Thanks for documenting some fun family times!