Spring Break - South Carlsbad

I love the beach. My parents grew up in southern Cal so we have vacationed there my whole life. I don't love the ocean because it is yucky and I have a neurotic fear of tsunamis (true story). But, my younger children think that camping is synonymous with beach. This is the way it should be. Warm sand, cool breeze and good book = perfect day. The campsites sit on a bluff above the beach. The sun sets like this every night, an event not to be missed.
Few things are more fun than playing in the sand. Children can entertain themselves for many hours with just sand and water. My sister, Joy, and her family were staying with their in-laws that week as well so we got together at the beach several days. We had so much fun playing with our cousins. Andria made an awesome castle, we climbed all over the rocks, and Tate turned Zanya into a mermaid. I didn't go near this water but it didn't seem too cold for these crazy kids. Every day was sunny and gorgeous, not like the summer days which seems to be much more hazy.
The nights were freezing (well, in the 40's which is freezing to us). That is why Hanna and Maranda are bundled up by the fire. Luckily, the sun came up first thing in the morning and warmed us all up.

Reading is one of our favorite things to do while camping.
Our campsite had this secret fort behind some bushes. It was a great place to play. Here, Ruth, Zan and Andria are having a picnic.
These girls wake up way before my teenagers so we go for a walk down on the beach and collect rocks and shells.
Hanna, she's got the whole sun in her hands
This is the only picture of me, nice. I guess that's pretty accurate. We're getting ready for Sea World: quick breakfast, pack a lunch, do everybody's hair, and go.
This week would have been really hard without my big kids. Chandler is so helpful and willing. He can tie knots, pitch tents, take out the trash, start fires and generally do anything else that I don't want to/can't do. Hanna and Danica can also pitch a tent, wash dishes, help in the kitchen and entertain small children.
One thing I wish I had a picture of is taking baths at night. The showers at the campground are token operated: 50 cents for 3 minutes of lukewarm water. So we learned that it was warmer and cheaper to let the littles take a bath in a large plastic bin in the trailer with water heated on our stove. This was also an easier way to keep Maranda's arm dry. We just did an assembly line, one child after the other. It was awesome. We love camping.

Spring Break- Sea World

We camped in Carlsbad for spring break this year. Dan drove us there, then flew home to work, then came back to drive us home. We have Sea World passes for the rest of the year so we went twice that week, one time without Dan, one time with him. The day Dan was with us, my sister, Joy's, family joined us too. It was Andria's birthday, soooo fun!

Here they are in the polar bear cave: Zan, Trigg, Maranda
We went early to most shows so we could sit in the soak zone! Shamu managed to soak some of us but Maranda was left dry!
Zanya was too short to ride the fun rides and Maranda wasn't allowed to ride because she couldn't bend her elbow with her splint.
One of our favorites is petting and feeding the sting rays:

Ruth liked it less when one totally splashed her.
Maranda was supposed to be writing her report about the box jellyfish while we were on vacation, ha ha.
Zan and Trigg couldn't ride the arctic ride so we went to see the polar bears. Zan refused to look at them because she was so mad that she couldn't ride the ride, even though they were very active at that time. (She really is mad even though she is smiling for the camera)
Here we are again waiting for the kids to get off the Atlantis ride. These are cool dolphins, though.
There were enough cousins to take up the whole ride. Hanna was the only one that cared about getting wet.
We love Sea World.

MamaG

This is my grandmother, MamaGinger. She has 11 grandchildren and thirty-something great-grandchildren. She tries hard to spend time with each of them. Here, she is reading books to my Ruth and Zan. They love it, and so do I.

As Thick as Your Arm

Maranda is my outdoors girl. She loves to play games and sports, climb trees, run and generally be outdoors. Last month, for spring break, we planned on going camping at South Carlsbad state beach. It's in California so we pack up the tent trailer, drive 7 hours, etc. Well, Friday afternoon I was putting all the last minute things together in preparation for the Saturday drive. My girls were climbing in the tree and Chandler had my car somewhere (?), when I heard a crack and a scream. I ran outside to see Maranda in the gravel under the tree and really hurt. She could barely move and I could tell that her wrist was broken because the bones were not where they should be.

I considered calling 911 but I didn't want to be an over reactive parent or incur the cost of an ambulance so I decided to take her to the urgent care across the street. Maranda said her back was hurting but she could still hobble to the car. Where was the car? Oh ya, never mind Chandler and Hanna both showed up at that moment. I quickly helped Maranda into the car, told Chandler and Hanna to take care of everything, deprived Hanna of her opportunity of seeing a real broken wrist (sorry Hanna), and drove to the urgent care.

The doctor there said they were not equipped to deal with that severe of an injury and Maranda would need a safe transport to the hospital, ie: an ambulance. So I called Chandler so he could come get the van since I would be riding in the ambulance, and I called Dan so he could meet us at the hospital. The doctor there had a tip for Maranda. She said don't stop climbing trees, it's great exercise. But make sure the branch you stand on is at least as thick as your arm. Good advice.

The ambulance was detained for a while so Dan beat us to the hospital. I was sad that Maranda was in too much pain to enjoy the ride in an actual ambulance. When we finally got there, they took tons of x-rays, and did some blood work. They said her back was hurt but that it would heal over time. Then she needed a CT scan and finally a splint on her wrist. The break was bad and needed to be set so they sedated her briefly because it is too painful to experience while awake. They put on a splint which is like an open cast that allows for swelling. Then they told us to keep it dry and in the sling for the next week while taking it easy so that the bones didn't get out of place again. Ha ha, they don't know Maranda. But they did say we could still go to California if we were careful. If the splint got wet, it would fall apart and we would have to go to a doctor there, get more x-rays and a new splint. That didn't sound like fun so we were very careful. Too careful for Maranda.

This is how Maranda is "careful" Sheesh! Sea World wouldn't let her ride any rides because she couldn't bend her elbow, who knew?

Choir Concert

I'm tired of being at the bottom of everyone's blog list because I haven't posted in the longest time. Here is an easy one. Danica performed in a regional choir in March. She had to try out by CD and compete against kids from all the western states. Then they practiced for two days and performed in Tucson. It was an excellent performance, we really enjoyed it. Danica is second from the left in the above picture, but below is how she usually looks :)

Ahhh, the teenage years