August 15, 2010

August 15, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

I am trying to get caught up with our letters. I hate trying to play catch up because I know I forget so many things. Our last week in California started off on a sad note. J was still having a fever, making it a little difficult to go anywhere or see anything. Monday night M took B-man to Legoland for the last hour before they closed. They got in free and had a great time. B-man only wanted to do this "Driving School" over and over.

Tuesday J woke up with no fever but he had a rash on his mouth, all over his legs, and a little bit on his hands. I didn't officially get it checked out by a doctor but it sounded like a classic case of "Hand, Foot, and Mouth" disease. We get all weird diseases. We were supposed to go to Julie's but obviously had to change our plans. B-man was SO sad that he couldn't go up to their house. It also meant we had another day to do nothing. It was a little frustrating. I had been saving a lot of things to do in this week when M would be here with us. But it was out of our control.

To make matters worse, Wednesday morning B-man woke up with a fever. We were happy that J was feeling better, but once again spent the day at home. M did go to a Padres game that night with my two brothers that are home. They had a great time at the game. While they were gone I had fun with my mom and sister.

Thursday morning we woke up and took an inventory of our children. J was feeling much better, and B-man had no fever and no blisters. We decided that we should risk it and go to Sea World. We have been saving up for many months to go to Sea World, and we had promised B-man that we would go. It looked like it was now or never. We packed a quick lunch and headed out after J's first nap. We figured the day would go better if he had at least one good nap. The day worked out really well. Skate was even able to come with us, which made it even more fun. The park was crowded, but not horrendously. We realized quickly that we would need to get to the shows early for a seat. We had a lot of fun. B-man loved the Sting Ray area where he could actually touch the rays. He also loved the Sea Lion and Otter show. It was hilarious and right up B-man's love of all things silly. J loved everything. He couldn't get enough of the animals. After the last show of the day we decided to run and see the last of the animals, and to ride the roller coaster that they have. I couldn't ride the roller coaster but sent the boys off. B-man was SO excited, and had wanted to ride it all day. I kept watching and watching for them. While J and I waited we watched these dolphins that they had at the "viewing" area of the roller coaster. Eventually we saw them going. Right as they were climbing the hill to come down, the ride stopped! They got stuck at the top of the roller coaster. It was so sad! They had not even gotten to do any of it. Eventually they even had to come let them out of the car and then they had to take a back stair route down off of the roller coaster. B-man was a good sport about it, and at least they weren't stuck upside down. After the roller coaster we hurried over to the Arctic exhibit. It was getting late and cold. We were thrilled to see the polar bears and beluga whales, but the walrus really put on a show. I have never seen a walrus so close and being so active. It was so cool, and it made the day all worth it. We then headed home and were so happy for the warm delicious dinner my mom had waiting for us when we got home.

Friday morning everyone woke up healthy again. We were so grateful for that. After a lot of debate, we decided to go with E, Skate, and Mom to Torrey Pines State reserve. Most of us had never been there before. It is located right on the cliffs near the ocean and has some beautiful views of the ocean and lots of fun rocks to climb on. We ended up doing a lot more walking than I thought we would. I actually stayed on a bench while the rest of the crew walked down to a vista closer to the ocean. While they were gone I sat on a bench and enjoyed the view. Right as they came back I realized that I was seeing some water spouts from whales. At first I thought they were dolphins, but we figured that since they were SO far away it had to be whales for us to be able to see their spouts. It was a really fun thing to sit and watch for a while. We then walked back up to the car and left. We were supposed to go straight to the zoo from there, but realized we had forgotten our passes, so we rushed back to the house and then turned around and went back to the zoo. We had a great time at the zoo too. We did a very quick tour, and let B-man choose what we went to go see. We saw a lot of the important animals. We have really had great luck with everywhere we have gone, and just as I was thinking that we struck out at the zoo the rhinos started having a party. Seriously these two rhinos (they were brothers) were running laps around their enclosure, splashing through the water, hitting each other with their horns, etc. It was so great! I knew rhinos were fast, but it was impressive to see such large animals running so fast and being so agile. We came home and put the boys pretty much straight to bed. That night after dinner I sat down to wait for others to gather so we could choose a movie to watch and I completely fell asleep. Not just drowsy, but out cold. I finally woke up enough to stumble up to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up and went to garage sales with my mom. It was a slightly slow day. By the time we got home M had left to go snorkeling with Scott and Skate in La Jolla Cove. When they got home they reported that the water was super murky and they couldn't see anything, but they still had fun. The next day a 15-20 foot Great While shark was spotted in the area where they had been snorkeling and the life guards had to clear the water. They were all glad that they hadn't been shark food after seeing that story. Later that day we were able to go to the temple with Skate for his first time. It was a wonderful experience and M and I were excited to be asked to be the witness couple. We were sad that Julie and Greg had missed the session because of traffic, but we were still all able to go to eat together after leaving the temple. It was a really great evening and chance to be together.

Sunday was a busy day. Church was great, and after church we had to hurry home and get things ready for various things. First we had to get M organized and packed for his trip home. We were also trying to get dinner going, and also be able to disappear when my dad had to take care of his church responsibilities. In the end it all came together well. We were able to hide while my dad needed quiet, and then we had enough time to get dinner ready before some guests came over. We had one of my dad's missionaries and his son over for dinner. After dinner and putting the boys to bed I took M to the airport for his "red-eye" flight back to DC. Everything went very smoothly and he was off without a problem. It was sad to see him go and know that our time was coming to an end in California.

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J