Beach Bliss

After a day at the fair, we had to run an errand in Oceanside. Mark went right up I-5, which of course runs right along the beach. I quietly asked, "Do you think we could possibly stop at the beach on the way home, just long enough for me to put my toes in?"

Taylor exploded with excitement. I guess it's been a while since she put her toes in the surf, too! She had gone to Hawaii, surfed, came home, and was soon diagnosed with cancer.

Mark graciously agreed. We knew we wouldn't stay long as there were horses to feed and dinner to attend. A moment was enough!

On the way home, we went along the Pacific Coast Highway. Mark doesn't know how to drive slowly enough, so I grabbed what pictures I could as we were speeding along. I tried to capture shots to show my children what I love about the beaches in California, specifically in Oceanside and Carlsbad (Leucadia is my favorite, though).



Along the coast, most of the buildings have some kind of beach scene painted along the sides.


This is a little beach hotel or restaurant. I couldn't tell because we were going too fast.


Like Park Ave here in Winter Park, or Rodeo Drive, or El Paseo in the desert, there are shops and restaurants that line the street. Unlike the previously mentioned places, you can show up in flip flops and shorts, or even stop by the place on your bicycle. If you're not hauling a surfboard, a bicycle is the preferred mode of transportation.


This was my absolute favorite surf shop: Off Shore Surf Shop. It's listed on the side of this building, with Harbor Fish in the front. I don't think I ever bought more than a bumper sticker, but how I loved going in there!


Hello, beautiful. It's so very, very good to see you again! I've missed you . . . .
Ok, I'm not talking about the guy obviously. I'm talking about the wave in back. Look at that beautiful form! Look at the curl! Look at the power in the wave! We had just passed many, many surfers. Mark didn't want to stop there, though.


So hello, good friend! I want to be next to you . . . from my head, for my heart, for it's true . . .


A pink beach cruiser. More waves forming in the back. I couldn't wait to get out of the car at this point!


This is the family, heading to the surf. My shoes were left in the car since I knew I wouldn't be needing them at this point. I looked like a total tourist, but I didn't care. I knew the truth! I was coming home to the beach I knew and loved, body surfed, boogie boarded, frisbied and smash-balled.


Here, I'm looking to the right and facing NORTH. My world is right once again. You can seen the jetty sticking out, and on the other side of that are the surfers. Yes, that is a person sitting in the sand. We didn't have to worry about thinks like lice. Sand fleas maybe, but not lice. LOL



Come on, Taylor. Let's go say hello. At this point, there was a smile on my face that didn't leave until I went to bed.




I still remembered the power and timing of the waves. We were only allowed up to our knees (wisely) so I would watch the wave crash and yell, "Back, back, back!" when I knew it would come up way past that, even though we seemed to be far enough away.

The Pacific is powerful. I was just at the Atlantic yesterday and it was a gentle lap-pool compared to the Pacific. I know it can get pretty gnarly with hurricanes and all, but the Pacific has such beautiful form and grace. It also seemed much cleaner. It was definitely colder!

My friends, BA and ML, think the Pacific is freezing. I found it completely refreshing! Had I been in swimsuit with fins, I would have dove right in for hours. BA, it's honestly warmer than Rock Springs!

Yesterday, the Atlantic was like bathwater. It was not refreshing at all. Atlantic, I have tried to like you. I have. Could we simply remain acquaintances?


This picture is for you, BT, so you know exactly where we were. The only things missing were you and Kazebee!

In my hand, you see the rocks that caused me to be searched at the airport. I didn't care.



While my back was turned, the Pacific reminded me that it was still a force to be reckoned with. It came up behind me and gave me a playful boot to the bottom!


I didn't mind. Truly. I still love you and respect you, my beautiful Pacific.


< ------------------------------South. North ------------------------------------->


Here you go, Mom. My foot and Mark's foot, and we're not even kicking each other. He's a great man, Mom. His family is great, too. And, we all miss you!

A Glenna's-eye view

When the girls and I went to New Mexico last June ('06), I was able to let them take pictures of anything that caught their eye because of the wonders of the digital camera. There's no stressing over "wasting film" because we can simply delete the ones we don't want. I loved looking through the pictures, the way they framed their shots, and the oddball collection of images.


All the pictures in this post were taken by Glenna, age 10, from our cabin in NC. Some are quite random, but some are quite good!


This one and the one below are my two favorites. Glenna loves all things western, so the wood in these pictures must have really appealed to her.

I suspect this is where she and Rachel played when they disappeared from the cabin. I haven't asked her yet, but doesn't this look like the makings of a miniature Indian village?

This shot was taken from one of the balconies. The "Indian Village" would be under the trees, right where the path ends. Slightly spoiling the shot is the grey satellite dish in the left of the photo. Ah well.

I am up at this hour because my Kelly is coming home from camp! She has been gone all week and I miss her terribly. I need her home. Now.

Ty's waiting up with me and we'll go get her together. He's playing some video game Jeremy brought when they brought the baby food, etc. He tells me, "Don't watch, Mom. It's gory." When does it stop? :-D

All Things Tyler

Here's me and my man-child. Is it possible I ever carried him on my hip, gave him piggy-back rides, or held him on my lap as we read books together? I'm so thankful he's finished with school, so we can enjoy each other again!

Tyler hates to have his picture taken. It's not like a teen girl, who pretends to hate to have her picture taken but secretly loves it; he really, really hates it. Here he's looking at his Dad in exasperation because he's taking his picture yet again. Frankly, I was with Ty on this one! Please note my way cool walking stick. It's the one thing that saved me on this hike!

We were on the top side of Rainbow Falls here. Tyler grabbed my hand and made me look at the view (he convinced me it was worth it, and it was). Here, he's pointing out the trail he went on last year, following ML and JS, because he thought that was what they were supposed to do (not knowing they were going to jump off the rock face). Ty's experience last year was not only not great, it was downright horrible.

We posed for this picture just before the final descent into the Rainbow Falls pool. I love the look on his face, because unbeknownst to us, it means, "I am not going one step further, and there's nothing you can do about it."

See, last year he followed ML and JS up the "trail." He was far enough behind them that he didn't hear ML warn about the wasp nest in one spot on the trail. Everyone else would take a deep breath, then scramble/run past the spot as quickly as they could.

Tyler climbed casually behind them, taking his time. He didn't stand a chance.

Himself was at the bottom near the pool area when he looked up to see Ty leaping and scrambling down the hill, bounding from rock to rock, waving his hands around his head, and trying not to break a leg in the process. It was so alarming!

He was stung not once, but six times.

There was no way he was going anywhere near that spot again. He stayed at the top of the trail the entire time we were there.

Himself says I light up when Ty enters the room. I can't help it. He's so much more than I ever dreamed a son would be! I know it's his destiny to leave us eventually, whereas a daughter is always with her mom and dad. There's such a delicate balance with a son . . . holding on while letting go. I guess this is why I give him as much room as possible, but grab on to each and every "moment" I can.

And Ty, because he's a great kid, lets me.

Something Dead

This is our cabin! Glenna took most of these pictures. I think she did a pretty good job. The upper level had the kitchen, living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The lower level had a laundry room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. Both levels had their own balcony, as you can see in the picture below (kinda).

This is the upstairs balcony where we threw the kids out most of the time. The little noisemakers. Who would have thought "Apples to Apples" could be such a loud game?

Here's Ty in the kitchen, eating the main staple that kept him alive our entire vacation . . . Pop Tarts.

Right next to the kitchen is the stairway to head to our quarters. The BA and ML clan stayed upstairs, though Glenna was kind of a renegade, going back and forth between the two floors.

Ty and Kelly shared this room. We decided they'd want a place to sleep 'til noon and not be disturbed. Ty said he couldn't hear anything or even smell breakfast cooking. We fixed that by making sure the smoke alarm went off each time we made English muffins. :-)

Here's Kelly heading back upstairs, ready for a day of hiking and waterfall viewing. Isn't she lovely?

This is the room Himself and I shared. It looks cute enough. It looks charming what with the canopy and the handmade quilt. One would think this room had nothing but appeal, but this room's closet is where I found something dead.

What IS it? How long has it been there? Worst of all, how did it GET there? It was all dried up and nasty, just waiting for my bare foot to land on it.

Ok, so it's not THAT big. Still, it was something. And it was dead.

Daring Friends

This is me and my friend, BA. I guess someone could have told me I didn't need to hunch down in this photo (ML). Anyway, just look at the expression of victory and triumph on her face. She's probably had that expressions only four other times in her life. . . . once when she nabbed ML to be her hubby, and three other times when she gave birth. I assure you, what she did here needed just as much bravery and courage!





Remember the Scared Kids? Evidently, BA realized this was probably her last hike to Rainbow Falls. Much to my horror and the chagrin of Himself (who did not want to do this until BA started climbing, but held back anyway so as not to steal her thunder), BA decided she wanted to jump off the cliff.

It all starts with this climb on a "trail" that doesn't really exist. I thought this picture was funny because you can see BA's purple top on and shorts on one side of the tree, then ML coming out the other side of the tree. It looks like she's morphing into ML.

She's gone from our sight for a while, then we can see her climbing down the vines near the rock face. See her? See her purple shirt?

Here, I circled it to make her more visible.

And here's ML, proud as can be, showing the entire world that his wife did indeed make it to the rock face. Hey, it was a proud moment for all of us, really!

Here, she's casually examining her toenail polish. At least, that's the story she told me. If you ask me, though, I think that after she climbed down the vines and took one look over the side, she got a serious case of the "scardies" and had to catch her breath!

ML jumped first, but he kind of slipped and my camera wasn't ready to catch the majesty of it. All I had was him splashing into the water. Yes ladies, you read that correctly. He took her up on a rock face and LEFT. HER. THERE. If you know him and ask him about it, he'll try to say he went first to show her how it's done and to be ready to receive her in the water below. Yep. I bet that's just what he'll tell you.

And here it is! A most magnificent leap! What style! What form! What poise and grace! All of us waiting on the rocks could only gasp at the wonder of it all!

What? You can't see her? Please feel free to contribute to my new camera fund so we can avoid this travesty in the future. In the meantime, Good 'Ole Paint Shop will help us out yet again:

And here she is, still alive, frolicking merrily in the water with ML, drinking in the mad applause of her observers. I think I was clapping the loudest! It's so much safer to live vicariously through friends, wouldn't you agree?

Now she's back to "Mom" mode, casually sunning herself on a rock with all the kids, basking in the adoring gaze of her hubby, ML. Everyone is that much happier and smiling because of her amazing feat.

You've done us all proud, BA!