The Beach & the Dinner

Saturday evening we had the rehearsal dinner, but Saturday morning and afternoon--we went to the beach!

This is my favorite day of all. I am happiest when I am in the water, and when I'm in the ocean it's even sweeter. Well, it's salty, but you know what I mean. :)

Aaron's never been to the ocean before. He had lots to learn, and thankfully, my uncle had lots to teach him. For example, he learned to shuffle his feet in the sand to avoid being stung by a certain sea creature. He learned how to boogie board and find his way back to our spot on the sand. It is very easy to become disoriented in the waves! He learned about the tide--when it comes in, the beach shrinks. He learned to NOT swallow the salt water. Most of all, he learned how to have fun in the mighty (and warm, for a change) Pacific Ocean! :)

Uncle Wally giving Aaron a lesson on water safety at La Jolla Shores.

La Jolla Shores is a great family beach. When we arrived it was not very crowded. When we left, it was packed. What great timing we had today! We saw groups of scuba divers entering and coming out of the water, surfers catching waves on their own stretch of the beach, and people like us having fun in the waves. See some of the scuba divers in the picture below?

This is looking one way on the beach...

...and this is looking the other way!

The adults took turns watching over Aaron on his boogie board, so eventually we all had a chance to get beyond the breakers and bob around in the waves. Even my dad! Mom and I spent lots of time out there and wondered why we live so far away from the ocean. I loved it so much I just can't describe it. :)

Putting his wrist strap on.

Paradise

Aaron did a great job riding waves

Look at that beautiful water!
Uncle Wally & Aaron

He kept a watchful eye on his great nephew.

I spent some time lying on the sand doing nothing at all. Heavenly! Aaron and Uncle Wally went for a long walk looking for leopard sharks in the tide pools. I think it was fun for him to explore a completely different environment than what he's used to. I know I could get used to this life pretty quickly. :)

All good things must come to an end, and eventually our energy ran out and we needed some lunch. It was almost 2:00 after all, so we lasted even longer than I thought we would. We packed up and drove to In-N-Out Burger. This was a MUST for Aaron and me. I love In-N-Out.

We all ordered milk shakes with our meals...yum!
Aaron watched the workers prepare and bag the food, noticing they do the
same thing over and over. He said he would not like to do that for a job.

Back at home we rested up a bit and cleaned up for the rehearsal dinner. We drove to Seaport Village and walked through the shops before meeting the rest of our family at the restaurant. Aaron didn't want to do much walking so he and Grammy decided to be "bench buddies" at the restaurant while the rest of us continued to wander around.

Pausing to look at the view

The Coronado Bay Bridge is in the background.

Yes, it was very hot and sunny!

Bench buddies selfie

Aaron was the only child at this event. He was tired and out of his element, and in this moment I really wished Kaleb was here with him. The next best thing I could do was let him pick out a new game to play on my phone. That perked him up and he chose Minion Rush. When we sat at our table, cousin Katherine asked him all about Sea World and he really gave her an earful. :) He opened up the app on my phone and used the map of the park to show her everything we did that day. It meant a lot to me to see her take an interest in him. He needed someone besides his mom and grandparents to pay attention to him, so thank you Katherine! You were just like an aunt to him tonight.

Chatting with the girls :)

My dad and my uncle Charles dressed alike and that was not planned!
Later, Aaron asked me who Grampy's friend was. :)

This is me with Katherine. I sure got a lot of sun at the beach today!

We ate fish tacos and prime rib and a whole host of other fresh dishes. Coastal dining is really something else. Back home we have our corn-fed beef, but here they seem to have everything else. It's awesome. My uncle Rick and Aunt Jody (parents of the groom) really put together a great party! A very tired Aaron went home with my parents while I spent time with my cousins at the hotel in Coronado. We couldn't have packed anything else into this day if we tried! Tomorrow evening is the wedding, so I'm thinking a day of rest sounds like a great plan. Even though I'd love another day at the beach!

Wally, Nancy, Rick, Susan
My mom and her siblings

Aaron's Day at Sea World

Since this is a wedding weekend, we know there are certain family events we will be attending. However, Friday is completely open! I let Aaron decide where he wanted to spend the day. He chose Sea World.

On our way! Aaron & Grammy were being silly in the car.

Aunt Beth bought the tickets ahead of time and drove us there--that was so nice! She also doesn't like to ride the rides, so she became the keeper of our belongings. Again, how nice! Aaron saw about every sea creature they had, rode on his first real roller coaster, and loved the shows! We saw the sea lions, dolphins/birds, and whale shows. My dream job would be a dolphin trainer, so I was pretty much in heaven all day. Our last show of the day was the whale show, and I sat with Aaron in the soak zone. Yes, we got soaked! We were also soaked earlier in the day when we rode the rapids. My mom was the wettest of us all. I think she was still wet when we came home.

Some memories of our day:

• Aaron fed the dolphins ice cubes. They loved it and splashed us.
• The manta rays swam in really cold water, and we all liked touching them in that really cold water!
• Aunt Beth won a souvenir cup at the whale show and gave it to Aaron.
• My mom wishes she would have paid $5 to stand in the stand-up dryer after our wet ride on the rapids. People had a good time shooting us with those water cannons!
• My dad rode the Manta roller coaster with Aaron and me. Aaron sat next to him and I was in front of them. I think the last time I rode a roller coaster with my feet dangling like that was in college with Derek!
• This same roller coaster had problems later in the day and people were stuck on it. I am glad that wasn't us!
• Aaron picked out a stuffed sea turtle for his souvenir. I named it Sherlock, after my Uncle Rick's turtle. Aaron and Derek named it Torty.
• My mom dropped her phone while helping Aaron get his camera ready to take a picture of a sea turtle. The turtle was beaching itself on the sand and she was hurrying to give him his camera before it moved--forgetting that turtles are slow. :) Good thing she has insurance on her phone.
• I don't think Aaron minded all the walking we did today. That means it was really fun!

Shipwreck Rapids
Aaron is sitting next to me and the seat is blocking him from view.

I am right above the wooden roof, and Aaron is the yellow dot behind me!

That troublesome turtle!

Dolphin show--my favorite!

Aaron humored me and posed for yet one more picture.

Sea Lion show--so funny!

Awesome splash zone

Shamu!

We left just 30 minutes before the park closed. What a day we had! I hope Aaron remembers it. Back at the house we had fresh salmon for dinner. It was so good! Good thing Aaron is my adventurous eater. :) We looked at old pictures and laughed and just enjoyed being together. Aaron's developing a mild rash from all the fun in the sun, but other than that all is well. Uncle Wally has a child sized wet suit nobody is using, so Aaron has a Rip Curl wet suit of his own now! I say let's live here Derek! :)

To San Diego!!!

August 28th finally arrived and we were all packed and ready for our adventure! Aaron and I drove 5 minutes to our little airport--so easy and so awesome. Going through security was not new for Aaron, thanks to our trip to DC this summer. Seems like every building there has a security line. Here at the airport they needed to look at Aaron's math textbook. I bet he was hoping he would have to leave it behind. :) Nope, it came with us!

Here's our cute little plane!

He is SO excited to fly and be old enough to remember it! Once we flew above the clouds it surprised him to see the sun and blue sky. Pretty neat life lesson there...

A little chilly on the plane

Photographer Aaron

He took lots of pictures from the sky. My favorite memory of this plane ride was taking off and seeing Derek standing at his parked police cruiser waving goodbye to us. Only in small town America! I felt very loved, watching my husband send us off with a wave like that.

The flight attendant asked if Aaron would like to see the cockpit and talk to the pilots. Of course he did! When we landed in Denver she asked everyone to wait while Aaron and his mom made their way to the cockpit. Cool! He even got to sit at the controls. I was amazed they let us do that, and even more surprised I was allowed to take pictures!

His smile was not a cheesy one for the camera. :)

Dunkin Donuts and coffee in Denver tasted so good, and Aaron had fun on the moving walkways. Before too long we boarded our plane to San Diego. This plane was much bigger, with Andre the pronghorned antelope painted on the tail fin. (We flew Frontier Airlines.) Aaron took more pictures and did some homework. He really loved flying. If you ask him about his trip he will tell you he loved flying the most. 

I loved landing, since it meant we were finally in one of my favorite places on earth--San Diego, California! My aunt and cousin picked us up at the curb and we met up with my parents and my uncle near the water. We planned to visit the USS Midway this afternoon. No resting allowed! :)

We watched some of the tall ships line up for the tall ship parade this weekend.

I find it funny that as we walked up to the Midway, my cousin Katherine received a call from our cousin Daniel, who was working on the Midway that day. I think he was working on their air conditioning system. We didn't know he would be there, let alone see us walk from the parking lot. I guess San Diego is just like our small town back home--ha!

USS Midway

On board the aircraft carrier we carried headsets to listen to descriptions of what we were seeing. Aaron filled out a Jr. Ranger pamphlet to earn his "wings." The flight deck was our favorite part.

Grammy, Aaron, and Grampy!

Aaron quickly tired of having his picture taken, so I decided
to be okay with candid shots. :)

These planes are huge, and the carrier is enormous.

Yes, this is the Top Gun plane. Aaron had no idea what that meant of course.

The same plane from behind.

We spent a looooong time exploring here. I think Aaron must have taken over 200 pictures at the Midway. He told me he wants to show his brothers what he saw. :) I am thankful for digital cameras!

In a control room of some sort

We toured the captain's bridge and this is one of the views from there. I liked the porthole effect.

Peek!

Grampy pinned on Aaron's wings.

We stayed pretty much until closing. That evening there was a gala event on board, complete with red carpets and white roses everywhere. It was for the survivors of the Battle of Midway, for which this aircraft carrier was named. I thought that was pretty neat.

We made a stop at Costco on our way home to my aunt and uncle's house. By now Aaron and I were pretty tired and hungry. Perfect time to FaceTime with Kaleb! That kept Aaron entertained until we were back in the car. :)

All settled in and feeling at home, we had a yummy salad for dinner. Aaron, Grammy, Grampy, me, Aunt Beth, Uncle Wally, cousin Justin, and cousin Katherine--what a crew! :) We ate and talked and laughed and looked forward to our times together. When I think of all we did on this day, I am so proud of Aaron. He is a fun boy to travel with! :) Thank you to my awesome parents for this trip!!!

The Golden Morning

It's not easy for me to wake up early to take Braylen to school for morning band practice. I enjoy the quiet mornings spent with him as he gets ready for the day, but that's about all I enjoy. I'm a major night owl...and I majorly despise early mornings. However, August 25th was different.

First it was dark like it always is. Then we heard thunder and saw lightning. In the morning? We never get thunderstorms around here at 6am. Hardly ever. Okay, it's just a typical storm, I thought. Nope. A few sprinkles fell, it stayed dark and stormy in the west, and the sun began to color the sky in the east. And it was still thundering and lightning outside. So weird. Braylen took me along to band--that is my role these days, the passenger seat--and then I drove myself home. Heading east, it felt like driving through liquid gold. When I turned onto our street I pulled over to take this picture. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

I took this picture first.

Then I took this one a few minutes later.

The streets were gold. The air all around was colored gold. I woke Kaleb and Aaron up a little early so they could see this for themselves. A dark blue stormy sky to the west, pure gold to the east, and a double rainbow in between.

Of course pictures never capture things exactly as they were. At least my pictures don't. But at least it's something to help me remember this morning. Pink, red, and purple sunrises are pretty too, but NOTHING I've ever seen compares to this golden morning. It's the one time I've been glad to be up early. :)

Changing topics...
This Thursday Aaron and I are flying to San Diego!!! It's his turn for his grandparent trip and I get to go with him. :) We chose San Diego because I have a cousin getting married, and who doesn't love Southern California?! I'm excited for him to swim in the ocean, visit Sea World, and discover all of the extended family he never knew he had. My parents and I never intended to make this a tradition for all of the boys when they were 9 or 10, but it's turned out to be a really great idea. Braylen and Kaleb loved their trips. I expect Aaron will too. :)

Before we leave there is much to do. There always is. But tonight I'm just thinking of my boys' relationships with each other and how thankful I am for each one. I'm thinking of our everyday moments and our big moments, and how thankful I am for those too. And how one golden morning helped me appreciate getting up early every day...well, maybe that's stretching the truth a bit. :)

A big moment--our new driver!

Kaleb and Aaron watch Ginger eat her supper. One of many everyday moments.

Talking to his aunt while Derek and Kaleb work in the garage

Taking things apart and using their tools.