Last week we took a trip with the Bomans and Phelpses down to Southern California. We left on Sunday after church and drove as far as St. George. We got up early the next morning to make the six hour trip to Oceanside where we rented a house for a week. The house was in a nice neighborhood about 5 minutes from the beach. We would have loved to have a house right ON the beach but they were a little spendy! This house worked out great! There were four bedrooms and a nice big kitchen and gathering room. We had fun there playing games and cooking meals throughout the week. While we were there we enjoyed some fun activities. Three days at the beach! (That's what the kids love to do most!) I'll document that in the next post. One of the days we traveled the 45 minutes down to Sea World and enjoyed seeing the sights there. I love Sea World seeing the wonderful creatures of the ocean. We saw three shows while we were there. the Dolphin show, the Sea Lion and Otter show, and of course, the Shamu show. All of us agreed that the Sea Lion and Otter show was our favorite! The guy who played the pre show (Biff) was super funny and he had some cameos throughout the show as well. It is always fun to watch the sea lions do there tricks:)
Here are a few pictures of the day. For some reason I didn't get many of the Boman family.
One thing that happened at Sea World was that Rafe went missing. The family stopped to play a game in the turtle exhibit and I had the responsibility of watching Rafe. He and I had been in the gift shop looking at the stuffed turtles and then we walked back to see how the kids were doing with the games. Kendra said, "Mom, do you have Rafe?" and I answered that I did. He was right in front of me and we started walking back to the gift shop to look at the stuffed turtles again (or so I thought). All of a sudden he took off running! He was about 15 feet in front of me and turned a corner so I quickened my step to see where he was going. I got to the corner and he was NOWHERE to be found! There was an opening out into the park and I though to myself that he went out there. I glanced through the shop quickly and headed outside. I couldn't see him anywhere. It didn't make any sense that he could have gotten that far. He hadn't been that far away from me and he has tiny legs. Where in the world did he go?? I went back into the shop calling, " Rafe, where are you?" over and over. No answer. I looked again outside and then over to the stuffed turtles. No Rafe. I was getting really nervous now. How could he just disappear in front of my eyes?
I ran back to the group and said in a panicked voice, "Brach, Skylar, I can't find Rafe!" I heard Rick say, "Are you serious?" and then the hunt was on. Kendra ran to the front of the exhibit thinking that he went that way. We all were looking around not seeing him anywhere. I don't know how long it was. Probably two or three minutes but Wow, it felt too long not knowing where he was. Finally, I heard Rick say," Brach found him." I went over to them and Brach told me he had said a little prayer while looking in the gift shop over in the clothing area. Afterwards, he looked up and saw Rafe's feet behind a hanging clothes rack. He picked him up and said, "What are you doing buddy?" Rafe answered, "Hiding from grandma." He was playing hide and seek!! I didn't know whether to be mad or relieved. Little turkey! I guess I was little of both. So relieved that we found him. He scared us all for those three long minutes! Kendra was shaking by the time she found us. A very worried mother! All's well that ends well, though and we enjoyed the rest of our day.
Another of our days in the area we drove down to the San Diego temple and went through a session. It was a very pleasant morning. The temple is just beautiful and I got to show Rick the atrium inside. (I had seen it for the first time when I went on our sister's trip back in February). After the temple we drove over to Old Town where we had lunch at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and then walked around the shops and the museums. The kids especially loved the candy store:)
Rafe choosing his treat.
Unbeknownst to Sarah, while in the candy shop Henry reached down and grabbed a chocolate.
It looks like he enjoyed it, huh?
After Old Town we had to drive over to Extraordinary Desserts, a bakery that was referred to us by the owner of the home. She raved about these cakes. We each got us a slice of what looked good to us and then headed back to the house to enjoy them. Mine was this delicacy above. It was very rich and lovely!
