Within the Norm: BEACH WEEK!!!

I am so excited to post about this!! Finally! We had so much fun going to the beach this summer! We were there for 5 days and CAMPED!!! We didn't even lose our tent or have any injuries! Camping and I haven't gotten along the past few years... so to have a successful and incident free camping trip gives me great hope!! With our car packed to the hilt and five excited children... we were all smiles the whole time! We took one day and visited the USS Midway, which was the highlight of Shane's trip. It was neat to tour a real aircraft carrier. I can't believe how small all of the little passageways are and how claustrophobic living on one would be. (plus the dingy smell was super fun for a pregnant lady--ugh! barf!) BUT-- it was really cool! We also stopped at the San Diego Temple! It is such a beautiful temple and was fun to see it up close! But most of all the kids LOVED playing on the beach! They spent so much time in the water on the boogie boards! This ended up in drinking lots of yummy salt water and some serious chaffing! Who knew the sand and salt water could be so brutal!! No wonder all of the SERIOUS SURFERS wear wet suits! Shane and I also had a great time trying to catch the waves on the boogie boards. It was great to just sit and chill under the umbrella and watch the kids playing the water and build sand castles. We camped on a bluff that is right above the ocean! We could hear the waves crashing all night long- (it was so loud- I had to get some ear plugs to sleep-- I am definitely not a white noise sleeper-I could still hear it with my earplugs- it was just muted!) We would wake up with the dispersing morning fog and go to bed after the beautiful sunsets! Cooking outdoors in such a beautiful place was great too! We even saw some dolphins swimming along the shore one night. It was fun to just walk and walk and walk in the sand and water! As you can see...we took lots of pictures.... and we had a great time!