california. last day, sad day: Carlsbad Beach

We started today out by renting me a beyond-huge paddle board for the day.  I have been wanting to try out paddle boarding for a while now, so I was excited.  Trying to lift this board up for this picture made me a little nervous for how I was going to be able to get that thing past the breakers.  It was huge, heavy and huge.  Kevin helped me by going out with it first and testing it out.  So let me just say that Kevin is good at everything (well... I am a much better swimmer than him; I can dominate him in any swim race.  I'm just putting that out there).  So it was surprising to see him struggle with even staying on the paddle board.  Needless to say, I was pretty stoked when I went out on it and was way better at it.  So now I have got 1) cooking 2) swimming and 3) paddle boarding on him.  The list is getting longer!

It was kind of spooky being the only one that far past the breakers.  I just envisioned a great white shark swimming as fast as the speed of light towards me and taking a huge bite out of my board and probably taking my leg with it.  

This didn't really help much with my confidence at the beginning, but I just continued to say little "no sharks please" prayers while I was out there.

Some of the waves were huge and my family loved watching me take them on.  I would first, scream, and then either get down on my knees or just take it like a wo-man.  One big wave I didn't quite take it how I should and the paddle board paddle came right up to my eye.  So now I still have a big bruise there.  Battle wound.

But as scary as it was, I loved it.  It was relaxing and fun to be out there in the deep blue sea.  Im thinking that a real paddle board (we are not so sure that this one was a real paddle board, but for $35 for the whole day, we took it) that is lighter and provides more balance would make a world of difference.

The boys all rented wet suits.  The water was pretty chilly and they said these made all the difference.  They were boarding all day day long.

I don't think there is any better combination than beach and pizza.
If you are ever in Carlsbad, you must get pizza here.  This was the best pizza I have ever had in my life.  No exaggeration.  I still crave it.  Costco pizza does not compare even though I tried to make it on monday.

Afton was not feeling good.  But she was still such a good beach baby.

I love this picture.  Hadley and Grandpa; "Paki" or "Randy" as she likes to call him.

A cute sandy bum.

Here is just a picture from my O'NEILL photo shoot I did with model Kevin Brower.

We ended the day with dinner at Pick Up Stix.  Me and Kevin love to eat here any time were in California.  Its like a fast food PF Changs, but twice as good.  We then watched the last two episodes of Walking Dead.  We did it Ty! We finished before you left!

The next morning me and Kevin woke up at 5:00 am (the insanity!) and trekked back to UT for work.  Work ruins all our fun.

And here are the pictures from my iPhone:

big board hanging out the back.
i was excited!
we love hotel babies and hotel tv.
yummy, yummy.

california day three: San Diego

Day three we decided to head down south to San Diego.

We first stopped by San Diego Zoo.  My favorite's were the fighting polar bears, elephants and lions.
This zoo was huge!
We probably saw 30% of what it had to offer.

Hi panda!

We then headed down to the harbor and had dinner at our family favorite:  Anthony's Fish Grotto.  Everything here is awesome.  Kevin was excited to get some fresh oysters.

  

We then headed over to the Mormon Battalion center.  I believe they recently redid it, so the program they put on was really neat and entertaining.  I really enjoyed it.

Ghirardelli was next.  I splurged and got a chocolate dipped waffle cone with chocolate and butter pecan ice-cream.  That wasn't enough, so I topped it with warm caramel sauce.  Yum-o.

Tyler became a soldier.

And heres pictures from my iPhone:

Breakfast.
The elephants!
A trophy my husband awarded me.
Ghirardelli.

california day two: Newport Beach

Day two we drove down to Newport to hit the beach. Kevin taught Tyler how to skim board and he picked it up quickly.  

After a fun day at the beach, we drove down to Carlsbad to meet up with our parents and go to dinner at our favorite local spot Harbor Fish.  They had the best shrimp cocktails; key word had.  I don't know why they changed it, but I am not going back until they change it back.  Harbor Fish, you have been warned.

All us kids then finished the night with some Walking Dead episodes.  We needed to finish the season before Tyler left on his mission, so the plan was to watch 2-3 a night.  I watched probably one full episode.  Curse my tiredness on vacations.  At home, I could stay up all night long.  On vacation, 11:00 pm rolls around and there is nothing you can do to keep me awake.  Not even treats.  I tried.

  

Hadley does not like the sand so she does whatever she can to keep her feet away from it.

Yeah, flex those muscles.

Cute boys.

That night, Hadley asked for me to take pictures of her and her "big Dumbo".  She actually looked at the camera and smiled for me.  This never happens.

 Those eyes.

THOSE EYES!