San Diego, Part Deux

On Thursday, we packed up our campsite, said goodbye to our pals, and headed off for a solo adventure, PIRATE STYLE. Avast, on the horizon, me eyes spotted a right sea-worthy vessel that my mateys had to plunder (seriously--Mac wanted a cannonball for a souvenir). Me 'n these here scurvy scallywags drug our sorry keesters out th' car and had us a grand great adventuaaarrr!

Pirates overboard! . . . almost.

Aarghhhhhhh! Pirate smirks (and Mac's hook).

Captain Carter mans the wheel

Put yer back into it, you scurvy dog!


Alas, the journey did not end so well for the scallywags. After sneaking into the captain's quarters, they were ambushed by enemy blaggards and run through with daggers. They met their end on the captain's bed. But being the most steel-hearted, scumdiferous bilge rats this side of the caribe, they made it back for a Russian submarine tour. Saavy?

Serendipity

(Look closely--the buried one has a tiny mermaid body)

Does it get any better? After two and a half months of moving in and painting our house, on a whim, I accepted an invitation from some friends (who also happen to be Matt's cousins) to join them for a week of fun in the sun, namely, camping on the beach in San Diego. Urban camping, that is. With daily hot showers and clean (flushing) potties--my favorite way to camp.

The boys have been such good sports while I have unpacked and painted the house, I figured they could use some real play time. I have lots of pics, so I'll spread it out over a couple of posts. Here's activites for days 1 through 5:

#1 Eating delish food with pals. We did LOTS of this.

#2 Playing on the beach. We made sand castles, mermaids, found shells, made race car tracks, played baseball, drove tractors, made mud pies, and got very, very sandy.

#3 Crashing the waves. Carter boogied with the best of them, and Mac thought about it several times. In the end, he was content to just jump over the waves, and I couldn't blame him--

the water was FREEZING!

#4 Squirrel hunting. Those pesky rodents raided our camp repeatedly, chewing through tents, eating baby bottles (nipples and all), and leaving spherical calling cards. So the boys went "Lord of the Flies" and set traps, fashioned bamboo spears, and became official campsite protectors and Squirrel Hunters. (For the record, none of the tents housing the "Hunters" were ever attacked. An intimidating lot).

#5 Hanging with the gang. In all, we had 13 children with us. Quite the spectacle wherever we went. My boys were in heaven. (from left to right, remi, mac, carter, nash, slade, xander, blue, cruz)