Summer Vacation #2

Oceanside, California

We managed to gather the whole "Bell" family together this summer at my parent's time share in Oceanside. We spent a whole week playing, swimming, laughing, beaching, traveling, sharing, gaming, eating and much, much more.

The time share was awesome. Not only did it have a swimming pool, hot tub and kids pool, but it also had a tennis court, a basketball court, a little playground, pool tables and a exercise room. It was minutes from the harbor, shops, ice cream and the beach.

Although the weather was a bit cooler and overcast than we were anticipating we didn't let that stop our fun. We spent a day at the beach anyways.... waiting for the sun to show it's face.

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa

Building sand castles (and then destroying them of course)

Lounging around

And all that other "usual stuff" you do at the beach

And when we weren't at the beach, we were at the pool.

(I think we spent about 90% of the week at the pool)

Lounging some more

Playing

And of course.... Swimming!!!

Porter was sooooo excited to finally learn how "to swim" without floaties, all by himself.

We also spent our time playing a little basketball

And a game of tennis or two

AND some good old fashion "superman"

(with no age limit)

Derek and Krystal were very thoughtful and bought water weenies for all the kids. However I think Derek ended up with the raw end of the deal. (So much for being thoughtful)

One of the kids most favorite things to do, was to race cars, round and round and round, on the coffee table.

Porter and Cody enjoyed a little Nintendo DS time

And when Phearson and Lincolon weren't wrestling, they shared a book or two

We adults managed to squeeze in some fun "adult" time once the kids were in bed each night. We played games, we watched Frank break it to Allie that he was still in love with his old girlfriend, on the Bachelorette, and we discussed appropriate driving distances between cars. Needless to say we ended up doing a whole lot of laughing!

One evening we had a "party Popper" party. Good old grandpa brought a bunch of poppers for everyone to enjoy.

Another evening we took a walk around the cute little outdoor market place, located at the Oceanside Pier, and ran across this fun miniature car race track. The boys were in heaven. There were a few bets placed and even some face painting wages talked about but thankfully nothing was made official.

One of the days we made a trip to Sea World. It is always a "task" to take all three kids anywhere by myself (Ryan had to work) and Sea World was no different.

THANK GOODNESS for my awesome family who helped me out with my kids the first couple of days until Ryan could join the fun.

Shamu was a crowd pleaser as always

But I would say that the Sea Lion show was probably the favorite.

It just so happened to be Daniel's birthday that day and he just so happened to get pulled from the audience to participate in one of the shows. (what are the odds) It was seriously hilarious!! They had him up in front of everyone, dancing, prancing, yelling, flexing, doing the "peewee Herman" dance and all. It was awesome and he was such a great sport!

We all went out to dinner afterwards for pizza. All 15 of us!

And "eventually" splerged with some yummy Dairy Queen ice cream cake

I say "eventually" because on the way home from Sea World and dinner we had a little mishap. I really think my sister-in-law, Krystal described it best on her blog.

"It seemed like it was only a few minutes after we'd been on the freeway that it sounded like we had run over something. It was dark and we had no clue what it was so we continued on. Not long after that we heard a loud boom and the car started to shake. The flippin' tire had blown and we were over in one of the fast lanes. Autumn was so awesome and managed to get the van over to the side of the rode. The car seriously felt like it was fish-tailing. I don't know how she did it, but it was amazing!" (She really is so sweet isn't she, giving me so much credit:) "Derek got out of the car and came back with the report that the back passenger-side tire had blown. The only problem was that it was up against the curb on the shoulder of the road and the driver-side tires were on the line. If we would have moved the car out to change it, we would have been in a lane on the freeway. Of course, I was totally freaking out and imagining all of the horrible things that could happen and all of the stories I had heard about parked cars getting hit on the side of the freeway. There we were with four children, one parent from one family, and both parents from our little family. I kept looking back at the headlights coming towards us and hoped that the drivers were paying attention and not drunk. We all made calls to different people... thank goodness for cell phones! Autumn called Ryan, Derek called his dad, and I called 911. Derek ended up driving us (on the shoulder) off the freeway. Just as we were about off the freeway, the highway patrol arrived and escorted us the rest of the way until we were to a safe place and could change the tire. It wasn't long after that that Larry, Louise, and everyone else in the other car arrived to help too."

I do have to say that it was a bit crazy. I have never had a tire pop or blow while I was driving. And I do apologize for the run of profanaties that just came flowing from my mouth as I was trying to make my way over to the shoulder of the road.

Luckily most of the kids slept through the whole thing (except for Lincoln who never repeated any of "my" words and only replied calmly that he was "freaking out").

Besides, I don't know what was more frightning...

the blown tire or Phearson sleeping in the back seat.

Anyways...

Luckily we all made it back safe and sound.

Our last day of our Vacation in Oceanside we took a train ride down to Old town San Diego.

The kids were so excited to ride a train

(after seeing them pass by the condo all week long)

And were even more excited about all the goodies for sale once we got there. The most desired items were....

#1 The guitars

And #2

Some crazy wrestling masks

To which none were actually purchased but promised for "next time".

The Bell family gets together again!!

(Larry aka Dad, Emily, Colby, Daniel, Chanda, Cody, Autumn, Tav, Ryan, Phearson, Porter, and Louise aka Mom-

missing Derek, Krystal, Amelia, and Lincoln)

But don't you worry now....

Mama Bell wasn't going to let this opportunity pass by without getting a long time wanted family photo- more to come!