2011 Basham Vacation at Torrey Pines Beach

We made it! I was worried about taking 7 kids to the beach! Everyone was wonderful.  The drive went fast.  We had lots of activities for them, pipe cleaners and movies, new books and dolls.  Glow sticks were a hit in the evening after dinner Saturday.  Saturday we drove up and checked into our two rooms, unloaded and drove 30 min to a rental house with a pool that the Basham's rented the week before.  The kids swam and we ate a fabulous BBQ dinner while visiting with family.  Nice after a 7 hour drive.  Sunday we went to church 5 min away from the hotel and then drove 30 min to see my sister Mariah and baby John and Ben.  We ate dinner there and of course had her famous snicker-doodles! Monday started our 3 days at the beach.   The babies stayed by the umbrellas until the end when they got brave and wondered off a bit to play in the sand, but never went too close to the water. They didn't like the cold water much but loved the sand.  The other kids were old enough to play safe in the waves, we didn't have to worry too much about them.  It was really nice.  The weather was perfect.  It stayed overcast until 1 or 2 in the afternoon and on the 3rd day it was actually cloudy the entire day but still very warm, but NOT hot! We went for walks collecting sea shells a few miles every day. We saw dozens of little sting rays in the water right around our feet.  We are lucky they didn't sting us, a couple of people had gotten stung.  They said to shuffle our feet when we walk in the water and they should swim away.  We saw a big purple jelly fish washed up on shore, big crabs on the rocks and sea urchins and spider like star fish in the sea weed.  There was also a brave pelican on the beach by the rocks that the kids got to go up to and see pretty darn close.  The first day the kids mainly played in the water and caught sand crabs.  They collected sea weed from the ocean and made a sand castle.  The babies took their naps every day in the tent we brought and seemed to have a nice time.  Aside from having to get TWO rooms to fit us all the trip was really nice. No sunburns, Savanna my niece got a little color but nothing too bad thank goodness! I didn't even get a tan line! As much as I was in the sun I'm very surprised.  We spent at least 8 hours every day at the beach! Thursday on the drive home we stopped off to the Mormon Battalion Museum and went through the cute tour.  Shane volunteered to be dressed up in military armor and then they got to look for "gold" in the rocks.  It was a nice tour especially since we had family in the Battalion.  Next year I think we are going to hit the lake again and rent a big boat.  But no camping this time.... it's time for a hotel at Apache.  I can't do the spider thing again, no way.  Next up is the Josh Groban concert in August Daniel and I are going to and then..... POLAR EXPRESS TRAIN RIDE the day after Christmas!! WaHoo!