An Eventful Columbus Day Holiday Weekend

We had a great weekend and enjoyed the time Trent was able to spend with us! Here is the low down, day by day....

SATURDAY

We spent the morning cleaning the house. I am putting this in writing because Luke and Emry were such troopers! They complained bitterly for the first half hour (and got absolutely NOTHING done). Then, all of a sudden, they both decided to snap out of it and instantly became the biggest helpers. It was so nice to see them work together to accomplish tasks, report on their handiwork, and in return receive new orders! They were rewarded with the afternoon off and spent it playing with friends around the neighborhood. For dinner, we took them to McDonald's where they (and I mean Emry too) scarfed down all of their happy meals in about 60 seconds flat. Then they were off to play on the toys while Trent and I finished our meals in relative peace.

SUNDAY

We slept in and only made it to sacrament meeting at church. It was my fault, I had been up part of the night with Emry whose was having some serious nightmares. It was her first official full blown night of terrors! I woke up to her screaming, "NO!" "GET OFF ME!" "MOM" "NOOOO!" "MAMA!" It was really scary, the kind of screams that make you jump out of bed before you're brain has time to register what is going on. I opened my door to a frantic little girl, scared out of her mind. The dream was so real and vivid that she was shaking. I held her for a minute and tried to ask the right questions to find out the source of such terrible screams. She said that their were dust bunnies, butterflies and bugs stinging and biting her. I didn't know what to do, so I did the best I could and shushed them all away. In my most stearn and serious tone, I said "SSH... GO AWAY!" over and over again as we walked back into her room. I thought we were making some headway until we got to her doorway and she slammed on the breaks. I'm talking stiff body, feet dug into the carpet....it was apparent she was not ready to reenter. I coaxed her back into the room by eliciting her help with the sshushing. It worked and I got her back to bed. Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I ended up staying with her until she fell asleep.

The next morning she'd forgotten all about her nighttime activities, which surprised me. However, she hasn't really forgotten. Every night since, she's asked me if the dust bunnies will come back and I have to remind her that they probably won't, but that just in case, she should remember to sshush them and think about lollipops and skittles....so far so good.

Later that afternoon, we took a drive up to San Onofre Beach and took this leisurely walk.

Beautiful Pampas grass. I think it's so pretty.

My little family.

This is the windmill at THE POINT, San Onofre State Beach
We thought it was pretty cool. This is one of the best surfing spots around.
You will find surfers here all year round.

Emry & Luke made this rock pile, they were very proud of it.
So proud, that we couldn't leave until they had finished.

These are our treasure bags. They are to be filled with whatever fancies your eye.
On this occasion they were filled to the brim.

MONDAY

Trent spent the morning getting our tires changed on the van and worked on a presentation for work. While he was busy, I took the kids for a long (2 1/2 mile) walk with some friends. The kids loved looking for all the wildlife around Lake O'Neil. After lunch, my brother Taylor, came down to help Trent replace the spark plugs in our van. It was a quick visit, but we appreciated his skills and willingness to help.

Here is where the day gets a little crazy. Around 1pm Luke asked if he could go down the street (seriously 5 houses away) and play with his friends Samuel & Nathan Jarvis. I said sure, so off he went. About 2 minutes later, an MP (Military Police) knocked on our door with Luke in tow....we were a little taken aback. My first thought was, what did he do? Was he walking down the middle of the road? Trent answered the door and the MP said, "I found this boy walking barefoot down the sidewalk. Do you know where he was going? He said he was going to a friends house. I'm just returning him to you." We didn't say anything, we just stared at him and Trent said, "OK". And that was it. He turned around and left. We were baffled and immediately turned to Luke to ask what had happened. Luke of course, so tenderhearted, burst into tears. The MP had scared him half to death. Trent, Taylor and I all burst into laughter as we realized that we had now idea what had just happened and thought it was pretty ridiculous. We were still unsure as to why the MP had brought him home. Was it because he was barefoot? To that comment Taylor said, "No shirt, No shoes, No service", we began laughing harder. Luke pulled himself together, put his shoes on and decided that he was going to try again to go down to his friends house. I asked him if he wanted me to come outside and watch to make sure he got there alright, but he wanted me to stay inside...so brave. Such a weird situation. I ended up calling the cop shop, Trent didn't want me to do this, to say my peace. They told me that it is policy to escort an unaccompanied minor home if they're out and about. Apparently they get calls all the time where parents don't know where their children are, or kids who wander the neighborhood for hours. My beef wasn't really with this policy, but I think the MP should have
#1 used Luke's name at our door, and not say, "this boy..."
#2 been polite
#3 told us that it was routine to bring a child home
I felt like he just left us with a scared child and no information. Poor Luke. Later Luke told us he was only 1 house away from his destination, which again made us laugh.

Then at 3pm Trent was on his way home from escorting Taylor off base and he noticed a huge black smoke cloud and fire on base! Because of the Santa Anna winds, the brush fire spread really quickly and they ended up evacuating a large portion of Camp Pendleton and part of Oceanside. Around dinnertime we lost power to our phone and Internet. We had TV, but only because we have satellite. So the remainder of the evening was spent glued to the TV for information. Luckily we aren't in any immediate danger, the fire isn't as bad as last year. They still don't have it contained 100%, but we got our phone and Internet back a few hours ago.

This was the view Monday evening from our neighborhood. It looks closer than it actually was. It was a few canyons over with a lot of buildings in between it and us.

This view is from our friend's home. They live just outside base. The base is on the other side of that ridge. Their is a huge fire break all along the ridge, but the fire burned right up next to it, scary!

Well, that pretty much sums up this detailed account of the eventful weekend we've just experienced!! Peace Out--