Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial weekend is usually a 4 day weekend for Ben, when his "off Friday" happens to coincide, as it usually does. Usually a good time to jet over to AZ or UT. However this year we are trying to stay in SD and save money... trying. We've made it 5 months now, but the travel bug is sitting on my shoulder and chattering in my ear :)

I hate crowds, so we decided to hit the beach that Friday. The plan was to pick up Roman from preschool, hit Quiznos for lunch, meet Dana at Stater Bros, and hit the beach. I'm so good at planning.... why doesn't the "universe" just follow it? First I had to tear Ben away from his never ending yard work. (Actually this time I think he was making a cover for the chimney so that we wouldn't have any more bees. He's so sweet, but sometimes he picks the weirdest times to tackle these thoughtful projects!!) Picked Roman up with out any incident, phew.

Then off to Quiznos. 2 weeks ago we were going to the beach, and wanted to stop at Submarina off Del Sur... all packed up and on our way, and Submarina was GONE!!! The old sign seemed to have been newly plastered over... if only they had made it to the summer, it was a great location to and from the beach! So I told Dana to meet us at Quiznos... if they were still open. Well.... they weren't!!! The sign was still up, but the joint was empty. 2 for 2, what bum sandwich luck. So then we had to go over to the insanely busy TJ parking lot for Submarina. I had some great coupons left from the first time that we didn't get to go, so I guess that is the good news. However, we had to go in seperately to use them :P A little bit of a delay, but sandwiches, *check*

Picked up Dana, and we were on our way. Under some gloomy skies, but I was determined to get to the beach!! We were now at least half an hour behind schedule... and considering that Dana was able to go with us because her whole office was getting off at noon... I worried that the beach might be getting crowded.

Sure enough, we got there, and there was no parking. We waited while a *lovely* couple from AZ brushed off every last grain of sand from their feet before getting into their precious Ford Focus. 20 minutes later, we were parked. In that span of eternity, we also noticed some lovely mounds of sand, bull dozers and "Caution, contact with water may cause illness" signs. Great. Ben used those 20 minutes to investigate. He reported back that further south there were no piles or signs.

We loaded everyone up with bootie and started our hike. We must have looked like a caravan of pack mules. The kids had their toys, I had the baby, Ben had the towels, and Dana had a cooler and a few bags of food. Made our way down the rocky make shift path, and plopped.

It still was not the warmest of days, but it was fun. The baby was content to sit on the blanket and chew on his toys, sand and all. Ben and the boys made a great castle that with stood a few good waves. And Dana stuck her nose in the first Twilight book (and hasn't taken it out, except to change books... she is on book 3, as of yesterday, and her poor husband of 6 weeks is feeling quite neglected). I spent the better part of the day trying to get the baby to keep his hat on :)

Saturday Ben did yard work and I made baby food. No crowds :)

Monday we were going to go to my mom's for a BBQ around 2. I was supposed to make the pasta salad. In the morning, Ben had a glorious idea to clean out the garage (still a disaster from when we moved in, 4 months ago) and do an AmVets run. So I decided to tear apart the toy room and a few other choice parts of the house to gather donations as well. By 1 we had the van packed with donations and all 3 boys. No pasta salad.

Ben dropped me and the boys off at my mom's and then went to AmVets. I ditched my dad with the kids and ran to the store. Whipped up some pasta salad in time for a yummy BBQ. One tip though... warm pasta salad, not so good. The noodles didn't get a chance to cool enough... it was better the next day, out of the fridge. Oh well.

Grandma and Granddad Kerby and Keith and Amy made it too. I am a sucker for family. Any excuse to get together and visit is a good one to me. I love having so much family local, however it makes me sad when I am reminded of the family not local any more. I was so spoiled growing up, 2 sets of grandparents in Southern Cali, cousins galore.... now my grandma has moved to UT and two sisters have left, vowing never to return again (to live anyway).... Miss you guys.