Carlsbad '11

Earlier in the week I got together with my dear friend, Alyssa, who was in Oceanside visiting her family. She lives in China so I rarely get to see her.

I don't remember why we are cracking up in this photo with Emilie, but it sure looks like it was hilarious.

Emilie, who once wanted to be an oceanographer, saw that there was kelp with the roots attached lying on the beach. She ran right over to it and started breaking the roots apart. Inside those roots were tiny, little, baby sea life. She found live starfish, baby shrimp, a lobster that was about 1 inch-long alive and kicking, and other creatures I didn't recognize. People started gathering around her like she was the most famous person in the world. At that moment, she was!

Breaking open that bad boy.

Look at that starfish. Incredible!

Julia totally grossed out by whatever she found inside the kelp root.

Liam holding lots of sand AND a baby starfish.

Cole got a little itty bitty one.

This is what the inside of the root looks likes. It's fascinating, amazing but kinda gross. What is that pink thing with the eyeballs???

Olivia and Marianne's daughter, Tyler.

Tanner holding a teeny, tiny starfish on his middle finger. Look closely!

Emilie has two different, baby starfish here.

Olivia holding a little bit bigger baby one. (Yes, we returned all the sea life to it's natural habitat.)

Branden pretending to fall down while playing chase or something like that. Whatever game it was, the kids loved it!

Marianne, Charity and I were reunited after years and years! We tried to get a good picture together, but there was this weird dude who kept getting in the picture.

There he is again, in between Charity and I.

Last day before B's Asia tour.

These three little kiddos (Hailey, Cole and Julia) were all born within a year of each other in Pasadena. How I wish they were all still little babies!

Julia with Uncle Mitch out waiting for the perfect wave.

I could hardly get my daughter to come in from the ocean. She could stay out there all day if I'd let her.

Uncle Mitch catching a good one.

This is the only picture I have of Mitch teaching me how to surf. It was my first ever surf lesson and first time on a surf board. That surfing biz is hard!

Jen's Emma. She oozes with adorable-ness.

Solid proof that Liz got in the water, all the way, and boogie boarded with me. Apparently, it's been about 7 years since she last boogie boarded. It was hysterical and we couldn't stop laughing! Every time Liz caught a wave, she did the Q-cumber laugh.

We were out there for at least an hour. The water was surprisingly warm and the wetsuit tops helped too. Good thing Mitch is prepared when he comes to the beach. He had wetsuits in everybody's size, fins, boards, you name it - he had it. Loved it!