Carlsbad ~ Spring Break '09

And so the Walker's decended on the the Deatsch's "Beatsch" House.....

Squishy.

Sea Monsters!

The entire Walker clan went to Carlsbad for Spring Break this year. At first poor Megan just thought it would be great to get away with the kids for a week or so....and then the Mike decided he could get the time off, then I mentioned to Aunt Louise she should drive down and visit. She in turn thought it would be nice to invite my mom along. When my dad heard about it he thought he should get to come also and last, but not least, Travis decided at the last minute that he too could get away from work for the weekend. Whew! So, there we are....all 13 of us on the beach, enjoying the sunset : ) It really was a nice time, swear!

Megan, Mike, the kids and I all had the first part of the week to relax and go on adventures. By adventures I mean: we took 6 kids out to eat, we took 6 kids to the beach, we took 6 kids to the new SeaLife Aquarium at LegoLand, we took 6 kids to the San Diego Zoo....catching on? We even took 6 kids down into the Cave in La Jolla. For the record though, everyone was really agreeable and there were few, if any, meltdowns. Hard to believe I know. Must be the salty sea air!

At the zoo on Thursday we rode the double decker guided tour bus. Abi thought it was her job to entertain everyone within ears shot of us. She squeals like a stuck pig everytime she sees an animal. Imagine, I took the poor girl to the zoo, the San Deigo Zoo. She was beside herself over the camels. I think people might actually have been taking pictures of her!

At the aquarium on Wednesday we got to see all sorts of...you guessed it, sealife! They have a pretty nice facility for the kids though. Touch pools where the attendants are really nice and tons of exhibits kid sized so they can enjoy it on their level.

The Deatsch kids lookin' fly!

On Friday night we had the "Glow Parade" A Pezzelle beach tradition. Meagn brought all the flouresence (enough for an army) and we proceeded to ingnite the night. The kids had a great time creating their glowing costumes and off we went to harass all of the Driftwood Circle neighbors! The pictures are the best I could do....You should have seen me messing with the dials on the camera like a mad woman trying to figure out the best setting!

A group shot.

Abi - She's back there somewhere. She will now be known as "Arora Borealis"

Max, looking ready for the big part in Indiana Jones.

The girls. Fancy Nancy would be proud!

A slightly better group shot than the first. Notice how Law and Billy are nearly invisible throughout the entire parade.....They just could not hold still to save their lives : )

Again, it's a terrible picture, but I couldn't resist the idea of all 6 of them sitting at the table quietly eating a dinner that did not consist of Cheez-Its.

At the Cove in La Jolla.

We took all the kiddos down to the breakwater to look at the seals. They were almost as cute as Abi, who goes absolutely ape for any animal within 100 feet of her. The babies were hilarious though, rolling in and out of the water with the tide. After the seals (or are they sea lions?) We walked up the hill to the old shell shop and the cave. The kids thought that was a adventure for sure! We walked (or carried, as the case my be) all the way down 146 slippery underground steps to the water. Down there at the waters edge we found Max's name carved in a rock a million years ago! He thought that was pretty cool....

Billy D.

Zoe Kate.

Emily James.

Abigail Browning.

All in all it was a great trip! I hope everyone had a good time. Have I mentioned how great my In-Laws are lately? FABULOUS : )

Sleepy.

Can you even imagine......



Sleeping on the coffee table?

Bakersfield, February 2009

I love taking pictures in her frontyard. They always turn out so timeless....

We were off to visit Aunt Louise & Uncle Carl last week. Louise picked us up in LA and we had lunch at the Groves, Farmers Market (one of my favorite places). Then we were off to B-Field to cram in all my other favorites: Smith's, Dewars, Sweet Surrender, WoolGrowers. Detecting a theme....All about me? Sort of, but really it was for the kids. Emily, Billy and Abi got to spend some time with their Cali cousins Chloe and Gwen and their Great-Grandparents and be kings of Aunt Louise's castle for a week. They had a blast and I should have taken more pictures, but I didn't.

We inflated a tall queen sized air mattress for them to sleep on (in front of a TV, you do what you have to when it comes to a quiet bedtime in a strange place!). Only the mattress apparently had a slow leak and at some point in the night I noticed Emi climbed into bed with me. I glanced down at Billy and realized the mattress had lost a significant amount of air and had swallowed poor Billy! He was buried in the middle of the partially deflated bed and nearly invisible to anyone standing over him. So, I figured the right thing to do would be to go lay down there on the floor with him and my weight would displace enough air to bounce him back to the surface....Genius, considering it was sometime in the middle of the night and it would have made WAY more sense to just put him in my perfectly comfy bed with Emi and we all could have a decent nights sleep! Should have taken a picture of that scene. It was reminiscent of when Billy rolled off the back side of his bed in the night and all you could see were his hands in the air "I'm stuck."

The rest of the trip went something like that, really well, but kind of chaotic. We went to services at Aunt Louise & Uncle Carl's rockin' church on Sunday. Emi, Billy and Chloe were turned into three little piggies at their class and Abi got a sweet thank you note from her class. What is to be noted here is that I dropped my kids with complete strangers at church we don't normally attend and didn't get paged to come retrieve any of them!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

On Tuesday Aunt Louise treated all the girls (and Billy) to a day of pampering. They got to go get their hair curled at Avery's salon and all dressed up in new clothes for a photo shoot that afternoon. In spite of how crazy it can be to take 5 kids anywhere add to that a photographer and the pressure of perceived happiness and it's enough to make anybody crack. The kids did great though and we actually got some good pictures and fabulous memories from it. Notice what serious business being beautiful is to the girls....then take note of Billy's face!

Abi, wondering if she was ever going to get her turn to be fancy....

Then, not so sure she wanted it afterall!

Hard to tell in this small of a picture, but he is grinning from ear to ear.

We had a great time the rest of the week, we baked, we shopped, we ate! We had a tea party for the girls with my Great Grandma's china on the front porch. Pinkies up! On Friday Aunt Louise drove us into LA, to Mom (Grandma Trisha), and we had lunch and did just a bit more shopping....Then we were off. Homeward Bound.

Thanks for the hospitality. We had a great time!