June 9th - Last Day at Carlsbad Beach

Well today is the last day we spent in California. I did not take pictures of this day because we had a lot of packing, cleaning, and loading up to do. We spent the first part of the morning having donuts and juice for breakfast. Talked a little about our week and heading back to the sorching heat. But, I think we were all a bit tired and wanted to go home and sleep in our comfortable beds. Not in the "Bouncy House", that's what the girls nicknamed our tent, because of the wall to wall double air matresses. Also, we missed our husbands, family, and friends. It was amazing how fast the camp came down and we were on the road by 10 am. As we drove out of the city of San Diego, I was a bit sad to leave this beautiful area. I vowed I will come back someday but with my family. Maybe, campout on the beach again, attend a baseball game, go to the local attractions. Like seaworld, legoland, the zoo, and visit the Naval shipyard. That was one thing I really wanted to do but it was just not appropriate for this trip. I remember visiting that place back in 1988 with Phoenix College's cross country team, we ran a race at Balboa Park. It was fun to go with a bunch of flirty girls. Flirting with the Naval soldiers begging them to let us get on the ship but they would not budge and let us get on the ship.
We drove out of the rolling hills and hit the humongous wind mills. I knew just over that was the desert. As we drove closer to Yuma, you could see the rolling sanddunes, and you could feel the heat. We made a quick stop in Yuma for lunch and continued on to Phoenix. We arrived about 4 pm, and got to the church about 5 pm. Everyone, unloaded their stuff, and one by one, people left for home. My husband got off work and came to pick us up. They first thing I did when I got home was lay on my comfy bed, while holding my husband, I fell asleep.

These pictures are of some of the early morning wildlife at the beach. The awesome surfers and dolphins, just amazing how they play in the same ocean side by side. The surfers ride the waves and the dolphins challenge them by swimming in the swell of the wave and jumping over them. It was way cool to watch..........

June 8th - Days End

The beautiful Young Women leaders, from left to right, Me, Janet Rampton, Noma Faller, Tracy Gardener, Donna Irwin, Amber Bird. Bottom row, Christen Sierra, Jennifer "Yo! Jenny!", Jami Fatellah (Our fearless Pres) These women were such a blast to hang out with. People think we are a bunch of serious Mormon women, but we are quite silly when we get together. The girls love that about us and we relate better with them when we let them know, we're not serious at all.
A serious pose with our two priesthood holders, Doug Coates. Our first counselor in our ward. He's a bit serious, probably because he's a lawyer and owns several businesses in the valley. Then, there's Brad Neilsen, the original surfer dude. He grew up in Newport beach California and grew up riding the waves. Who knew he was the real thing? He's actually pretty cool and I can see why his girls love him so much. He was a Stake President at one time but you would have never guessed. He works in TV and owns several businesses in Payson. He gives us free ice cream coupons to his Dairy Queen in Payson, which is way cool.........It was a bit cloudy and cold this evening, which made for a very beautiful sunset. With the sun piercing through the clouds and reflecting off the ocean.

The real gangsta chicks......These two were so funny with their Italian accents. They wanted a picture to show how crazy they are, no wonder Jami's son's are so crazy and funny. They had to learn it from someone......possibly thier Mom.

June 8th - Continued

Here we are at Oceanside pier, the gang looking over the boardwalk at a silly seal below. The seal was sitting there sun bathing and some boys were trying to get close to it but that seal just dove into the water like a lightening bolt. It was pretty cool to see a seal in it's habitat than in some zoo, depressed and lonely.
A quick silly pose for the camera, I am actually in this one, because Brad Neilsen was taking the pictures this time. I was a bit worried with him leaving my super expensive camera on the ledge while he took pictures with everyone else's cameras.
Ariel and Jamie taking in the beauty of the ocean and the pier. There were more seals down below playing and begging. There were also a lot signs that said "Do not feed the Seals", but they hung around like they were waiting for food. There were some very colorful people hanging around fishing as well.

And here's one of those silly seals sun bathing. They were so cute to watch. After spending sometime on the boardwalk, we went over to a Dairy Queen to have some ice cream......mmh....chocolate dipped cone. Then we headed back to camp to unwind and relax for the evening Devotional.

June 8th

Today's agenda was a long walk to have breakfast, an iron man challenge to get to breakfast, and later on go to Oceanside pier. First, was the early morning iron man challenge. Running up these stairs, about fourth of a mile apart. Doing 10 pushups and situps after climbing one of these stairs. There were probably 4 or 5 of them. It was actually quite fun to do. My knees were the only ones getting challenged. The other stuff was easy to do. Since my microfracture cartilage surgery 4 years ago, stairs are not kind to my knees. But, I still exercise and suffer the consequences later with a lot of Ibuprofren and Ice. Here's Jamie running up the stairs. Not very atheletic is girl but she tries her best.

Some girls did cartwheels in between stairs.
And here we are, ah....finally breakfast. This time it was real food like breakfast burritos with eggs and sausage and lots of salsa. Most of our breakfast, were Honeynut Cherrios, yogurt, fruit and juice. To this day I will not eat Honeynut Cherrios, I had my fill for the century. Afterwards, a quick message from Donna Irwin and the girls wrote in their journals. Some girls walked back on the paved road but my girls and I took the beach route. It was much more appealing than looking at all the RV's parked. We took our time heading back , we collected shells and got our feet wet.

June 7th - cont.....Devotional

The best time of the day was relaxing while attending Devotional and listening to everyone bear their testimonies. Here Jami is talking about how our Bishop wishes to be with us on this trip but had other family obligations to attend. His brother Matt was getting married in Logan, UT. But, he left us a message about Sunsets. She read the page long message and gave everyone a copy. Afterwards, Kendal gave a talk about the Temple. After that, the girls hung out and goofed around, doing English accents and New Jersery(Italian) accents. It was quite hillarious, when Jami and Jennifer talked like two Italian women. You had to be there and listen to it. It's kinda hard to explain or express in writing.
Here the girls posed for a quick photo to remember the Sunset talk. I am not in this photo because I was the one taking the pictures.
And here's the beautiful sun setting. Just perfect for the Devotional....
The hillarious conversations in Italian and English accents......."Yo, Jenny!" will always be ingrained in my head forever because it was so funny to hear.

June 7th - continued...

As we were walking back to our campsite to change into our swim gear. I took some interesting photos of Ariel's big foot imprint. Just thought it was cool the way it left a black mark everytime she took a step. I also loved the way the water would wash ashore and leave this beautiful painting in the sand, each and everytime the painting was different.
My little piggies in the sand. I took this picture to remind me of how the beach sand felt on my feet. I usually don't take pictures of my feet because I have ugly and chubby little feet. My husband calls them stubs, not toes. Just because he can hang from a tree with his toes. I call his feet, finger toes, because they look like fingers.
Ah.....here I am.....In my swimsuit, no make up, hair all tangled and down. I spent most of the afternoon in the water, boogie boarding. I can not believe how strong the waves are and how easily someone could drown if a huge wave came crashing down on them. I also had a salty fishy taste in my mouth all day too.....yuk!

June 7th

On this day we spent the first part of the morning exploring and took a long walk along the beach. My girls Jamie, Ariel, and I had gonna for a long walk earlier that morning, like 6:00 am. Still, having trouble sleeping and waking up early. It was okay though, atleast I got to watch the dolphins playing and the sufers riding the waves. Can you believe these guys are out there at the crack of dawn? Must be fun to do, but they make it look so easy and I am pretty sure it's not.
Jamie, the constant explorer, that's why she's so smart. She's the only one that knew what the little creatures crawling around were.
Human sand crabs crawling on the boulders.
Ariel and Aliese, buried Tracy in the sand. Here"s Aliese posing next to Tracy.

June 6th - To the Beach

Finally.......We headed to the beach. After a very relaxing visit and spiritual moment at the Temple, we return back to our camp that afternoon. Everyone, quickly changed into their swimsuits and bodysuits to hit the beach. We spent the rest of the day, suntanning, boogie boarding, and just sleeping on the beach.
Here's Jamie riding the wave in on a boogie board. The water was very cold but refreshing. I sat most of the afternoon watching the girls play because I was still a bit tired from not getting enough sleep the night before. So, I just set up my camera's around me and sat there shooting pictures and took a little nap also.
The one thing I will miss about the beach are the amazing sunsets. The bright glow of the sun, as it gently hits the calm waters of the ocean. Changing colors from one second to the next, bright orange to shades of purple and pink haze. It was so breath taking to watch everyday.
During this time of day, we were eating dinner and getting ready to attend devotional. Where we share our tesitmonies of the day and of the gospel. It's was a lot of fun to hear these young women express themselves in that way. Although, it was a serious time, the girls always had fun and played games. Also, eat smores.......

June 6th - Girls Camp

After a restless night with about 4 hours of sleep......Who knew the Ocean crashing into the shore was so loud? Not to mention the early morning caravan to the bathroom with the ladies. I woke up with the worst headache ever, possibly from the change in altitude or lack of sleep. But, waking up to the smell of the ocean and cool crisp morning air was relaxing. I was the first one up exploring the shoreline. Watching the surfers ride the waves and the dolphins swimming around them playing right along by them. It was gonna be an exciting day, because today was the day we were going to the San Diego Temple. I had never been to any other Temple besides the Mesa temple and St. George temple. After a couple of hours to myself, the other campers started to wake up. As we were getting ready for the day. I could feel the excitiment in the girls. It was a bit of a drive to the temple, I don't remember much because I fell back asleep on the way over. When I had awaken, I saw this glorious looking building. It looked like a snow castle. As we drove up to it, it was even more amazing.
A quick pose in front of the temple while we waited to enter.
The young women standing by the entrance of the temple, posing for the camera or just talking.
Jennifer, Jasmin, Erica, Kendra and Aya smile for me as we wait patiently for our turn to enter the temple. Once we entered, it was so beautiful and very quite inside. The girls performed baptism and confirmations for the spirits, who have waited for these wonder, worthy, and righteous women to do their work for them. It was very uplifting to experience the strong presence of these spirits. Afterwards, it was a quick lunch at the closest pizza joint. Then, we headed back to camp to hangout and play at the beach............

Continued Girls Camp - June 5th

Young Women leaders high five each other as we start to unload our stuff for camp. After such a long and hot drive from the valley, crammed to capacity in each vehicle. It was good to get out and stretch our legs. Although, the drive over was a lot of fun. We talked about our families, our husbands, and other things that Mormon women should not talk about out loud. Let's just say we bonded and found out some interesting things about each other.




I am so proud of our young women, they unloaded and set up camp like pros. Of course with the help from our priesthood leaders, Doug Coates and Brad Neilsen.
After a long and tiring day of travel and setting up camp, these girls sure had plenty of energy to sing and dance the Wig-Ga-Lo all night at Devotional. Although, we did not account for the 30 degrees cooler temperatures. It was down right freezing for us but that did not stop our fun. We just danced around a camp fire, kinda like a Squaw Dance.

Girls Camp at Carlsbad State Beach

Arriving at the beach in San Diego, a few of us ran straight to the edge to get a good look at the beach. It was so breath taking to see the beach again. The first thing I noticed was the smell, cool crisp clean air but pungent smell of fish. The ocean roared up against the shore line with it's magnificent power. It was so awesome!! Our first instinct was to run down to the beach and jump in but we had a lot of unloading and unpacking to do. Since, this was gonna be our home for the next 5 days. It was exciting to think we were gonna be beach bums for a few days. Anything was better than the scorching heat from which we had traveled from. The young women were so excited but not as excited as the Young Women Leaders. Now, it's time to work and set up camp........

Photos of Favorite Family Activities

One of my favorite pastimes is hiking the local valley mountains and taking pictures. Getting the heart pumping and exercising, staying in fit anyway possible. This is a view from the top of Piestewa Peak as the sun is starting to set. Usually, when we start our way back down it is very dark, so we always have our flashlights with us.

Our favorite pastime in Northern Arizona is hitting golfballs out in the sandunes. I don't know how many golfballs we have lost but we sure have fun doing it. Here are some photos of my girls KJ, Jamie, Ariel and my husband Jason searching for golfballs in the dark. I love to see the silhoutte of the San Fransico Peaks in the background. The Dine' people call this image "Sleeping Beauty". Supposedly, it is a pregnant changing woman resting and sleeping.