We love Carpinteria beach!
(Warning: this post exhibits partial nudity. Viewer discretion is advised.)
(Warning: this post exhibits partial nudity. Viewer discretion is advised.)
It was perfect how it worked out for Sheehan and I to be able to go on both trips in between work. The first trip we crashed Aunt Michelle's site for the day on Thursday the 8th. Sheehan was able to take the day off and I didn't have any work that day so it worked out beautifully for us. We enjoyed our favorite vanilla chocolate chip shake at The Spot.
Sheehan had lots of fun digging holes in the sand with Zach-a-doodle. They were HUGE! Zach calls him "Digger." We were trying to make a tunnel between two big holes. The second trip was from Wednesday, the 14th to Sunday the 18th. I have inherited a love for Carpinteria beach along with the rest of my siblings so we never tire of going. My Dad made a sand castle creation of the Los Angeles Temple. Just showing us his architectural skills. :) 
He didn't stop there though, next he made a life-size dolphin that the people were stopping to admire. All the boys joined in on the dolphin project.
Devin thought he would grace us the ENTIRE trip with his wonderful home taught ukulele skills.
On Friday we piled in Lyssa's van and my Dad's car and made a trip to the Danish town, Solvang and got the famous and delicious abelskivers. Zach-a-doodle thought it was Small World at Disneyland.
Devin thought he would grace us the ENTIRE trip with his wonderful home taught ukulele skills.On Friday we piled in Lyssa's van and my Dad's car and made a trip to the Danish town, Solvang and got the famous and delicious abelskivers. Zach-a-doodle thought it was Small World at Disneyland.
We enjoyed walking around the shops and buying shoes, clothes, and purses then we had lunch at the nearby park.
On Saturday we played on the beach all day. We played Frisbee, pickle, boogie boarded, and had an attempted try with rafting. 
Can you tell I really wanted to go rafting? No one would join me....
Finally I had some takers. The waves were really small the whole day so we figured it would be no problem getting past them out to the deep blue. Little did we know, the moment we decided to do this adventure the waves would become the biggest of the day. There are a ton of rocks this year as well so it makes it that much harder to do anything since you don't have a sure footing. Going in we were ready, calm, and collected. Coming out was a whole different story....
We made it past a few swells then we were slammed by a big one that took us almost all the way back to shore. It was the best wave ride of the day in my opinion.
Sheehan decided to hop out of the boat and pull us along through the swells. All the while I'm screaming my lungs out. Eventually the whole middle of the raft was going under water so I was trying to throw water out of the raft between each swell. It was kind of a lost cause but I tried...
Sheehan and Devin were yelling for "Wilson" as we were swimming through the swells.
Between Devin paddling, Sheehan's swimming, and me trying to cup water out of the raft I thought we were almost successful. We were on the last set of humongous waves when mother nature sent one last HUGE wave that devoured us. There's Devin, a little bit of the raft and Sheehan is swimming under the wave. I'm missing in action being washer machined somewhere in the wave.
Finally I had some takers. The waves were really small the whole day so we figured it would be no problem getting past them out to the deep blue. Little did we know, the moment we decided to do this adventure the waves would become the biggest of the day. There are a ton of rocks this year as well so it makes it that much harder to do anything since you don't have a sure footing. Going in we were ready, calm, and collected. Coming out was a whole different story....
We made it past a few swells then we were slammed by a big one that took us almost all the way back to shore. It was the best wave ride of the day in my opinion.
Sheehan decided to hop out of the boat and pull us along through the swells. All the while I'm screaming my lungs out. Eventually the whole middle of the raft was going under water so I was trying to throw water out of the raft between each swell. It was kind of a lost cause but I tried...
Sheehan and Devin were yelling for "Wilson" as we were swimming through the swells.
Between Devin paddling, Sheehan's swimming, and me trying to cup water out of the raft I thought we were almost successful. We were on the last set of humongous waves when mother nature sent one last HUGE wave that devoured us. There's Devin, a little bit of the raft and Sheehan is swimming under the wave. I'm missing in action being washer machined somewhere in the wave.
As you can see Devin is the only one remaining in the raft and he is a little dazed and confused. He was at the front of the raft on his knees at the beginning and now he is on his bum in the back. He said he didn't even know he was still in the raft cause as you can see it was so full of water. I think he was doing back strokes inside the raft trying to reach the surface. Eventually we all popped up and out of the water way far apart. That last wave tore us up!
We never made it past the wave but we still had a fun rafting adventure. Since the waves suddenly were bigger Sheehan and I thought that it would be fun to boogie board but then the water turned back into a lake of tiny waves. The ocean was taunting us...
On our way home on Sunday we stopped on our way through Santa Clarita to go to Courtney Lisonbee's mission farewell sacrament. We saw so many families that my parents have known since before I was born. We had a great time hanging out with the Lisonbee family and being a part of Courtney's farewell.
For a quick update: Sheehan is on the last week of his rotation with the Census. We are waiting to find out if he is going to be rolled over into the next operation or not. Sheehan has had a lot of work and is the Crew Leader Assistant in his group. I have had a measly 4-6 hours of work every week since I started training on the 15th of March, but something is better than nothing. Our main office in Bakersfield has had repeated computer failure and can't put together our paperwork without them so work has been slow for me and my Quality Control group. We are shooting for June to move back to Utah but things always change depending on work.
