Zone Conference Week, Children's Museum

Rebecca chose to bring her family here for a visit on the very week we warned the children not to visit--zone conference week. But, zone conference week was the very week of UEA when her children had two days off from school and she threw another three days on top of that and it added up to zone conference week for us.

They did their thing those days and we did our thing and met up at night to compare notes. Rebecca actually attended the third zone conference for a couple of hours to watch her MP and MPW parents in action.

We love our stake Relief Society ladies who organize lunches for our missionaries.

The missionaries sing their thanks to the women who prepared their meal.

One day we walked into the mission office and saw this long table with all these computers on it hogging up all the space in there. The office was in the midst of changing out all the computers to new ones. Zone conference week was a good week for that to happen since MP was out and about in other buildings each day.

This stake went all out with table decorations along with the delicious food. 

This is the food spread on our third day in another part of our mission. We truly are used to eating off undecorated tables as that is what we do whenever we have lunches brought in at the mission office building. Having bottles of water in the middle of each table is the perfect centerpiece.

It was a relief to get zone conferences behind us so we could take Friday off to spend with our sweet grandchildren. It was another French toast day for them and they eagerly lined up for their portion.

Off we went to Escondido for some fun at the Grape Day Park playground. Brooke is standing in front of the grape slide.

Madison and Spencer are enjoying the swings.

Caroline is on the grape vinehenge.

The park is located right across the street from the San Diego Children's Discovery Museum.

This Legos-in-water feature kept the children busy for a long time.

 

Madison liked looking at the chickens. Reminded her of Andy and Amanda's back yard, I'm sure.

Caroline and Madison found a little teepee to sit inside.

 These huge blue building blocks were popular.

Caroline dazzled us with her brilliance at getting multiple hula hoops going at once.

Inside the museum were more fun activities. Brooke and Spencer were very good at being cashiers.

The museum was very interactive and colorful and fun for the children.

We were starving since we didn't eat lunch. So off to the new Texas Roadhouse restaurant we went as the children had seen it when they first arrived in Carlsbad and asked when we could go there.

Madison ate about 8 little oranges when we got home.

We went for a family walk in the neighborhood looking for punching trees. We found some just a few houses up that were easily accessible to punch. Everyone took a turn punching the trees. The bark is so soft it doesn't hurt your hand to punch your fist into the trunk.

This was something I had been dying to discover from the first week or two we were here as I'd heard about them from the missionaries. Little did I know we had so many growing right in our very own neighborhood.

Brooke was showing me all her favorite things: Legoland, BYU, iPad, Bear and Grandpa.

The last full day Rebecca's family was here was a work day for us. We moved our planning meeting later in the day so we could spend a couple of hours at the beach with the grandchildren. There's Brooke in the sand and Spencer in the water. Those black things in the water are not sharks. They are surfers.

There was a fun playground right near the beach.  

We left the ocean crew and went our merry way to have our planning meeting with the assistants at the mission office. After that we drove to Temecula for their stake conference Saturday meetings with a light dinner served in between provided by the stake.

These oranges brought a smile to my face when we arrived back home late that evening as I thought about the grandchildren decorating them up to look like jack-o-lanterns. So darling.

Sunday morning the Goldens were up bright and early eating their last French toast breakfast for a while. They were heading back home to Utah.

We had a very nice time with them and look forward to whenever they decide to come again. Brooke said they are coming twice a year and always on UEA week. Rebecca asked why she thinks that and Brooke replied that she knows it because her mom wrote it down IN INK on the calendar.

Rebecca pointed out to her that she buys a new calendar every year, but that didn't stop Brooke from continuing to think what she thinks.