Duck, Duck, DUCK!!!!! Birch Aquarium, Buffet Dinner

Glen had worked hard to be able to have a clear schedule the Friday the grandchildren were here. Things were working out as planned...until the day before Friday...

We had gotten a call from our In-field Representative (IFR) from the missionary department. He told us we were going to be receiving an elder from the Madagascar Mission at noon on Friday and we were to clear our schedule to be at the airport to greet him.

We were so sad to not be able to be with the family all day. But, we still had the morning to make French toast for them before we had to head out to the airport.

Imagine our surprise when we got a call from our IFR telling us the missionary wasn't on the plane from New York to here and he didn't have any idea where he was. He was going to do some research on the matter and get back with us. In the meantime, he told us we were "on call" for picking up the missionary whenever he was located.

Glen figured we had at least a 3-hour window of freedom as it takes at least that long to fly from New York to San Diego. So, we decided to go on a hike on the bunny trail with Dallas and Rebecca's family.

We had some quick grandpa poses on the front lawn before we left.

Then all of a sudden grandpa turned into SUPERMAN!!! Glen was sporting the new t-shirt Dallas and Spencer had bought for him when they went shopping for some new shirts for Spencer. Apparently Spencer's clothes had somehow been left behind and he needed a few new shirts to get him through his time in California.

We went to the Guajome County Park in Oceanside in hopes of seeing as many bunnies as Glen and I had seen when we had been walking the trails a few months ago.

Looks like no bunnies. Just somebunny looking very cute in her brightly-colored jacket and shoes.

We found the lake.

And a tree to climb.

We never saw bunnies, but we saw a whole lot of water fowl. I'm thinking ducks, geese--I don't know the difference.

When a park bench was spotted, Glen and the grandchildren rested there a while observing the feathered quackers and their antics.

When birds of any sort are around, and especially flying overhead, it would be wise to heed the warning to DUCK!!! Take cover!! Get out of the line of fire!! Or the line of bird droppings in this case.

Poor Madison! She wasn't expecting to get plopped on. It made her even that much less happy about the unexpected dropping when she figured out what it was that had landed upon her bare leg.

The rest of the group got a good chuckle out of her misfortune.

JUMP! and see if you can touch the overhanging tree.

 After our hike, we came back home to get cleaned up, eat lunch and head out for our next adventure--Birch Aquarium.

Since it is located close to the airport, we figured we would be safe to go there and keep on waiting during our "on call" status with the incoming missionary.

It was while there that we learned the missionary had been found. He had never left Madagascar.

At that point we were informed we would be getting TWO missionaries from Madagascar on Sunday--at different times. Ahhh! Nothing can be easy!!

But for the time being...we were going to enjoy the rest of our day with the grandchildren!!!

We walked through the building out to the back patio deck and saw this beautiful view of the ocean. 

There were little sea creatures we could look at and touch.

There were Halloween decorations all throughout the Aquarium.

These were recyclable containers that were recycled into Halloween decorations.

But, truly, didn't we really go to the Aquarium to look at sea creatures?

 

 

This huge display had a tiered seating area where you could sit and watch the fish swimming by. We sat down and pretty soon Glen was sound asleep. Sitting up. Right in the middle of the back row.

If no one looked too closely, he might have been mistaken for one of the Halloween decorations. A sleeping zombie, for instance...???

 

 

 

 

 

 The outdoor play area was fun for the kids.

 

 Even something fun for the bigger kids!! Dallas lit the lighthouse with all his water waving abilities.

Redirecting the waterway to make a boat get from one end to the other entrigued the old and the young.

Probably my favorite part was the seahorse section. There were regular seahorses.

And then there were seadragons.

Probably most fascinating was the leafy seadragon. Quite amazing to watch floating around in the water.

 The answer to the question is YES!! Brooke and Caroline are very seahorse savvy.

There was a display that caught everyone's attention.

It was more of the birthing of the seahorses that had us all staring in amazement. 

Quite educational for children...?!? 

We promised the children a turn at picture taking with the shark when we were finished inside the Aquarium. Brooke immediately got into character. 

 

Well that was fun!! Now time to decide where to go for dinner. Glen decided it would be better to find a restaurant close by to let the traffic die down before heading back home. 

 We girls were admiring the beautiful flowers.

Glen located the Great Plaza Buffet as our restaurant choice for the evening. We crossed our fingers and were hoping for the best. Kids can be really picky eaters.

It turned out to be a good place. I particularly enjoyed the stir-fry where we picked out our own meat and veggies for the chef to cook. 

One of the highlights of the meal for Madison was the bowl of sprinkles.

Brooke went wild over making herself some chocolate-covered strawberries. Madison had her fair share of them also.

The children went straight to bed when we got home, so that left us time to play a couple more games of Qwirkle. 

My score might not have beat the Qwirkle Queen Rebecca's high score, but the scores landed me as the high scores of this particular evening.

What a fun day!! We ended up being able to spend the whole entire day with Rebecca's family after all!!

MP Interviews, Tooth Fairy Visits Spencer, Reb the Qwirkle Champion

Despite family in town, it was back to work for us as Glen was doing mission president interviews with 19 missionaries in the Carlsbad zone and 18 missionaries in the Del Mar zone.

Rebecca's family had played in the ocean all day while we were gone. When we returned home, Spencer was eager to show us the bottom tooth he'd lost that day. He was hoping for a tooth fairy visit that evening as he put his tooth under his pillow.

The grandchildren were excited for a popcorn party after dinner. Glen ate popcorn and watched a movie with them before he went back in his office to finish answering the missionaries' letters he hadn't been able to finish the day before.

Next morning was another French toast breakfast. I couldn't get over how long and golden Madison's hair had gotten since we saw her last.

Yet again I was giving thanks for Sarah having the insight to bring the Legos, toy cars and other things from our house back home for the grandchildren to have something to play with when they come to visit us here. 

We have acquired several stuffed animals while here, and Madison got quite attached to the little lamb.

We bid the family good-bye the next day and headed to Escondido where Glen was busy interviewing 32 missionaries while Rebecca's family went to a children's museum.

The following day we had to get a really early start to get to Temecula to do those 27 morning interviews, so no French toast breakfast for the grandchildren that day. We ate lunch in the car as we drove to Murrieta to do 20 interviews in the afternoon.

The zone leaders in Murrieta had seen that they were the last missionaries on the interview schedule and had invited us to go to dinner with them. We laughed at their invitation as what they were really asking was would we take them to dinner.

Generally the members feed the missionaries. The missionaries in the Young Single Adult wards don't get fed as well because they don't always have people sign up to feed them. These elders were finding themselves without a dinner appointment that evening and were genius enough to think of another way to get fed.

Thus we found ourselves at Golden Corral once again. We had already planned to eat up north before heading back home to avoid the traffic, so adding two missionaries to our already-planned restaurant meal was no big deal.

The Golden family had spent another day at the beach. We got home well after the grandchildren had washed off all their sand in the bathtub, had eaten their dinner and were asleep in their beds, but not too late to squeeze in a game of Qwirkle before we adults went to bed.

Dallas had opted out of the game, but came over to give his wife a congratulatory kiss.

For earning the highest score ever in the history of Qwirkle--at least that we have seen thus far in our Qwirkle-playing career.

Way to go, Rebecca!! Now we know the score to beat!! Qwirkle anyone???