Hectic!

Phew! The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. An opportunity came up to travel with O to a conference in San Diego and make a family vacation out of it. Problem was - I had no vacation time left. I have been working more than my typcial 40 hours per week in order to go. Not fun.

It was worth the extra work - we really had a lot of fun in San Diego. The kiddos had only been to the ocean once before, so we spent the first part of our trip near the beach, building sand castles and body surfing. For a nice contrast, we then headed inland to Joshua Tree National Park and spent a couple nights camping. We threw our tent and a few sleeping bags on the plane, and short of backpacking this was the most gear-free camp we have ever done. It was sort of nice not having to worry about food - we kept it simple - we didn't even have utensils. Sleeping on the ground wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it might be. Desert sand is rather soft! And surprise to us, the campground we chose tucked in amongst HUGE boulders was a mecca for climbers. We went bouldering(well I did once and then I sent O with the kids because I was finding myself very anxious and thought it would be best it I didn't go!). They returned with nothing more than a few scrapes:) Erika was intrigued by the climbers and wants to learn how to climb with ropes. Too bad O's ropes wore and he never invested in new ones, or he could teach her.

I'm glad to be home, and even more happy to be finished working additional hours each week. Maybe now I can take some time to do some things I enjoy that have been neglected!