Disappointed

Before continuing writing about our vacation road trip, there is something that has been on my mind. I just feel the need to rant a little bit. Maybe I feel better if I get it off my chest? I'm so frustrated and disappointed! Nothing ever goes our way!!!

Everyone of you that has followed me here on the blog for a while and all my friends and family know how much I've disliked the work schedule that Chris has had sine we moved to Yuma. He's supposed to work night shift for 3 months, day shift for 3 months and then change again. But due to some changes in his platoon in spring, he got cheated on his 3 months of day shift as he had to change platoon just about a week before they were going to change. So he changed from his night shift platoon to the platoon that worked day shift. ONLY, that the were about to switch, so when the switch came along about a week later, Chris was back to night shift.

Since then I've been counting the weeks to July when he was changing again so he/we could finally enjoy the day shift.

Last Friday, he had his first day shift! Finally the time of normality came around! I've been waiting for this day! It's still a long day, he leaves the house around 4am and he is home around 7pm, later if he hits the gym after work. Still, when he is home he is home. When he's off work, he doesn't have to sleep before a coming night shift or sleep half the day of his free day coming off the night shift. More time for the family. More time for us. Finally.

This also means that my life gets so much easier. I can go about my days with the kids without having to consider his sleeping schedule. The kids doesn't have to be quiet while he is sleeping. I can finally get them down for their nap without having to sit with them so they quietly go down for their nap. If I just put them in their cribs they cry and scream and it's hard to brake this cycle as I can't let them do that while he is sleeping. It's been a hard one, to get them into some new routines and get the sleeping and napping to work.

I've been limited to go out and about with the kids, to be able to do my household work when I want, as most of it makes too much noise to do when he's been sleeping. The house isn't that big, and even if the household work isn't that noisy, any distractions from my part makes the kids fight and argue and there is a lot of screaming going on. I have to be very much involved in their playing to distract and help them solve conflicts - just to keep the peace and quiet in the house.

I've been looking forward to get started with other routines and due this also finally get some more Me- time, as things would in the end get smoother, especially around nap- and bed time. If anyone could just put them in their beds and they would go to sleep, there would be no problems to get a baby sitter a night here and there.

Soo - what happened? Well - my husband came home late Friday night with the words - "I've got good news and I've got bad news". When he says that, it's never good....What happened? Somehow I sensed it, and just said, so you're not going to stay on day shift?? Nope - probably not was the answer.

I couldn't help it, I was so frustrated I just cried. Hopelessness. Crushed plans. Again...

Why? Well, they are changing the platoons to be 6 instead of 4. That makes more shifts and he's most likely going to be on the night shift.

When? Probably next month..(considering we have end of this month already, he won't be on days very long..)

After a little while..

What's the good news? Well, he will then be the only one in charge of his platoon, which of course is always a good thing for the record. Good for his paperwork. Good for promotion. In the end - Good for the family even if it's VERY hard to see the positive in it now.

Arghhh - lets hope that it won't happen, it's not set in stone  yet, but with our luck I know better. *Sigh* Another three months with night shift...I don't even want to try to accept the fact, but I know better - I have to. May I say that some days I like the Marin Corps a little less than others..

all pictures Google

Presents & BBQ

We came home, Saturday night late a week ago, and after everyone had woken up it was nice to have a big breakfast/brunch together. Our guests got to borrow Ben's room as a guestroom, as that's where the sleeper sofa stands. That worked well, and Ben slept with us in the bedroom. Benjamin and Isabella were so happy to be home. Kept saying Hooooome all morning, you could really tell how happy they are to be back to their normal surroundings and their normal routines. 

The day was spent washing about 10 loads of laundry from us and our guests that had already spent a couple of days in NYC before coming to us. So there was a lot of laundry, thankfully the washing machine works fast and what I didn't put into the dryer, was easily dried outside. It was hard being back in Yuma and the hot weather after the days in San Diego with it's wonderful weather! We couldn't go outside all day.

While the little ones had their afternoon nap, I stayed at home with them (and the laundry) while the rest went grocery shopping. A few good steaks and other things for the BBQ at night.

When the kids woke up, Cissi & Andreas brought out the presents for the family that they had brought. The kids got so nice clothes. Sweden shirts (just in time for the OG) for the kids, Isabella got two pretty Bamse dresses and Ben got two nice Bamse shirts. Cassandra was happy for the pretty shirts that she got, a perfect choice for my little "fashionista"!!

 A little bit of posing must be done!

Well not from Ben, he was more interested in his toys then opening presents.

Later on, we had a big BBQ dinner. Steaks, pork file, big scampi, hallumi cheese (spelling?) wrapped in bacon, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and salad. We were STUFFED! But it was so good. Not even hours later, there were any space left for any kind of desert!

We got the hotels booked for the rest of the vacation and planned our trip to Grand Canyon before going to bed. The packing and getting everything organized had to wait for the morning.

And, I almost forgot, we also got a beautiful wooden Midsummer pole and I got a BIG bag of just mixed salt licorice!! Yum - yum - yum!! Thank you again for all the beautiful presents!!

A big Thank You also to my brother and sister in law for the portable DVD player that they had sent with in the suitcase. Our old one has been broken for a while, and since our Swedish movies doesn't play on the American DVD player (wrong region....), it was a very happy Cassandra that now can watch her movies again. The little ones doesn't know what they have missed, but enjoyed watching "Bamse and the donkey" here the other day!!

Sand Dollars

On Coronado Beach, we found something that I hadn't seen before. Sand dollars! They are related to sea stars, sea cucumbers, and also the sea urchin. The ones that we found a few of on the beach were all still alive, how they look like up close you can read about here, but when they are skeletons they are very beautiful. I wish that we could have found one of those! Next time I'm on the beach, I'm going to try to find a skeleton!

The pictures below I found on Google. How to make them stay all white and pretty, you can read about on this link, how to preserve a sand dollar.

The three pictures above are all from Google.

Family Picture - Coronado Beach

Family Picture - Coronado Beach Summer 2012

Coronado Beach

picture Google

While the kids were sleeping in the car after our trip to La Jolla, we drove to down town San Diego again and from there we drove over the well known bridge to the Coronado Island. Actually, Coronado isn't really an island but a peninsula, but we didn't really drive around it so for me as for so many, it totally could be called an island. 

We were heading to something special. There are many beaches in San Diego and the surrounding areas, but we had something special in mind this afternoon before we were heading back home.  We were not just going to any kind of beach but to the best beach in America!

Americas foremost beach expert, Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University also known as Dr. Beach, has ranked Coronado Beach Nr. 1 in the US in 2012.

This was the fist time a Californian beach had ranked Nr. 1 in the country. Normally the warmer beaches of Hawaii or Florida has topped the list. I read somewhere that there are 250 points to be scored from anything from sand, water quality and lots of other things, and according to Dr. Leatherman, the Coronado beach had it all, except 20 points taken off  due to the cold water temperatures!

Coronado Island beaches are known for their sugar sand, casting a brilliant sparkle from the mineral Mica. It truly was amazing. The sand was golden! As if someone had sprinkled fairy dust all over the long beach. Very special! The sand was so fine and the golden minerals were so light that they were in the water and everywhere. When you stepped into the water, you got the golden dust all over you! I joked with my sister that we should bottle some of the sand up, mix it with lotion and we could start a company with sand peeling with a golden twist, or a shimmering body lotion. The options would be endless..Just that you're obviously not going to be able to bottle that much sand up, but a small sample was fun to get.

  picture Google 

The Hotel del Coronado located right on the Coronado Beach

Coronado Island is not just known for it's beaches, but also for the very famous Hotel del Coronado. I really wanted to drive there and have a look around, but it was so much traffic and we really wanted to get to the beach right away, so we passed on the hotel this time. Next time, I'd like to take a visit there though. Even if it's now years since I worked in the Hotel business, it's always interesting and fun for me to visit big hotels to soak in the atmosphere.

The beach is so long, that we didn't even see the hotel from where we were. We parked somewhere to the side of the hotel and walked down to the beach from there. We were lucky to just get a parking spot as there hardly was any. Just during the 10 minutes it took for all of us to get ready and out of the car with everything, probably 10 cars drove by asking us if we were leaving, wanting our parking spot!
It was wonderful, like I described above, the sand was like fairy dust. Magical! The kids were eager to get playing and after a short picnic with Subways and snacks, we were ready to play.

The view over Coronado and over the skyline of San Diego, driving over the bridge.

No doubt on where we were!

After a late lunch and snacks - we were all ready to play!

The first sight and feeling of the golden shimmering sand!

Mommy's beach boy!

Benjamin & Isabella checked out the sand and the water together with us. When the waves came it pulled their sand away under their feet, and it truly was a new experience for them. The water being so cold didn't really make it too inviting for them to go out and get totally wet, but they really liked playing with us waiting for the next wave to come.

Isabella "writing" her name in the sand..

Fun but cold!

My girls and I

Cassie playing in the waves having so much fun!

Fun in the waves

As Chris and I had our hands full with the little ones, my sister and brother in law went out a little bit further with Cassie in the waves. It was very cold, but still they were in there for a while catching one wave after the other. At the point I went out to play with Cassie in the waves, no pictures were taken.

Endless beach to the left and endless beach to the right. It was amazing. I wish that we had more time to spend there, but still the hours went by so fast - too fast.

After some hesitation of getting sand everywhere, the kids loved digging around. They did good, considering that it was so difficult to brush off the sand, and they really got it everywhere. Luckily, we didn't have any incidents with getting the sand into the eyes.

Benjamin & Mommy

Wait - Wait - Here comes the water!!

Catching the small waves with the family!

When it was time to go, we had to walk quite a bit to get to a station to shower/rinse off the worst of sand. It was a bit funny as we walked straight into a wedding party going on at the beach. The wedding was held at the beach and they must just have been done, and there were pictures taken of the happy couple and the wedding party was all standing there on the sidewalk waiting to get into limousines and shuttle buses. We felt a little bit "underdressed" to say the least walking by in swimwear when they were standing around all dressed up in pretty dresses and suits! 

It was completely no use in trying to brush it off as you normally can do with dry sand. These sand particles were so tiny and were impossible to brush off. For the little ones of course it was very important to get them completely showered off and changed into diapers with no sand anywhere, as we were going to drive home and sit in the car seats for about 3 hours. For the rest of us, we rinsed the worst off, and packed everyone in the car to drive home after a wonderful stay in San Diego. Arriving home with new wonderful memories of a memorable and enjoyable day at the beach with the family!

San Diego - La Jolla

After the breakfast buffet at the hotel, we decided to drive up a little north to the beautiful "La Jolla". Beautiful as the name describes - La Jolla = The Jewel. It was warm, but not too hot and it was quite windy, but we enjoyed just being able to be outside and walk around without getting too hot.

We parked the car and walked along the cliffs. Beautiful waves makes this beach known to be a paradise for it's surfing, snorkeling and diving experiences. With an underground cave and different sea life to see. Everything around us was green and pretty, the sea gulls were screaming in the air, circling over the people that had brought a blanket to hang out on, in hope to find some bread or other goodies. The pelicans were resting on the cliffs and the most important animal that we saw was the sea lions! They were right there on the cliff and it was easy for the kids to see them and they enjoyed that very much. They were so noisy and a few were diving in to swim and others were just resting in the sun. So fun to watch!

Sea gulls and Pelicans

Sea lions

When the big "daddy" one came up on the rock, you could tell who was in charge. He was making noises and puffed around on some of them to make place for himself.

Cliffs along the seaside

My sister Cecilia & I and a map of the underwater park of La Jolla.

The cliffs seemed to be an attraction as you could swim, walk and climb around and in them. We didn't go down walking at the actual beach so I don't really know if you could actually swim through them, but it was a lot of people in that area. There were normal swimmers, surfers with wetsuits, surfers without wetsuits, people with diving equipment, people canoeing and snorkelers. A lot going on! Cissi and Andreas were talking about coming back here for some diving or at least snorkeling, we'll see if they make a stop on their way back from Las Vegas or not.

Ben allowed Cissi to carry him for a while, normally it's only daddy or mommy that he wants to stay with. Lately he's more and more a "daddy's boy".

While we were watching the canoes in the bay, a caravan of City Jeeps came driving down the hill. Must have been some sort of meet or something going on, as there were probably 20-30 of them in a row.

This cave you could see the people canoeing into. This is also the same cave from the outside of the that we walked down into through the mountain.

Beautiful scenery, a typical vacation spot.  

We took the the decision to walk down into the cave, a decision that we reconsidered after a while. The stairs down were wet, slippery and steep! To carry a child each with us was not the easiest and it was pretty dark. Half way down, not knowing how far it is, you think that I must be down soon, and keep going instead of just giving up.

After what seemed to be a looooong while, we were at the bottom, but I must say it wasn't that interesting. The area, stones and fence was covered in bird droppings and you had to really watch where you stepped, held on to or what the kids touched. Me and Chris turned around after a short look and walked up again. Isabella is getting pretty heavy to carry around, and she only wanted to be with me, so it was me who took her. I had to carry her on one arm only as I needed to hold on to the railing with the other one to have a firm grip as the steps were so slippery and wet. Walking up like this, I was out of breath and a little shaky when we finally were up and out. I normally don't get that tired too often from carrying them, (and trust me I've been carrying the twins around a lot and many nights both of them at the same time) but I think that I tensed up the whole body concentrating on not slipping and falling and to get up safe and sound with her. Add the steep steps in the dark to that and I got my work out for the day!

After a water and a short break, I was alright again, but I'd not recommend this trip to the cave with young kids. The lady at the front desk even said when we asked that yes, it's not too far, not to steep etc..I guess that they just wanted to get as many people in the cave as possible to get as many paying customers as possible.

First photo with flash, second one was how dark it actually was in the stairs. Andreas took a picture with his phone of us walking down, but I haven't gotten that one yet.

When the others came out, we walked back to the car. We had planned to go to the Saturday market in "Little Italy", but the time got away with us and we decided to skip it as the kids now were getting tired for their mid day nap. To get them to sleep for a while, Chris took a longer tour up the coast through the La Jolla Shores and up to Del Mar, before driving back into San Diego for our destination for the afternoon. I loved the views and enjoyed the ride as I have missed the water and coast so much. Like with so many things, you never appreciate things around you until you don't have it every day. I sure would love to live by the coast again, San Diego would be an easy choice!