Encinitas, California vacation.....FUN!

So a friend of ours got us a room (with an AMAZING view!)on Moonlight Beach in Encinatas, CA. It's just about 15 miles north of San Diego. We had SO much fun! Bonnie was down there so we got to hang out with her and met her sister and brother-in-law. They had boogie boards and skimmers for us to borrow. Well....see the pictures below......

Daniel waiting for a wave to come up to him and move him on the boogie board. The kids, once they go the hang of them, really loved the boogie boards. The skimmers, on teh other hand, were a lot hard to do. We gave up on those!
Comptyn lost his head, again, so here he is picking it up! (For any of you that has every gotten that email with those pictures of all things boys do, that is where I stole the idea.)
Ryan trying the skimmer. Ryan only came out of the water for food! He is 1/2 fish, I swear!
Determined! He still tried the skimmer!
Nathan even gave it a try. He'd just fall on it!
We dug deep holes, wide holes, long holes and built castles! Here Sammy is sitting in one!
We went for walks on the beach. It was such a clean adn beautiful beach!
The beach next to us was for surfers. I don't know if you can see that black dot out there, but this guy was standing on his surf board with an oar. Apparently this is the new 'sport'. They balance on their surf boards and paddle around out there. It was really incredible to watch. I can only imagine their balance and core muscles strength! Gives Wii Fit a whole new idea for a game!
Here is our fire on teh beach with Bonnie. We roasted hot dogs, and marshmallows. YUM!
This picture you probably won't see them unless you click on the picture to enlarge it, but one of the days we were at the beach, there was a family of dolphins or porpoises swimming out just beyond the bouys. You should see little black fins! It was really cool! The kids (and Kevin and I) were all excited!
We found a really fun park to play at about 1 block from our hotel. Kids are posing on a rock that was there.
Daniel and Sammy 'made' some pizza. They invited Comptyn to come eat with them and they are saying prayer over it before they eat! :-)
We went out to my uncle Marty Stewart's house. His wife Elizabeth got ou their bunny Huggies. The kids had a blast! Then when Marty got home from work......
Kaa came out to play! he is a baby boa. Marty also had a tarantula, but that stayed out of view per my request!

We checked out on Friday and drove up to Sequoia National Park. As we were driving we saw.....

This very tame buck. He was about a 10 point. Very big creature! But the thing that made the kids crack up......
He started pooping! Bryce was pretty excited to watch a deer poop! Glad that made his vacation!
Here we are at the trail head to go see General Sherman. The giant sequoia!
Daniel and Sammy! Such cuties!
It was dusk, so being among the trees we had a harder time getting some good light!
We spent the night near by and then drove back up Saturday to check out Kings Canyon. Here is a picture on a trail. I set the camera on a fence. The background is actually that slanted! Even though some of hte boys are leaning! And here is the view once we got to the top......
Beautiful! It was so pretty! That is Lake Hume in Kings Canyon National Park. We asked a not well informed (must have been new) park worker where the canyons were. They are the deepest canyons (Grand Canyon being the widest) in the world. Anyhow, he told us wrong. We figured that out when we got home. So we were a little disappointed in that. But we had a great time! Thanks Bonnie and family! We can't wait to go back next year! It will be our yearly homage, I think!