Lights Out!

Our camera broke a Sea World!!! I feel as if I lost a limb!

We have no pictures to show you but...

Sea World was great! We saw (ALL FIVE) Shamu(s)! We also saw penguins & dolphins & sharks and, surprise, we even outlasted the Shepperts (with the handicap of them flying in from WA the day before and getting in the car at 6 am to beat the LA traffic).

Mexico was great too. Campbell had a great time learning new skills (mostly jumping from couch to couch) from his cousins. Lately he's been developing new and seemingly unprecedented fears (such as of the bathtub drain) and when we went out to the beach he was deathly afraid of the ocean (less than a month ago he was fearlessly running into the waves at Huntington Beach). It took A LOT of coaxing to keep him on the beach...but he eventually came around. He especially loved looking for sea shells...and breaking them.

The real story is in the trip back home. I've been going to Mexico for literally all of my life and been the driver many many times and this was my FIRST:
a) time losing my place in the border queue and getting lost in Tijuana
and b) run-in with the Mexican police that involved threats and money. I (or should I say we since I had two other good fer nothin' adults AND Campbell in the car) was so clueless as to how the whole operation goes down that the officer (if you can call him that) had to explain the process of folding the money and hiding it under my driver's licence so that he could sneakily take it and shove it into his sleeve while he pretended to use his walkie talkie. Good times.

Now that we're back from our international travels, Campbell and I are staying with Grandma for a few days while Papa (Jerry) is in the hospital again. We also expect that the Shepperts will eventually make it out of Mexico and come here too.

Next week: Well...we're hoping for some peace and quiet. :-)