Where Do I Start, Part 1: The Surprise

The week before last we were expecting a visit from Grandma Madsen, Auntie Rachel, and Spencer...but, SURPRISE, they brought along Auntie Teri and baby Mckenzie! Don't get me wrong - we loved spending time with the others...but we were especially excite to finally meet Mckenzie. And she's as cute as can be (looks like Mom, of course. ;-)

The cousins favorite time was spent at the beach - oh yes, it appeals to all ages. Here are the three Madsen cousins playing at Huntington Beach.

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Campbell and Spencer found that they have A LOT of the same interests...which caused quite a love/hate relationship. Mostly love, though - They were always asking for each other.


Truthfully, I was kind of a drag during their visit because I was trying to get over bronchitis and a sinus infection...but the rest of the crew had a great time seeing the SoCal sights. We had a bonfire on the beach, visited the LA Zoo, went swimming at Grandma Mayer's house, ate at a choo choo train restaurant, visited the Cabrillo Aquarium and checked out the tide pools at Little Corona del Mar. Here are a few pics at the tide pools:

Another pic of all of the cousins...I don't know why Teri wouldn't trust those boys to hold McKenzie (just kidding).

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Campbell was so sad when everybody left. He kept asking when Grandma or Spencer were coming back. He keeps talking about wanting to go to Spencer's house so that he can play with Spencer's train. I guess he's starting to get the concept of "taking turns."

As a side note: when we went to drive home from the Aquarium on Saturday Campbell begged to ride in Grandma's car - so we let him. As Ammon and I were driving back on the 405 freeway our tire blew out! Shredded! Of course it was on the driver's side and the shoulder was barely big enough for the car. I was mortified to see Ammon lying on the ground inches away from the freeway lane. Talk about nightmares! I was also so grateful that Campbell wanted to go in the other car. Did I mention that it was a heat wave? Ammon burned his knees kneeling on the freeway pavement. What a day. I am so grateful that we were watched over at that particular moment. At least I didn't know that it was the beginning of a string of bad luck. (See part 2. ;-)