Surf Camp

Today Mom got us up super duper early for surf camp. Grandma ‘Chel paid for Kaleb and I to get surf lessons for an entire day. Moose went last year and had such a blast I thought I would try. Now I can see why. It was so cool!

After lots of hugs for Grandma ‘Chel, we met the surf instructor, Michael. We got our boards and Michael kept us knew kids with him and taught us how to do pop-ups. We practiced on the beach a little before heading into the water. Surfing is way harder than it looks. The professionals make it look easy. I think we probably made it look hard. You have to be careful when you are trying to stand up on wave. It doesn’t take much to lose your balance and fall. Then you have to swim all the way back out over the waves and start all over again. It takes all your power to get through the waves.

After a while, I figured it out and started poping up easier. People were standing up all around me but they were older and had been surfing all week too. They fell off lots too! The other new girl was standing up and falling up lots like me so I kept yelling over encouragement. Here is a tip for the next time you go surfing: try to stand as far back as possible because as soon as your nose goes under you are done for. It didn’t take long to learn that as soon as my nose went under, it was over and I should jump ship before I fell hard. One of the crazy things is that I kept falling on my shoulder in the shallow water. I never snapped my neck or anything but surfing should be considered a contact sport!

It was finally lunch time. PB&J for me, please! Grandma ‘Chel brought all sorts of sandwhiches and snacks. Grandmas are good for planning picnics. They always know what you want and need and break Mom’s no sugar rule! After lunch, we headed down the beach to surf closer to the pier. That is where the big, rough waves were. I was having a grand time. Another tip: when you are trying to swim on your board, don’t kick your feet. It is all in your arms, dude! I surfed for a few more hours until I got super cold. By that time lots of cousins had joined us at the beach. Cousin Jesse, Jo, and Felishia were there and even little Maddy who isn’t the baby I remember from last trip. We had fun hunting for shells and playing tag. The other cousins are younger but it is still fun to play with them. Kaleb and I got permission to play farther out in the waves. All the cousins left and mom took Natey home to get ready to a dinner date with a friend.

Since we were spending the night with Grandma ‘Chel, we didn’t have to hurry home. We went to an awesome ice cream store on the beach called Cold Stone Creamery. I had mint-peanut butter cup-oreo. You pick your ice cream flavor and mix-ins and they stir it all up, special for you. After we finished we went to a place called the tot-lot. When we lived in California, Grandma always took us to the tot lot during our grandma dates. Now it is really special because we don’t get to go very often. They have monkey bars and swings, and all sorts of stuff to play right there on the beach. I like to specialize in the climbing equipment being the zoo monkey and all. We eventually went back to Grandma’s house and took showers and got ready for bed. She let us stay up late watching a movie. I am not a big movie fan so I stayed upstairs and played my gameboy instead. She doesn’t have the same gameboy rules as mom so I got to play way more than normal!

The next day Mom met us in the morning with Nate so we could visit Grandma Hinckley, Grandma’s ‘Chel’s mom. She said I must have grown eight inches since she had seen me last. Mom says I am eating her out of house and home so I must be in a growth spurt. I wonder how much I will grow before Dad sees me again? After that Mom left and we went back to Grandma ‘Chel’s house to play. She introduced us to a neighbor that had great kids to play with. Mom met up with us so we could go out to dinner but by the time everyone got cleaned up and found their shoes, it was late and the little kids were tired. Bek and Kaleb couldn’t agree on a place to go and soon all three little kids were crying. I tried to get them to compromise but I guess they were too tired to listen. We ended up having to leave the parking lot without eating and we couldn’t eat with Grandma ‘Chel. We were all sad by the time we got back to Papa Chucks so Mom quick fed the kids and sent everyone to bed. It wasn’t such a good way to end the day but at least we will get o go camping with Grandma ‘Chel this weekend.