It was fast Sunday, and we attended a 9:00 am sacrament meeting near by. Colby was asked to help bless the sacrament right as we walked in the chapel doors. I'm guessing a lot of their ward members were out of town for the holiday weekend. I'm glad he was asked to participate, as this is the last Sunday we'll be together for two years! He'll be leaving on his mission August 2, and we won't return home until the 7th. It was a sweet meeting, filled with the spirit. I'm glad we made the effort to go. One of the things I want my children to learn on this trip is that no matter where they are in the country (or the world for that matter) there are ward houses and sacrament meetings that they can attend. The faces and locations might be different, but the sacrament prayer and the gospel of Jesus Christ are the same wherever you go.
After church we took some family pictures. The idea was to hurry and get some beach photos while we were still in our church attire and looking decent. The rest of the week our pictures will probably feature us covered in saltwater, sand, sunburns, and windblown hair. It was challenging to get a photo of the entire Ebert clan! I'd say we did pretty well all things considered...
With the obligatory pix out of the way we hit the road for Point Loma. We arrived just in time for low tide, and spent the next couple hours poking sea anemones, chasing crabs, stacking cairns, and exploring other tide-pool treasures. There were some slips and falls, cuts and tears. The place was also more crowded than I've ever seen it, causing the Luthi's and Jeff & Jen's crew to have to park up at the visitor's center and hike all the way down with their strollers and little ones. But even with all of that, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
On the way back to the beach house, Brian and I stopped at the San Diego temple. We had wanted to walk around the grounds with Chase, but he had fallen asleep in the car. We briefly admired the unique architecture and then kept going. We had a birthday party to get to! Not only that, Brian's uncle Alan and aunt Lisa were coming to dinner with their kids! Today is Garrett's 8th birthday and we celebrated it tonight along with several others: Chase's, Jordyn's, Heather's, Lexee's, Daniels, and mine! Singing to that many people was... interesting. Cupcakes, ice, cream, a game of kuub in the sand (I opted to stay in and hold a sleeping Kennedy baby), and we are all wiped out! I hope we sleep as hard as we played today, we need energy for tomorrow's 4th of July festivities!!
