The beach, a blessing, a cemetary, the temple, and a long drive, or Labor Day Weekend-pt 1

This year we actually did something for the long Labor Day weekend. And boy, did we pack in the activities. Tom and Heather invited us out to LA to be a part of Shelby's blessing, it was an added bonus that Mom and Dad were there along with Bill and his kids.


We decided not to tell the kids what was going on, we packed our clothes and the car up after the kids were soundly asleep, and didn't tell them anything when we loaded them into the car. After a half hour we gave them enough hints for them to figure out where we were going. And after few minutes of reassuring them that we had all neccessary items (bears, blankets, books, snacks), the kids were totally on board for the adventure ahead.


We spent Saturday afternoon at Redondo Beach, .5 mi downhill from Tom and Heather's (which ment it was .5 mi uphill when we were done). Mom and Dad walked down with us, and Bill and his kids arrived about 30-40 minutes after we did. The kids had a great time frolicing in the surf, building sand mounds and moats, and collecting rocks (Davin brough home 1/2 cup of new rocks). Eric, upon arriving at the beach, remembered instantly how much fun the beach is with our kids, and had just as much fun building mounds (and finding crabs) and taking the kids into the deeper surf, as the kids did.


Sunday was Shelby's blessing, and it was quite lovely. I'm hoping Mom and Dad got a family pic of Tom and Heather and Shelby, because we didn't, sorry. After a late post church luncheon at Tom and Heather's, Mom fufilled my request for Sunday activities by taking us to the National Cemetary (the Arlington of the West) to see Grandpa Munt's crypt, followed by a trip to the LA Temple.


We pulled into the cemetary at 5:01 pm, they close at 5 pm (oops, we didn't know that), so we hoped that we weren't too late. We drove over to the small mosileum, only to find it locked. At that moment, however, an officer drove by asking if we were there to see someone, upon saying yes, but it looked like we were too late, he kindly unlocked the door for us and told us to take as long as we needed. I'm not sure about Mom, but that small, kindness about put me in tears. The kids particularly liked seeing the uniforms on display.