Grand Pacific Palisades

This past week, Dad, Mom, Jared, Douglas and I spent a relaxing time at the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort in Carlsbad (about 30 minutes away.) A very generous friend of ours owns a vacation timeshare there and moved out of state so they invited us to use it for a week. We checked in on Sunday and of course made cookies that evening like we do every Sunday. Monday was spent at Legoland, just around the corner. I felt like a kid. It was so much fun! At only 10 weeks, I could go on most of the rides. And the things they built out of legos were incredible! It was only the second time going to Legoland so it was still pretty brand new to me. On Tuesday, I had to go home and teach (somehow managed to pack all my students on one day) because I couldn't afford to take the whole week off. Wednesday through Friday was spent relaxing at the condo, going swimming, going out to eat at a local steakhouse and Pat & Oscar's and a bonfire at the beach! We checked out this morning and then drove to Old Town San Diego for the annual Mormon Battalion celebration. It was so hard to come home. I wish we were still there!

The condo

The living room

The master bedroom (with a tv!)

The bathroom and beautifully-folded towels

The sparkling pool

Legoland

A water-squirting ride

Pulling the rope to go higher

Flying in airplanes!

Jared's first driving lesson

There were very few rides where Douglas and I got to ride together (they're mostly built for one adult and one child)

Me, Douglas and Dad (we're waiting for Jared to finish driving)

Yeah...

This stuff is made completely out of legos:

Jared with Bob the Builder

SpongeBob

Little Red Riding Hood

The inauguration

Excalibur

The rest of the week

This was the bathroom at the steakhouse - I thought it was so funny!

Jared playing in the sand at the beach

We cooked hot dogs and s'mores over the fire (Mom and Dad are toasting marshmallows)

I took so many pictures of the sunset at the beach - I narrowed it down to my favorites

The pier - one with seagulls and one after the sunset

The pier with the moon and Venus

Old Town

A horse and buggy

Jared playing tug-o-war

Remodel Time

In early December, my Dad discovered a leak underneath the stairs and long story short, had to get a new wood floor. It was quite an adventure that took a month (almost to the day) to complete.

They started out by moving the furniture away from the wall and placing dehumidifiers in the middle of the room (boy, were they loud!)

Built a mold containment area around the leak

Ripped up the floor in the hallway and got new drywall


And painted


Family room carpet, hallway concrete and living room wood floor


Emptied the hall closet and ripped up the floor


And the same to the bathroom, complete with putting the toilet in the bathtub


Dec 26th at 8am we took down Christmas decorations to prepare for the rest of the remodel

Piled all the living room furniture into the family room

And piled the bookshelf and dining room chairs into the office

Then moved the furniture sticking out into the hallway from the family room to the kitchen

Ripped up the floor in the living room

Which left it completely bare

Had to leave the house while the moisture membrane was spread onto the floor (hence the trip to Julian)

Put a new floor in the hallway


And in the living room

Carried the living room couch back downstairs

Painted the trim

Moved the furniture back to the living room, including the piano - 5 people carrying and 3 people placing the coasters underneath the wheels (yes, the numbers don't add up; one of the people carrying the piano is guiding a coaster also)

And, voila! The finished product!