Sheldon Baxter

Today was a big day. We got the kids out of bed and headed out for breakfast burritos. Lisa found this little hole in the wall joint right on the beach so we sat on the edge of a cliff and enjoyed our burritos. We then went to the La Jolla Caves. There is this cave in La Jolla and a hundred years ago some guy got tired of climbing down the cliffs everyday to get to his boat so he dug a tunnel from the back of his cave up to the top. I guess it was very useful during the prohibition days. It was pretty cool going down the stairs and standing on the deck looking out of the cave. After the cave we went for a walk along the top of the cliffs. It is a beautiful view from up there. After we got home Lisa read up on the little hike we went on. It was an original indian path that they used to use to go hunting. In modern times it was originally called Angel's walk which is totally understandable from the "heavenly views". It is now called "La Jolla Coast Walk". We then went and rented some kayaks and signed up for a tour. Unfortunately our camera is not water proof and so we wisely chose not to take the camera with us. There for we have no pictures of our kayaking adventures. Kayaking was a blast right from the start. Lisa and I hoped in our kayak and paddled into the waves. We had a pretty good surf today so Lisa freaked when she saw this huge wave bearing down on us. Lester and I had a kayak in Waterton and even though the waves in Waterton were nothing like the surf we get here I learned early that you wanted to take big waves straight on. Lisa and I managed keep the kayak heading into the waves and after a few exhilarating moments we were out in the open water. Ironically the tour we had took us right back to the very cave we had been in. As we were paddling along the base of the cliffs (the very cliffs that we had been on top of an hour earlier) they pointed out Dr Suiss' house, some Garibaldi (California's state fish) and we even saw some Leopard Sharks. The guides also told us that the city of San Diego sent a notice to the owners of all the houses along the cliffs edge and told them that within a hundred years every one of the houses would fall into the sea. They even pointed out where a house had been that fell into the sea just last February. These houses must sell for ten or twenty million dollars. Coming back from the tour was even more exiting that starting. You got to ride the surf in and as best as I could tell Lisa and I were the only ones who didn't swamp our kayak. We then headed home and bought our traditional ice cream cone. Sarah had to go running with her cross-country team and today they ran along the Torrey Pines beach. Since I had to drive her there I decided to take my boogie board and catch some waves while I was waiting. As I said, they were great waves today.
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Lisa and I fit right into the Rosemary ward and we felt perfectly at home. I heard it said one time that the Mormons are the only people that celebrate the eighteen month birthday. That is because you can't put your kid into nursery until they are eighteen months old. Until that time you get to decide which of the parents gets to take the kids with them so both parents are quite happy when the kids turns eighteen months old. The room where the nursery was had a vent in the bottom of the door and poor Kira would sit on the floor in front of the nursery room door trying to see through the vent into the room. I thought it was funny because most kids hate to go to nursery and the parents sometimes even have to go in with the kids until they get used to it. We did not have that problem with Kira, she wanted in there right from the start. Until then however I drew the Priesthood meeting shift. Priesthood was the last meeting of the day so by then everyone was tired and cranky. I would just sit Kira on the floor and let her do her thing. Kira was content to just mind her own business but all of the sudden she started crying. I looked over at her and there was this other kid about the same age as her, hitting her. His dad would make him stop but every time we let our guard down this kid was over there again harassing Kira. The kids name was Sheldon Baxter and he really never did leave Kira alone. They stayed very good friends the whole time we were there and even after we moved. They are still good friends today.