Good morning from Carlsbad. What a busy time we have had these last 6 days. We picked Cass up from the airport on Wednesday. Sooooo good to see her. From there we headed to the zoo and spent the afternoon there. On our way in, we met this man from Montana but now living across the street from the zoo. He saw the plates on our van so we got to talking and he even took one of us as his guest into the zoo (he had a season pass). Once inside, another man heard Shawn talking and says "What part of Canada are you from?" What? How did he know that, eh? Was it the Canadian bacon slopped on our shirts from lunch??? Anyways, he was from Calgary. Then the man from Montana starts talking about how he has gotten really good at recognizing accents and where the people are from. Accents??? We actually get that a lot down here. People will ask where we are from because of our 'accents'. We're from Saskatchewan, ain't got no accents, do we???

The Slettens arrived Thursday night around 6:30 and we picked Amy up at the airport Friday night at 11:00 and we have been on the go since. We've been to the Village and the Outlet Shops (some people more than once, ha). The kids have gone to the mall. We went to a Padres game and Sea World yesterday. Today after training is the beach (I think) but not sure who is going to be brave enough to go in that cold, cold water. Then it is time to start getting things organized to pack up tomorrow, as we will be leaving Sunny California after training and making our way home. First stop.... Very Hot Vegas!!!

The Lebels are travelling in this neck of the woods and they came over for supper Saturday night, along with Shane and Les and the boys. We were told they didn't make the trip so that was a nice surprise for us. It was the men's turn to cook and since we were supposed to be using up what we have in the house, I was quite looking forward to seeing what 'Jayson the Cook' would come up with using honey nut cheerios, brown beans and won ton soup. But, he cheated and went to Ralph's (the grocery store where we shop) and cooked us up some delicious ribs, baked potato (Shawn made the potatoes) and fresh garden salad. Yummy. It was a good time!

Yesterday at training Jayci was the talk of the shop as she had 16 people following her around. "Are you all from Canada?". Yep, we like to travel in packs. I think people were thinking there was some kind of tour going on but nope, it was just some of Jayci's fans, come to see her in action. When Jayci would move from one machine to the next, there would be a long line, almost like single file, following her. It was pretty funny. After training, Lebels and Wittmiers continued on their way so now we are back to a 9 pack.

Happy Belated Easter to all!! Ours was one not to be forgotten. We were hearing things like "Oh, no Easter Egg hunt this year?" and "It's Easter. Don't we usually get money or something?" Little did they know that the Mama Easter Bunnys were way ahead of them. Then I opened up the back door and yelled "What the dickens happened out here?" And the kids came running (well, not exactly running but they did eventually come outside). And there, on the ground were 5 tiny chocolate Easter eggs, you know the ones in the shiny colorful wrappers. One for each of them. Haha! But then with a little push, they started looking around and found the beautiful candy baskets hidden in the yard. Again, one for each of them. Well, they all sat down at the table outside and started eating their candy when all of a sudden Cassi screams "Snails!!! There are snails in my candy!" You see, the baskets were not wrapped and Cassi's was hidden at the bottom of a tree trunk, and apparently the Easter Bunny did not know (and I don't blame her) that the tree was the 'snail tree'. Personally, I have never heard of a snail tree. Anyways, kids were spitting out what was in their mouths and checking their baskets to make sure there wasn't snails in theirs as well. Everyone else's seemed to be fine so guess maybe there is such a thing as a snail tree!!?? At the ball game that afternoon, we ate hot dogs (really, really good hot dogs), pizza, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and yes, even cracker jacks. Of course not everyone ate all that, but we all ate! So for Easter supper, much later that night, we all enjoyed a big pot of itchibans, cooked by Tye. Haha!

Like I said, we are trying to use up the food we have left, and because some of us are banned from shopping at Ralph's, last night for supper we had chicken wings, mozza sticks, a couple mini pizzas, turkey bacon, hot dogs, homemade mac and cheese and some shrimp. Pretty funny combinations, but it was good. Hopefully today we can find a use for the beans, cheerios and that darned won ton soup!!!

Training doesn't start until noon today so everyone is still in bed except for me and Jayson. We seem to be the early risers. Or should I call him 'Rocky'? Why, you ask. Well, we aren't really sure what happened but his eyes are so swollen that they are almost shut. This morning he is claiming he was bitten by a spider.???? So, you can imagine there have been a few jokes at his expense, but not like he never dishes it out so.... Also, we have some pretty red people in the house and not sure how Amy slept as she couldn't even undress herself last night. Her little sis Abby was more then willing to help out!! Cass and Dianne are pretty red as well and our theory is that it is the fault of the sun screen. Seems that anyone that used sunscreen got red. Weird!

Well, it is about time to get things started around here so I better get going. Not sure if I will post again before we head home so this may be it until next week. Take care all and see you when we get home.

Love Starla

ps 7 more days office peeps!!! Keep pushin through!!!!