Mikayla appeared at our hotel room door early this morning. Neither she nor Guy had slept most of the night, worrying about Kila. Someone posted on Facebook’s “Lost Pets” page that they had seen a small, chubby dog running down the street, but hadn’t tried too hard to catch her. Guy was flying home to see if he could find her, and Mikayla needed me and Mom to wrangle her children while she drove down to LA to get him on his flight. We were all praying that being cold, thirsty, and hungry, Kila would seek human help and someone would call. But in the meantime, Guy was going to go look and be available to pick her up should the call come in.
En masse, Mom and I took all of Mikayla’s children downstairs for breakfast. The hotel where we were staying had the coolest pancake maker. At the push of a button, pancake batter would dispense onto a hot surface and cook the pancake as it ran along a conveyor belt. Then two hot, cooked pancakes would plop onto a plate. The machine provided almost endless entertainment, and not just for our group. Automatic pancake makers are cool! We all ate, we chatted with a few other guests, then we all went back to the room for a bit of organizing and beach preparations.
We decided to rent wetsuits in order that we could enjoy being in the water all day. We found a surf shop in Carpinteria that had enough for our party, and as soon as Mikayla returned from the airport, just about 9:00am, we headed that direction. The surf shop owner thought it was funny we were so many people getting wetsuits, but he was patient with all the people large and small, and we came away with suits and boogie boards. We were unloading at the beach by 10:00am.
We spent the rest of the day on the beach and in the water. As added fun, Clay, Jill, Tillie, Cy, and baby Tahoe had driven up from San Clemente to spend the day with us. Clay has done lots of boogie boarding and had good tips on how to catch and make the most of the waves. I tried to get Lyla in the water to do a bit of body surfing, but even with Christopher’s encouragement, she rode one wave and called it good. Cora was much the same. I helped Brick and Rowen sort of figure it out and both of them got the hang of it. The little kids were not thrilled with the wetsuits but were happy to play in the sand and the low surf and eat snacks. We had bought lunch stuff so didn’t have to go anywhere to eat. It was really just a terrific time in the water. The afternoon didn’t have as large of waves as the morning, but low tide was around 1:00pm, so things picked up around 2:30 or 3:00. We tried to make every wave we caught a "party wave" with everyone riding at the same time. We pretty much wore ourselves out being in the water, but it was wonderful. The big boys played some volleyball and flirted with some girls from Lehi who were also at Carpinteria for fall break.
We missed Guy. Mikayla checked her phone off and on during the day, and around 3:00pm, when we were out of the water taking a break, her phone rang. It wasn't someone Mikayla knew, but it was a Utah number and we all rejoiced when she said she had Kila. Mikayla had been talking to Guy off and on as he had searched, so I immediately called him to let him know she had been found. Mikayla told the kind woman who had brought Kila in the house, warmed her up, and fed her, that Guy was on the way right then, got her address, and then talked to Guy until he got to the house. They were reunited! We all cried happy tears! Prayers were answered! Kila was beside herself, filthy, and crying to Guy, but she was unharmed and so, so happy to be home. Mikayla and Guy vowed they would never leave her with anyone else but us.
Eugene, Sharae, Makenna, Luke, and Collin arrived--finally!--about 3:00pm. They drove to Las Vegas Thursday night and carried on today. They joined us at the beach to play in the waves for a bit.
With my Mom and Mikayla and the kids, we ate at a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner. Much chaos ensued. Someone spilled their water, Freya threw up on the ground but we were outside so we "spilled" some more water to wash it away, a plate dropped and broke. We left a sizable tip. We went back to the hotel but then all went out again to a delicious ice cream shop where we again created a fair bit of havoc as everyone tried to decide what kind of ice cream they wanted, in what sort of holder, and with or without toppings. En masse, we create quite the scene.
After getting the little kids in bed, some of the adults met up in the lobby to play games again. Eugene had driven down to LA to pick up Blake who was flying in because he had to work today. But Mom, Mikayla, Christopher, Sharae, and I along with Ava, Luke, and Brandt played Six Tricks and Think-N-Sync. We laughed a lot! It was really super wonderful to be all together.
Trying to get wetsuits, man asks what size
Katherine: “I don’t know. I need the tall and chubby size.”
Mikayla: “And I need the short and chubby size.”
Katherine: “We can’t leave the food unattended otherwise the birds…”(pauses)
Christopher: “Will attend to it.”
Freya: “I farted.”
It’s a party wave. Brandt is the only one who makes it on the wave.
Brandt: “No one came to my party.”
Mikayla: “I didn’t have a very good game of six tricks. I blame it on the missing Kila thing.”
Christopher: “I blame it on the fact that you aren’t very good at six tricks.”
Christopher: “Okay Ava this is six tricks. I’m going to let you decide what to throw and then I’m going to correct you when you’re wrong.”
Ava: “I just came to watch.” (said really bugged)
Think-n-Sync
We all whispered "China" for Ava.
Prompt for Think-n-Sync is Famous Actors. Sharae says, "Al____Frankel." Who? The correct answer was obviously Pacino.
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