Sun, The Starfarer, and the Lucky Gold Star

Have you ever wanted to write your own book and have the characters emanate people from your life? Have you ever wanted the main character to be a girl instead of a boy? Do you know anyone that's ever published a book? Well, if you know us, you know someone who has a book published. John and Sidney have been working on a book for some time and last summer they held a book club with a few of Sidney's friends to go over the manuscript and see if they liked it. They did.

John approached his publisher that published his first book ("The Endowment") and they said that they would publish this book as well. The news that it would be published was announced in mid-November and we received our copies a couple weeks ago.




Sun, the Starfarer can be ordered through Amazon. However, they list that the book is out of stock. Order one anyway. The publisher has only been printing what they have requests for. It may take some weeks to get it, but it will be worth it!

The book is science-fiction, the main character is a girl and it's geared for young adults. Sidney was recognized at her school for getting a book published and many kids have been asking about it.

We bought a few books to sell to friends, but we only have a few left over if you're really interested.

So, when my husband and daughter are famous, you could say you knew them when.

Part 2: California and the beach

After only one day to do laundry, tie up loose ends, pack for several venues, plan a menu for a couple meals, we headed out on Sunday morning to Carlsbad, CA for some fun on the beach with great friends.

Even though I did not drive the leg to CA, I was so done being stuck in a vehicle. I wanted to be outside, or walking or doing anything else! We got to our hotel room, unpacked a little and then headed to our friends campsite that overlooked the beach.

They fed us a great meal! And then we took a walk down to the beach. Already we were feeling rejuvenated by the wind and sand. Here's the motley crew down at the beach:

We played a rousing game of Mafia with all the kids. I think the kids enjoyed it more than the adults, but we all had fun regardless.

The next day, we were all pretty anxious to get to the beach and play! The kids had a blast boogie boarding, making sand castles, playing in the water, and finding sand crabs, some even tried surfing.

Here some of the girls, Sierra, Sidney, Peyton and Kaylee made a fancy sandcastle!

Sidney and Tanner were logging in quite some time on those boogie boards. And they were plenty water-logged to prove it!

Hayden and Haylee were working together to combat the waves. So sweet!

After a full day at the beach, we got cleaned up at the hotel, and returned to make dinner for everyone. Then we sat around and visited, laughing and telling stories and jokes, and then John taught the kids some of the games he learned in Korea.

The next day was pretty similar, except we went to a different beach just a couple miles north of where we were before. The water was a little choppier than the first day so the kids could only swim and boogie board in certain areas and the water seemed a bit cooler. The beach, though, was nicer. Less rock and seaweed and the kids teamed together for a good hour and half building a fortress in the sand. There was a lot more sunscreen applied on this second day since many of the kids got s little sunburned the day before.

This is what was left of the sand fortress. When they knew we were heading out they had just as much fun stomping on it as they did building it!

Our friend Craig got some good naptime in, but unknowningly got caught in pictures. They put sand on him and even a sand crab, but he took it all in good spirits.

The adults went out to dinner to a super-yummy place called Rockin Baja Lobster. It was sooooo good!

We got some nice pictures at the pier during the sunset.

Then we came back and got the kids to head over to Cold Stone for yummy treats. We took another night-time walk on the beach and got some cool pictures with the kids twirling their glow-sticks in front of them. Check it out:


We said our good-byes to our friends that night since we were headed out in the morning to go to Las Vegas.