Sometimes you only have 48 hours. Sometimes you are in the car as long as you are there. Almost always it’s worth the trip. We’ve taken a couple of amazing quick trips lately. One to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks with our wonderful friends the Jensens. Both parks are a child’s paradise because you don’t just hike, you climb and explore. Continue Reading
Taylor Family Reunion – Oceanside
***my computer died. we are still mourning it’s loss – hence the lack of posting the last couple of weeks. I still don’t have any good photo editing software 🙁
Back in the first week of October the stars aligned and we met most of the Taylor family in Oceanside, CA (we missed you Aubs’s family and Katie!)The kids were very excited for their first trip in our new car. I was terrified I was going to break something, I really shouldn’t have nice cars. Side note, the car beeps if you are trying to change lanes and there is something there — basically – a “don’t hit that!” warning – scared me to death every. time. There is always something there on California freeways, just sayin.Continue Reading
Sun Soaked Summer Days
Every year we go to the beach with my parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. This year it was even more magical than usual. It was as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t have to get ready at all, clean the house, or worry too much about food. At home I feel like I constantly need to be doing. Instead of all that doing I slept in until 7:30 everyday (Justin would get up with Max and get him set with breakfast/a show before going surfing), took long naps, read three books, went on bike rides, played in the waves with my family, and soaked up the sun.. Packed up ready to go…. We might need to invest in a double surf rack at some point. Max was obsessed with this game. He’d just go from person to person with big eyes and say, “You want to play smash ball with me. Our attempt at a swimming pool The tide pools, lots of little crabs and fish, one colorful sea slug, but no star fish… Jackson was very adored this trip. An intense game of kickball was followed by a hot dog roast on the beach. (Josh thinks he’s very funny sometimes, apparently I don’t always agree.) Love that guy. He really loves it when I kiss him after just putting on lipstick. We took over a mini golf course for the morning. It was close, but Brady came in for the win. Bocce Ball on the beach was a hit with all ages.
Other fun traditions:
Doughnuts from the bakery on Newport Pier… they are so so good
Every couple takes one night for dinner. You are in charge of cooking and cleaning up. Which means every other night you can lounge at the beach or on the couch and do absolutely nothing and feel zero guilt.
Music…. Each year everyone picks their favorite song and emails it to me and I put them all on a CD. One night we play the CD and everyone tries to guess who picked which song. There is of course an amazing prize for the winner… that sometimes you don’t get until 18 months after the fact (sorry Brady) This year Brady put together this amazing worksheet for us….that no one printed out. Taylor Swift was huge this year… last year Frozen was the most popular choice.
Adult Swim….no it’s not dirty, yes everyone is fully clothed. One night we leave all the kids in bed with Grams and Papa standing guard and we go play categories and submarine at the pool. My absolute favorite night.
Games, lots of games, and a few movies thrown in.Also noteworthy:
I rode the white water on a surfboard all by myself… exactly six times.
Max now can “surf” as well. He loves to boogie board. This trip after catching a wave he would immediately stand up and “surf” in.. he was very proud. ( There is always an adult also on the board holding it steady, in case you were too impressed).
Goodbye beach… we’ll be back.
I Camped at the Beach…. Day 2
My mind was a little hazy on day 2. The night before we’d gotten back to camp and crawled into our sleeping bags… all of us by 8:30… unshowered of course. After the kids were safely tucked in we sat outside the tent and listened to them giggle and tell each other stories.
Justin asked, “Do you want to light a fire?”
To which I replied, “I don’t really want to smell like campfire and beach.”
“Good point.”
So instead of cuddling by a campfire and listening to the ocean we crawled into the tent with our crazy munchkins. The artificial waves made by the noise maker app on my phone lulled us to sleep, drowning out most of the noise made by our neighbors.
We were down at our campgrounds beach by 7 am (San Onofre State Beach). It was a gray day, which may sound depressing, but it was more cozy. It wrapped us all up together as a family on that beautiful Sabbath morning, shutting out the rest of the world. Justin wanted to surf and I had a goal of looking into my kids eyes and really playing with them. I got slightly caught up in taking pictures, and Max refused to walk anywhere on the rocky beach even with shoes on, but I did a decent job of reaching my goal.
We found a ready made fort. It was exciting for a second… but the best part of forts is actually building them, so the excitement lasted about 2.5 seconds.Continue Reading