Oceanside 2012

My awesome parents hosted us for a week at a beach house and we loved it. All of my siblings and their families came, along with my lovely grandma. The only misfortune was that J had to leave Monday morning to go back to work and missed (and was missed) hanging out. Thanks again parents for making it such a great, memorable, and relaxing vacation!!!

Everyone had a day to plan, cook, and clean up the meals. Genius because the rest of the time you showed up for something delightful to eat.

Beach pictures. I got a Canon Rebel T2i for Christmas and this gave me an excuse to read the operating manual. Still much to learn there...

 My lovely Grandma Mary. She was wonderful to have around. So helpful, patient, fun, and easy going. She talked one night about her history and life experiences and it will always be a treasured memory of mine. I'm so grateful to know that my girls are old enough to remember their time at the beach with her. 

The toothless smile.

Loved catching this shot. You know there is push back among sisters.

 The littles were scared of the waves at first, but braved it with Grandma's help.



 Wave jumping was the favorite activity every day. We never seemed to tire of it. 



 We had some good sand castle building even despite the higher than normal tides, thanks to the huge moon.



 Loved being with little C as he enjoyed his first major league ball game at the Padres stadium.


 
Panning for gold at the Mormon battalion building. It has been redone and totally rocks.

The crew. Minus Claire and Skippy who were looking for the bathroom. Toddler and pregnant lady, you know.

Beach bike riding.

We were actually just .5 miles down the beach from Junior Seau's home, where he took his life the week before we arrived. Every day people were in front of his home paying their respects.

Touring the USS Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego bay. It was incredible to see that thing inside and out and Lauren decided that she learned more there then she would have at school that day. Yep.

Luckily the beach house had this awesome tub, beacause there were a lot of sandy bodies at the end of the day.

 

It turned out that the same week we were in San Diego, J's brother and his family were there with my sister-in-law's family too. We met up for some beach time at at the Padres game and the girls loved getting to see their other cousins.