Last Day Summer BASH!

Today was the last day of summer vacation. Oh how we will miss the late nights, the swimming, summer shakes, the beach, the cousins, and the friends.  As always we have to send out summer with a bang and welcome in the new school year. This year this is how we played.
6:30 am wake up the kids and take them the Krispy Kream to met the McHenry's

Funny sidenote, our school principal was there at the same time picking up donuts for our teachers, and since we were both standing there I felt like I had to strike up a conversation in my pjs.

 9am Go to bowling ally give the kids 5 bucks to play games with cousins.

10 am: Met more friends for bowling 13 kids 4 moms. FuN!  These boys are so funny together.

Midday: pick up Chipotle for Mandy and Me. Mandy picks up a pizza for the kids. We sit down and watch a movie while Micheal sneaks in a nap.
2:30 Culver's for $1 floots.

3:00 Swimming

Goody bye summer we love you and look forward to you every year!

UTAH Mega Post

Ever since last summer when my uncle Bert and his family came to visit California I have missed them and I missed the rest of my Utah family. These aunts and uncles have been so good to me my whole life and since Grandma Workman passed away and I have not been at school it has not been easy to make it to Utah for a visit. So I convinced my mom and dad to accompany me on a 11 hour trip to Utah with 3 kids.  All I can say is that I am so so glad that we went, I loved every minute.
First we were hosted by my aunt Lisa and Uncle Lee. She was such a wonderful host and had crafts for the kids to do.  Her goal was to make this blog.  She did with flying colors. The kids loved making them and eating them.

Lisa was sweet enough and set up a tour for us at Sweets candy factory.  AWESOME!!

We saw how the candy was made from orange sticks to taffy.  Of course the treat at the end was to visit the factory store! Sweet's is the largest maker of taffy in the US.  It was fun for the kids to see a taffy display at Sprouts and say "hey I saw that being made."

Latter that night we met up with most of the family that was in town and had a picnic.
Lots more cousins. My Jamie and her new little one Elliet

Lilly meet her cousin Kali that lives in Georgia. These 2 have exchanged letters a time or 2 so it was fun to meet in person.

Prego cousins These ladies are going to be great mommies.

And I think this picture shows just about 1/2 of my cousins.  I missed the ones that weren't with us. Hopefully all of them will make it next summer for the big reunion.

The next few days we spent with my Uncle and his AMAZING kids. We loved our time with them so much.

Levi and Bert made them wands just like Harry Potter.

 Libby and Anna took them raspberry picking in the back yard.

It rained in the evening and the kids enjoyed jumping on the trampoline in the rain

We had music hour, with my talented uncle and cousins, we sang and played.

No doubt this was an awesome summer. The kids were exhausted. We had all been out of our own beds for 3 weeks sadly we had to get home and get back to life.  Our trip was everything I wanted it to be. We had fun, we made memories, and we played with  family. In my book it was just perfect.

Last day at the beach

Our last evening at the beach we went out to dinner and took a walk on the pier.  I see wonderful shoots of families under the pier at the beach so I wanted to try.  Well I tried. The kids were not that cooperative so this is what I got. Now I have an excuse to go back and try again

Papa and Nana with their pride and joy.

 Isn't Kevin sweet, he model for me.

 I love the lines on the pier and the flags on the posts all way down to the sea.

We managed to get in a happy family picture that night too. Gosh I'm so glad that I get to be with them.

To sum it all up it was fantastic! A week away from worries, a week away from the heat, a week together as a big family. (Picture taken by beach foreign beach walker. That's what I get for not remembering the tripod)

 A week with this guy who ran with me in the morning on the beach.

A week with my littles that were so well behaved, fun to play with and explore with.

I love the beach! I love the time that we shared there. I can't wait to get back and yes mark my words we will be back.

Beach part3

The rest of the beach was much of the same. Surf, sand and fun.  Lilly and Jack would play a lot together making fun cousin memories. Finding shells and rocks.

 Playing in the waves never got old.

 Kevin busted out his skills and went body and boogie boarding.

We had a few sunny days but I would say for the most part it was overcast. Honestly none of us minded the weather was divine and we were happy with the cooler temps any way they came.  We attempted a family picture. Lets just say I'm pretty sure that these will not make our Christmas card this year.

Beach part 2

Monday we went to check out the Channel Island National Park visitor center.  First off I had no idea how cool the Channel Islands were.  They are so close to LA but yet a little world of it's own out there.  I have been diving off Anacapa but never set my feet on the island. After leaning about it I would love to camp and hike there. The visitor center was great and had a lot of things for the kids to see and there was a short movie about the islands.

After the visitors center we went home for lunch and headed out for the beach for more digging.

 and more playing in the waves

and more sandcastle building.

When it came time for dinner we all showered up and were all able to sit at the table and eat together yet another reason it was such a great house.