At the end of July we packed up our Expedition and headed down to California for our annual Lutes Family Beach trip. The past couple of years we have been lucky to be able to use Keffords Uncles RV, but this year he was using it the week we would need it so we had to crowd into the SUV. It was a little rough but we survived and made it to my Moms house all intact.
Rylee loves Molly and spent a lot of her time hunting her down and holding her. Thankfully Molly was pretty sweet about all of the attention and didn't fight her too much. When she got tired of being held she would just go and hide so it was not a bad situation. I thought it was really cute the way Rylee held her, like a baby.
After a couple of days at my Moms house it was time to reload our stuff and head to the beach. It was a little bit more crowded because we had my Niece Alyssa in the car with us but thankfully nobody seemed to mind. We took Alyssa with us because her Mom was not able to go up for the full week but Kenedy and Alyssa did not want to lose any time together so Stephanie was cool and agreed to let her join us for the days she was not going to be there.
We started the week with three campsites and on our campsite was us and my sisters Heather and Ashleigh. It was great except we were a block away from everyone else and we felt pretty lonely and sad not being closer. We noticed the the other two sites the rest of our family were on were bigger and one of them being really big. We talked to everyone about maybe giving up our site and moving onto the really big ones and most everyone thought that was a great idea. So after the second day we moved our tents down the road and joined up with everyone else. It was so nice to be with everyone else in my family and to not be further away. There was plenty of room and it worked out great. So thankful for a big site and willing family.
We had such a fun time going down to the ocean everyday. The water was not as cold as it had been in years past and i had a good time getting in a swimming with my sisters and jumping waves and boogie boarding with my kids.
I took these shots of me with Kefford in the background and I think they turned out pretty cool.
We having been doing family shirts of rate past couple of years and this year emails were making the rounds with Joshua trying to get ideas as to what should be on the shirt. Kefford joined in with his idea as to what the shirt should be and when I saw what he proposed I just shook my head. Once we got to the beach and Joshua was handing out our shirts Kefford learned that if you are smart alecky with my family that you were going to receive smart aleckyness in return. He had his own special shirt that he was told he had to wear since it was his great idea.
After a couple of pictures were taken Kefford was given his real shirt to put on and thank heavens for that because his net shirt was not cute.
Emily had made really cute hair bows for the younger girls to wear that matched their shirts and so I bought bandannas for the older girls and adult girls to wear. The guys were a bit disappointed that I did not get them any so next year I might have to get bandannas for all.
The previous family pictures we took were missing Stephanie and so when she got to the beach we took some more with everyone wearing the Lutes shirt of their choice.
Avynlea had to keep doing her physical therapy while at the beach and her arm movement was improving so much!
On our last full day camping it rained all day so we spent time up at our sight and not being able to have our last beach day. But we had a lot of fun that day and it was actually a nice change from what we had been doing all week. We cooked and ate HotDogs in the rain, played cards, read and had a lot of fun despite the weather. We make do no matter what!
Mom and Matt used their umbrellas to hang outside and read their books. :)
We also did quite a bit of packing up so that we could leave early the next morning. Emily and I laid out the food we did not want to take back with us to Utah and Idaho for a free for all. The kids enjoyed that part for sure.
We got up really early the next morning and were able to leave at a good time for our long trek home. While on the ride home I found two pictures that Avy had taken with my phone.
I love time spent with my family and at the beach and really wished that I lived closer but I am glad that I have the opportunities that I do to go down for visits.
