The next day was Sunday and we went to church with my Mom in her Ward. They had just recently had their home ward dissolved and part of their ward were put with a new ward and in a new building so it was different then I was used to whenever I have been in California. We filled up 4 of the smaller pews on the side and my little family had at least one person in each of the pews. It was nice to be able to sit next to Kefford during church for a change. Heather and I took a picture before the meeting started and my Mom must have been feeling left out since she tried to get in the picture with her hand sneaking through between our heads. I turned and took a picture of her and Kenedy so she would feel better.
I braided my girls hair as well as Jaylynns hair that morning and their heads looked so cute close together as they were looking at Jaylynns tablet. Jaylynn and her Mom loved her hair so much they kept it that way the entire time we were at the beach! I asked Jaylynn how she washed her hair while it was still in the braids and she said that she just rinses it. Smart girl.
Monday we repacked up and were finally able to head out to the beach. We got there about 1:30 and were told we could not check in until 2:00 so we drove down the road a bit, parked and got out to enjoy the sea breeze and ocean views. I took this picture of Rylee and right beside me was Avynlea throwing up into a bag. She does not do real well while traveling and tends to get pretty sick, luckily she kept it together until we parked. Ryker enjoyed jumping from cliff to cliff which made his sisters very nervous.
I really love being able to come back to the beach every year. It is beautiful, rejuvenating and makes me so happy!
We were finally able to check in and once we started setting up camp we let the kids go down to the beach to check it out and to keep them out of the way.
Rylee, Avynlea, Jaylynn and Ben
Mornings at the beach are pretty low key and relaxing. The next day, Tuesday, I got up early to go on a trail run with Stephanie. It was one she had never done before and we were trying to follow the map on her phone but the trail was a weird one and even though it was supposed to be a circular 4 miles in distance we were only able to run 2 miles before we couldn't figure out where the rest of the trail was so we just ran back the 2 miles which still gave us 4 miles just not the way we wanted. Playing games and reading are typical morning pastimes for us. Someone brought up phase ten and we spent a lot of time playing that. Kefford has a hard time with idleness and in the past has struggled with our mornings at the beach routines of hanging out. This year he did a great job of keeping himself occupied and I think he really enjoyed himself.
Around 11:00 every day I would start making and packing lunches to take down to the ocean and we all would get ready for an afternoon of fun in the sun. Our kids are old enough that they can get themselves ready and would head down to set our stuff up while we finished preparing lunches. It is so great to have older kids, makes things a lot easier. When I got down on the first day Ben had already been buried in the sand and Kefford was drawing an airplane around him. The end exult was pretty cool! Emily and Matt couldn't make it this year, he had to work and Emily and Isabelle had girls camp the same week. We missed them, especially Avynlea missed her buddy Isabelle, but we were really happy Ben could come down with Andrew and be with all of us.
Beach time with my honey!
Avynlea enjoying the sand and looking pretty cool in the process
Jaylynn, Rylee and Avynlea hung out and played together a lot but there were often times that I saw Avynlea just hanging around with no one to play with. She wasn't always interested in doing what they were playing and without Isabelle did not have anyone her age to play with. She did a good job of not complaining and making the best of her situation. I did enjoy seeing these three together the times they were playing with each other.
Over the fourth Taylor did my toes with her glitter and polish and I was really happy they were lasting so long. I liked my glitter toes on the beach. Anita had some white glitter toes so we took a picture of out glitter toes together. I was trying to get a good picture of my toes but my shadow was getting in the way. Jeremy was standing nearby and when he saw my struggles he stood behind me and braced me so that I could lean back and get a good shot with out the shadow. He is the best brother!
