The Beach House

I've been putting off writing this post because as I was loading my 200 or so pictures from the trip all but five of them were deleted.  I've been somewhat devastated by that so I have been ignoring it all.  Luckily Marcus had quite a few pictures on his phone and Scott and Julie got lots of fun pictures on their camera as well.  Really if I had my pictures too this post would probably be miles and miles long anyway...

We had a dreamy vacation staying in a fun beach house near San Clemente, in Dana Point with Marcus' family.  It was pretty much perfect.

For the most part, every day was a beach day.  It was so nice to wake up in the morning and head right out to the beach. Talk about nonstop entertainment for the kids!

Some of Marcus' family went to Disneyland but we decided to wait until Asher was a little older and just spent another day at the beach.  We did go to Sea World one day though and we all had a blast.  Asher absolutely loved all of the animals and the shows, and he says his favorite was the Sea Lions.  What really surprised us was how much he loved the rides.  He rode them over and over and over, until all of us were too exhausted to stay any longer.

Back to the beach...

-Marcus made his skim board just for this trip-

those babies! 

On Sunday we drove to see the Newport Beach Temple.  It was beautiful.  The grounds were closed so we couldn't go in, but it was still pretty just to be there.

We did some shopping and ate lots and lots of fish tacos.  One night we got to meet up with my good friend Sarah and her husband, John, who just happened to move to Newport Beach about a week before we were there.  We got tacos at Wahoos which was delicious and so much fun to see them.

We rented stand up paddle boards for the week and everyone had lots of fun on them...even if several people did end up getting hurt...

Asher was basically in heaven on that beach...and although he loved the ocean too, he would have been content to dig, build sandcastles, and play with army guys in that sand forever.

It was such a fun time getting to spend time with everyone - staying up late and talking and just hanging out for the week.

We were especially grateful for everyone who played with and made the trip so much fun for Asher.  He had a blast with his cousins and still is talking about it today.  He was constantly wanting to play with each of them - Neia, Natalie, Karlie, David and little Stevie.  He loved getting to ride in the car with James and Scott & Julie and they were so sweet to entertain him. Laura spoiled Asher with attention and Marie was so generous to watch Asher several times so we could run off somewhere without him.  

Thanks Dave & Marie for such a fabulous trip!