Family Chaos...er...I mean Vacation

Instead of meeting up for family Christmases when the weather is cold and the flights are expensive, we have decided to have a Family Reunion every other year in a desirable location. Okay, so it took about a million emails for all of us to agree on San Diego in a beach house, but we finally figured it out! The only problem I had with the vacation was that it was too short! (And yes, even Greg got a week of vacation and was able to come and party at the beach with us!)

FIRST STOP: ORANGE COUNTY, CA WITH LAURA, MAYNRAD AND CARLO

We flew into Orange County Airport and hung out with my BFF Laura who was just days away from having a baby (well, later we found out she was still a few weeks away...to be continued)

NEXT STOP: SAN DIEGO

At church both Ella and Michael wanted to sit on my lap. "Take a picture!" I said, and Michael immediately stuck his finger up his nose. Classic!

THE BEACH

First beach stop...and we just stared. It was freezing cold! Good thing a heat wave rolled in the next day!

I missed my girls! Ella and Maiya lived with us for 4 months back in 2010. Now they're living in Germany, sniff sniff.

Ella was the doting older cousin. She sat in the backseat with Julia on all our trips, and discovered she could keep the baby happy by letting her suck on her thumb.

Look Julia, it's the ocean!

MORMON BATTALION VISITORS CENTER, OLD TOWN

We went to the new Mormon Battalion Visitors Center and it was awesome! Here Greg and Jared are panning for gold...with the children.

And Hunter apparently did something to make his dad really mad....

Who would want to take this gang of kids across the prairies in a covered wagon?

While Julia was sleeping I stole her bow!

MISSION BEACH

Must have: Two beach tents for those who hate the sun, like my mom

And my husband, and my baby. Sigh. I don't see a lot of beach trips in my future.

Well, maybe there's hope after all that Julia will want to lay-out with me when she's older...

The two preggo SIL's. Jenny is having a boy, and Devri a girl! We are so happy for them!

She is obsessed with hats, glasses, noses, teeth, lips...

This 2-year-old, Ethan, was just a bunch of mischief and trouble. He was always busy getting into something!

I discovered a new love...boogie boarding!

And Julia discovered a new hatred...of the ocean.

The cousins played for hours in this hole!

Sisters!

First experience with the sand

Shayne and Lea

My superstar brother Ben smoked us all in our Family Olympics on the Beach.

Cool it with the weights, Ben! You're making us all look flabby!

SEA WORLD - on one of the hottest days on record!

Beluga whales are white? I had no idea!

Can we hire Ella permanently?

This was the dolphin show...

And Julia's face accurately portrays exactly how amused we were by this particular show. We liked the other ones much better.

Okay, at least I knew that polar bears are white.

And then we got caught at a Block Party with the real polar bear, and Danny Danger went wild on the dance floor! Yes, he is break-dancing, and I'm pretty sure he learned his moves from his older brother Hunter.

Do we look old and washed-up now that we are parents?

My fancy new crocs were giving me blisters so Shayne kindly let me wear his extra pair of flip flops. I was styling!

Can you imagine traveling around Sea World with a group this big? And this was only half of us?

Julia is a) either hiding from the shark jaws or b) being a perfect child by avoiding learning such bad behavior from her cousins

SAN DIEGO TEMPLE

Our professional picture

Okay, maybe this is a better one

All of the girl grandchildren in the family. They are quite outnumbered by the 7 boys!

It was impossible to get all 3 smiling at the same time.

Nope, not the whole family. Lea's 6-member crew were off somewhere else this day.

Showing off their moves...

One of the most beautiful temples in the world!

What I really like about this family picture is Maiya sitting in the background behind her family.

 LA JOLLA COVE

Alisa and Mom

The seals on the rock were awesome at the cove!

Our Little Family

I need to get them matching hats, I think.

FAMILY PICTURES!

Here's the pro picture! Too bad Julia was fast asleep.

The whole family

And our true nature comes out

The grandkids...do you know how long I've waited to get a child in one of these pictures? FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

The couple who started it all!

 THE MIDWAY CARRIER

We really enjoyed the Midway Carrier tour, partly because Greg's dad Tom was on the USS Enterprise (the carrier, not the spaceship) during the Vietnam War.

And his dad stayed in an officer's bunk like this

Okay, the great thing about this picture is that it was not staged. I saw the fan and went and spread my arms in front of it. At the same exact moment Julia did the same thing. I kid you not! We both knew it was boiling hot in the belly of that ship!

Say cheese!

We named her Julia Rae because it sounds presidential....but I guess it could be a sailor name, too.

The runway on the top of the ship

CORONADO BEACH

Greg was a champion boogie boarder. Look at his form!

Yum, sand.

The baby tent where Skyler and Julia babbled and rolled on top of each other.

Greg, Lea and Brian

Poor little Michael was cold

Dad and Devri went boogie boarding too

What is this? Greg having fun in the sun? So it is possible!

At Coronado Beach (which was by far the best beach we visited) Greg and I finally got to boogie board together. How romantic!

SAYING GOODBYE

Ella and Maiya saying goodbye to Julia on our last night

And the Lybberts are off to Europe for the year. These are ALL of their belongings for two adults and three children for a YEAR. I am so impressed by their wanderings around the world!

And we headed back to Orange County to see if Laura had had that baby yet. Nope, still cooking! But meanwhile we discovered Julia loved Carlo's cars.

Hanging with the chimps at Downtown Disney!

Come out and play, little Eva! And she did...but 8 days later. Just barely missed her!

What?! You made it to the end? I've got 300 more pics of this vacation if you want to see them... :)