Beach Camping 2014

Returning from this trip was not easy.
 
We had SO, SO much fun.
Carpenteria was awesome!

I would love to return to this campground another time.

We got a late start Wednesday. We caravaned with Amy and fam. (except Dan had to stay and work).


Happy sign!
 

It was later then expected when we arrived.
After we set things up...
 

We started walking to the beach, took a few pictures,
 
(the girls had run to the shore giving Eli some one-on-one camera time) (his favorite thing ;)
 

And this is the sunset that welcomed us. How could I not be in love with this place?!
 

It was even more breathtaking in person and somewhat humbling to be a part of.
Silhouetted trees.
 

Then we went and found the boogie-boarders :)
Emma and Jane tried to run from my camera.
 

 

Holly was shivering but I couldn't get her to stay out of the water.
  

The beach there was a good one- nice sand, not windy, nice waves.

 Dana giving Eli tips on boggie boarding. He is a good one too. I'm so grateful for him.
 
The kids got to work doing beach stuff.

Digging

Burying (little cutie James:)


Finding giant sand crabs, which to my utter disbelief, Emma was even afraid to touch!
 
Holly was okay with them!
 

Our kids love creatures :)
 


It was so fun having these 2 babies there this year!! They are just so sweet and beautiful!
 

The bigger kids loved holding them too. Emma and Jane happened to have them and we realized that Emma and Jane were just like those babies about 14 years ago! Now they're starting high school!
 
Time flies doesn't it?

Amy bought them matching swimsuits! Haha- so cute!!
 
Kind of a trick to get them both to look up at the same time:)
Especially Lucia who hasn't expanded her world beyond herself yet. :)
 

Jeff put together a family Olympics. It was so much fun :) We split into two teams.

Sandcastle contest

Dana was our foreman.
 
The other team had a cool "7 Wonders of the World" theme. I don't have a great picture but here you can see Mt. Everest in the background.
 
Mom was supposed to judge, but at the last minute she pulled a couple strangers over to take her place.
 
They deliberated for awhile but eventually chose the other team.
 
Fill up the bucket race



We won that one!
 
Ping-pong ball race
For this one we had to try and get our ball past the flamingos without hands- just using water.
 
We took that one too!
 
Three-legged race


This was a little bit of a trick on the sand. We lost this one. So we basically tied.
 

We attempted a grandkid pyramid :)

It was a little tricky!
 

The three little ones aren't quite at pyramid age yet, and some big ones got their sunburned backs rubbed, so it was a mix of alot of laughter,some tears, and some really cute pics:)
We'll try again another time.

Then I took some more pretty sunset pictures.
 


Then Amy took one of our family.
 

The kids loved the hammock.

And Gram's kite.
 
Sadie even got to fly it by herself :)
 

Goodbye beach! We'll be back! (Sniff-sniff)

Saturday we checked out and went and everyone stayed at mom's that night. We celebrated Tatum's birthday who turned 17!



Oh, and the kids went in the jacuzi:)


Pretty soon kids started crashing wherever they could find somewhere soft to rest their heads.
 
It was A LOT of people for a not-huge house, but we cozied in made it work for the night.
 

Next morning we all went to church :) I pretty much love this picture. (Except that there are a few important people missing so it's incomplete.) Love that my g'pa's in it. He was a trooper to let that many people cram into the house for awhile! I also loved hearing him bear his testimony during the meeting. It was easy to see how much his family means to him.
 

Finally, we headed home. Like I said, it was kinda painful to leave all that fun and family. But I'm very grateful we were able to go.
We had fabulous vacations this summer!