It's ben a minute or two since I have been home to be on here an journal my blog, but it was all in good favor, because we were gone on vacation with our family to the BEACH!!!
We left on Thursday the 15th of October and made our first stop in Mesquite to visit my mom. :)
We stayed the night there and enjoyed dinner with her and then headed on to Newport Beach the next morning.
We got to the beach house just in time to dump everything out of the car and head to LAX to pick up Kierra and Easton who would be joining us for the week too! (Except we missed Riley who had to stay in Colorado for testing for dental school.)
We literally sat on the beach and did a bunch of nothing except for talk, play, relax, and dig our toes in the warm sand. It was SO nice!
We even had a little church on the beach, and were even able to join in our Sunday classes thanks to the amazing technology of the day. It is miraculous and I love it.
I am so grateful for any and all opportunities I get to have my family all together. I cherish each of those moments and they are what keep me going everyday. (That and my sweetheart of course. ;)
Easton is such a good little baby and seeing him and loving on him everyday was a delight. Watching him take in everything around him so was fun for me...
Tiffany, Colby, and Xaxton joined us too, and we always have a good time when they come along. I love them so much!
Carew also brought along his girlfriend Kara and it was good to see him so happy with her. I think everyone had a good time.
The sunsets were amazing every night, and the sound of the ocean waves are so calming to me, I can still hear them in my mind. :)
I told my family that these gorgeous sunsets were a gift from Heavenly Father to us every night.
We did take one day away from the beach and went to Down Town Disney.
It was fun to see, but very interesting to say the least.
There is something about the feeling of Disney that makes you feel happy and like a kid again, and that is always fun.
Kesslyn tried on every single kind of Minnie ears that she could find! :)
I loved the cute witch one because it's that time of year, but I think Kesslyn's favorite by far was the unicorn one. ;)
So much fun!!!
We really wanted to go into the candy shop to get caramel apples, so we had to put our name on a list and they would text us when it was our turn to go into the store. Then, we would have to get in line and wait our turn to go in. It was very interesting to see how this world wide pandemic has affected everything and everyone in so many different ways...
My motto in life is to see the good, and if you have eyes to see, you WILL see it! It is definitely all around me, and I am so grateful.
We kind of broke the rules for about 3 seconds when I had everyone pull their mask down so that I could see their faces and their smiles for a photo...
We were done and on our way out when we stopped to take this picture though so I wasn't too worried about the mask thing just for a second...I still think it's important to remember these times, with or without a mask!
I think Easton enjoyed seeing everything around him, hearing all the fun music, and taking it all in. He is such a sweet baby!
But by far, being on the beach was everyone's favorite thing, so that was what we did most of the time.
Gavin and Kesslyn getting ready to body surf!
FUN!!!
FUN!!!
FUN!!!
Playing Lolli is always fun for me too... XOXO
We rented surf boards for the kids to try and that was a fun experience!
FUN!!! Gavin, Dallin, and Xaxton had a blast body surfing the waves too!
FUN!!!
At night, we would play board games, watch a movie, and even tie dyed shirts one night too!
They loved it!
I went running on the beach one morning and got back to find these two sitting on their surf boards shivering so much from the water being so cold! That's one thing that we need to remember for next time is to rent wet suits for surfing! The mornings are always when the waves are the best for surfing, but it's also when it's the chilliest. It would always start out to be overcast in the mornings, and then everything would burn off by the afternoon and be sunny and warm.
FUN!!!
And more FUN!!!
We also played a little beach volleyball which was fun, even though we are not that great. ;)
One night we all headed out to Balboa Island for dinner at Ruby's out on the pier! Everyone wanted to wear their tie dye so that was fun!
What an awesome bunch! :)
Dallin had fun taking photos for his photography class for school, and I couldn't help but snap a few too. He's such a beach dude!
Ruby's Diner is yummy, but mostly because of their shakes! And where else can you eat that far out onto the ocean? Pretty fun. :)
We even took a little ride on a Dufy through the Balboa harbor! It was a fun little adventure with Tiffany and Colby. :)
We had a picnic dinner on the beach our last night there with my favorite food of all time...PIZZA!
It's like no one wanted to admit that our vacation was coming to an end, and none of us wanted to be done out there! It is so beautiful and so great to be there together.
This was also right after we had to take Kierra and Easton back to the airport to fly home. It was fun having them, but hard to see them go...
After our dinner, we got cleaned up and headed back to Balboa where we rented long boards and bikes and enjoyed our last sunset on the boardwalk. I loved every minute of it and wished we would have thought to do that even sooner!
It was Kambriella's first time skate boarding and she did so good!
Carew and Kara rented a tandem bike and looked so cute together out there riding around...
Tiffany and Colby...so fun and sweet. I love them!
Clint and I really were there too, just mostly on the other end of the camera. ;)
Clint rode his bike and listened to the presidential debate all at the same time! It was so fun!!!
And I was the lucky one that got to ride with Kesslyn. :)
She LOVED the bike and said she wants to ride it every night. :)
Me too baby girl! Me too!
Thank you Newport Beach for our amazing family vacation!
We WILL be back!
