Reunion- More Oceano condo fun and Grandmom and Grandad's house

I found the pictures of the game night. Melissa made this AMAZING Monopoly game, and Karl kindly played it with the loud and wild group of Caleb, Owen, Ryder and Seth, with Grandpa Jamie looking on.

Others enjoyed Dalmuti!!

The later Dalmuti group:

We also had a super fun Adult Game Night at Katrina's condo that they shared with Derek and Raycelan. I didn't get any pictures, but Melissa and Karl had an awesome hilarious blindfolded taste-testing game for us.

Sunday night we had dinner at Grandmom and Grandad's house, it was maybe my favorite part of our whole trip!  Most of my kids hadn't been there, and the big girls didn't remember it. So getting to show them one of my favorite places of my childhood was SO special. My gradnparents were overjoyed to have such a full house- my grandpa was just beaming the whole time. We had a short program of hearing their conversion story and we sang togeher and my Grandad cried, it was so sweet. What a beautiful memory that afternoon will always be for me.

Sadly I was too busy being co-in charge of the dinner with Grandmom to get more pictures!  So grateful Eric snapped these.

 

Hansen Reunion!! Outside at Oceano Beach

 the pictures uploaded backwards and I don't have the patience to change them all....so this post will be backwards!

This was our last morning in Oceano, we had a last-hurrah walk on the beach.  The MacKays had left, but Natalie was staying in Madera for the week so she was still there. and Grammy, Grandpa Jamie, Connor, Jenae and Jonathan enjoyed the walk with us. It was super cold though, but we were kind of used to it by the end of that weekend I guess??

More sand dollars for our collection I guess??

Now rewind to Saturday, our beach day. It was only like 65 degrees and the water was so cold!! So all the kids got in, and the adults tried to stay warm on the sand!

The guys played a bunch of sand volleyball!  And broke the net at one point, then Eric and Phillip spearheaded a macgyver engineering project to fix it with a piece of driftwood and dried seaweed!  It was awesome haha. Raycelan and I joined in on the volleyball for a while too, it was really fun.

Katelyn was cute with the littles- this is Mei.

The kids on the beach

Natalie, Caleb and Whitney boogie boarding

These 3 cuties, Emma, Spencer and Justin,I caught this series of photos as a wave came up and got them, so funny!

You can see Connor on the left here, being the guardian of the kids!  So cute.

Saturday morning before the beach, we were going to hike Bishop's Peak in San Luis, but decided it was too much for the many little kids.  So we did a Pioneer themed singalong at the ampitheater by the beach.  This was everyone walking from my parents' campsite to the theater.  Such a big group!! And it was cool that out condo was only a few minute walk from the campground, and 10 steps from the sand.  And across the street from the MacKays' condo! It turned out PERFECT!!

My early morning beach buddies after my run.

Saturday morning I got re-aquainted with my home-beach, I ran from Oceano up to Pismo on the beach!  It was gorgeous!

This was my ocean!

Friday night we had a fire and singing at my parents' beach campground!  It was so much fun.  We played charades and then sang from a special Hansen songbook my mom made. Love this silly face by Melissa!

Charades time!

Cute cousins singing together.

This was Friday after we arrived- we decided last minute to do the dinner at our condo instead of the campsite. So after the Friday afternoon beach time, everyone came over. Suddenly we were all together for the first time in 18 months, in a smallish space, my kids were in awe of how big our family is!  It was AWESOME!  Here's Eric holding our newest niece at the time, Audrey (Donny and Christine's youngest).

It was Mei's birthday so Grammy had a present for her and ALL the kids crowded around to see!

So many kids, so much fun!!  We ended up having another meal at the condo later too, and a game night. It had a big table and a bar and the couches and more seating out on the big front deck, so it worked great. And our family really loved sharing the place with the Horlachers!  It was great to have some one-on-one time with Melissa and Karl, and get to see their kids outside of just the crazy 25 kids running around.

And we have backtracked finally to Friday afternnoon when we arrived!  Katelyn, Whitney and Natalie ran right out into the waves- and it ended up being the most sun we saw at the beach all weekend. So good thing we made time to enjoy it!

Eric, Kent, Derek and Donny lost no time getting re-acquainted with a game of Spikeball:

So fun to see the friendly competition.  I'm always proud of Eric's athleticism haha.

As you can see, we made great memories at the beach and condo in Oceano!

Madera and Sequoia Cabin and the MacKays!!

 We arrived in Madera right before dark, and got to play in the backyard and enjoy a firepit and smores and star gazing with Grammy and Grandpa Jamie, it was so fun!

Then the next morning we hung out until lunchtime and got to play under the grapevines,

find all of Grammy's toys and have a tea party,

play with the little people!!

and stuff ourselves with grapes to our heart's content!!

It was wonderful to be there.  

That afternoon we headed back up into the mountains to hit our second park- Kings Canyon. The trees were truly spectacular.

This tunnel tree was so cool!! You could walk all the way down it.  People used to camp in it they said!

We spent the night in our cool airbnb cabin, and the next morning met the MacKays in Sequoia National Park.  It was SUCH a joyous meeting!!! We hadn't seen them in almost 2 years. The kids were quick to be besties again. Even Emma and Spencer, who had been toddler/baby when they last saw each other, hit it off quickly!  It was so cute. We had a picnic lunch together and went on a couple of hikes. 

This was at the top of Moro Rock- super cool short hike.  More pics later.

Here was our cute cabin! They had fun games to play.

And this adorable little garden- it was called Emma's garden!

Such a pretty view at sunrise. These are the foothills I camped in as a child and ran in as a teenager!

outside view of the cabin, with a peacock on the left

the cabin with the steep driveway

eating dinner at the cabin

playing pool.  It also had a bunch of hammocks outside to relax in, which we enjoyed until Eric saw a gigantic spider. Like a hand-sized tarantula!  Whitney refused to go outside after that haha!  There were also peacocks on the property, we saw them a couple of times.  And when we were cleaning up to leave, there was a lizard in the kitchen that we couldn't catch!  We let the owners know haha. It really was the perfect place to stay.  So cool. I didn't get a picture of the bedrooms upstairs I guess, but they were cute.

And back to our day in Sequoia- the teenagers chillin together with giant trees as the backdrop!!

We drove through tunnel log and I took pictures of us and the MacKays

and myself with the tunnel in the background. Look at those cute little heads sticking out of the sunroof haha

Some more pics from the Moro rock hike:

Mount Whitney is just behind those mountains Whitney is posing in front of, so we had to get a picture!

me and Allison in front of a slice of a Sequoia! and me and Owen selfie

It really was great to be reunited with cousins! And wonderful to be in those mountains. It smelled BEYOND amazing and I loved sharing that forest of my girls camp and family camp years with my family.

Last pictures of the cabin: the huge porch, and you can see some of the fun chairs in front of it. And sunset from the porch, and you can see the stargazing bed!

The following morning, Friday, we left the cabin and headed down into the valley, across the valley, and over more hills to the coast!!!! Here we are still gorging ourselves on delicious grapes along the way:

Yum yum yum, thanks Dad!!!