2 Beach days at Mission Beach

 It was hard to leave all the Hansen family!!  We had such a good bonding time with them.  The kids truly enjoy all their cousins.  But at least our vacation wasn't over yet!  We headed south, hoping for warmer weather.  The first day and a half were cloudy, (pictures later in post, they loaded backwards again!!) but then the sun came out!  Here's Katelyn walking on our path to the beach, and Emma taking an afternoon nap while we watched the Olympics!

The kids used their souvenir money to buy matching flip-inside-out soft fuzzy octopuses. They played cutely together with them.

We had a picnic lunch on our rooftop deck one day!

Here was the sunny beach day.  Owen and Emma had fun digging!

SO much boogie boarding!  Here's kate and whit on a wave together.  And Emma loved running back and forth on the beach.

Owen riding a wave, and Katelyn on one.

Eric and Emma doing Emma's favorite thing, jumping over the waves.

Katelyn, Owen and Maris caught one together!

Eric and the 3 older kids, and then Kate and Owen again:

Whitney looking pensive, and Maris and Owen playing.

Little buddies loving the waves.

Eric needed 2 pairs of sunglasses at one point I guess!!

Emma didn't want to try boogie boarding yet, so we spent a lot of time playing together.  One time we found enough tiny shells to spell her name!

Owen and Maris heading out, and Eric and Whitney coming in. This was on our first full day, when it was super cloudy.

Sandcastle building!! Maris made a cake and Katelyn made a whole walled city haha.

Owen had some cool tunnels! 

Whitney played soccer instead!  She looked pretty cool actually.

Emma's creation.  I LOVED her perfect beach hair so much!!! Just curly crazy all the time. And here's Kate again.

Maris learned how to boogie board on this trip!  This was one of her first times out, when Eric would carry her board and help her jump on. 

Kate helping Emma do her favorite thing: and Whitney going out with Maris and Eric.

Owen on his way in, and 3 of them together:

More of Emma and Kate playing, and Maris riding one of her first waves!!

Yay Maris!  She progressed so quickly and spent hours riding waves.  So much fun!

Me and Whit went running on the beach!  We had been doing running club so she was used to running 2-3 miles a couple of times a week.

Cute sisters just chatting looking at the ocean the first night we arrived.

First evening on the beach in San Diego.  It was exciting to have a little warmer water and air, even though it was still cloudy. They can't just look at the waves, they must get in them!!

a little catch going on

Ice cream in Oceanside on the way down to San DIego:

 Family pic on the beach!!

Cute photo op at Belmont on our shopping day:

Picture of the kids on the balcony of our condo!  It was a little on the ghetto side but it fit us all and turned out fine!  And cute Maris with her newfound love, the boogie board. 

We love the beach!!!

San Luis Obispo Fun!

 We got this cute picture of all the grandkids in age order!  In hindsight, we should have done the numbers darker.  You can't see them at all. But my kids are number 1, 3,6, 11,and 16. We had 23 kids at the time of this picture, but 3 more were born in the fall!  It's crazy that Maris is solidly in the older half of the grandkids!

We got a pretty decent picture in this pretty spot by the church too!

And here's Grammy and Grandpa Jamie with all the Grandkids!

And the OG's.  

My mom had made this cool map with numbered spots all around San Luis Obispo, and then she made Marco Polos at each location. With stories from her childhood, teenage years, her and my dad's college years, dating, engagement and early marriage. It was so cool!  This is the house I lived in as a baby, so we took this fun picture of them holding and kissing me haha!

We went to bubblegum Alley with the Horlachers!  It did not disappoint.  The kids were a little grossed out haha!

We had dinner at the church cultural hall, and my kids were amazed at how many people are in our family!  It was like a ward party!!  Then we played some pioneer-type Wallwork family games. Here are the kids waiting for instructions.

The teams! August and February birthdays minus Derek:      then March, April and October birthdays

January and July birthdays:     and May/June birthdays plus Katrina.

Here I am explaining the game- transferring cotton balls with a big spoon, relay-style.  And passing jar rings with your toes.  It turned out fun!

Here's Ryder going for it:

Caleb, Allison, and Natalie!

Look at Donny shift directions!

Raycelan so patiently helped several small children!

Little kids turns!  Check out Emma running!

Okay this was awesome.  3-legged race!  Owen and Ryder, Maris and Evelyn, Hazel and Mallorie, Katelyn and Natalie, WHitney and Caleb,and Melissa and Jonathan.

Whit and Caleb off to an early lead

Little kids in round 2, including Claire and Emma.

So cute!  And Donny and Mei, and Justin and SPencer!

Katelyn made friends with Justin and Spencer!  They thought she was hilarious.

Katrina and Phillip made us delicious quesadillas and we had a talent show- lots of fun jokes, songs and poems and Katelyn performed her comedic monologue from the State Drama competition and the kids were in awe.

It was a fun evening.