one last summer hurrah

 These cousins really like each other and I love watching all of them interact so much.

(Argentina, Chili and Brazil).  Makes me so happy to know that family time doesn’t end after the mission.  Ha!  They are such great kids.

 Us parents sure like to catch up as well.

 Love them.

 These three were cracking me up with their “freeze” game.

They call themselves “The Three Amigos” (I know because I get all their group texts on my phone since Claire seems to think my phone is hers…)

Grace has some pretty great cousin buddies too (not sure where Cambry was for that last pic. though…)

You never know what kind of mood Lucy will be in at the beach.  Sometimes she doesn’t want to touch it with a ten-foot pole, and other times it’s like she’s trying to “become one” with it.

Meals were a little crazy with that crowd but thanks to my friend who grew up in the area’s recommendation, we found a pretty great place for breakfast (“Stacks”) that we had to go to twice.

For dinner one of the nights we cruised around Laguna to find a great spot…

 …and ended up finding the beach…

…where we watched the sun go down while eating take-out pizza.

Here’s Elle’s “group” of girls her age…missing one who lives in Utah (missed you McKenna!!)

 …and darker…

 …and more beautiful by the minute.

 …While the girls enjoyed the beach.

It was another one of Lucy’s “at one” days with the sand.

These guys figured out some great ways to catch sand crabs and were at it for hours.

Greatest little taco shop right across the street from our hotel: 

Dave and I got to go out of a few walks to get the lay of the land and the parents got to sneak away to try out some dessert places too, which is always a good thing.

Lucy, true to form, got pretty into her art.  I had brought her the children’s story book my parents published in conjunction with Joy School way back when.  She was especially interested in the story that I illustrated way back when I was thirteen-years-old.

Interested enough that she copied a few of the pictures:

…although way better than I drew them in the first place (at least in my completely unbiased mother’s opinion 🙂

Love that little reader.

At night we had some pretty fun games going on.

We have two different “name games” we play…this one doesn’t look overly exciting from those faces, but we love it.

 Some gymnastics were performed…

 Waves were chased…

And discussions were had.

Oh take me back!

The last morning Dave and I took a little morning bike ride…

Dave gave in to Max’s constant requests to rent surfboards and although the waves out there weren’t fabulous, those boys were pretty happy out there.

With sad farewells…to cousins and to summer…we bid goodbye and headed back to start real life once again back in the desert.

Thanks guys for such a great trip!  We love you!