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.
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!
seriously.. so many memories..love it
I need your help……Please please can you give me your thoughts on ipods/pads/phones etc. for claire & grace.. whst do they have and what's your rules… thank you !!!!!!!
I love the black & white photo of Elle with her cousins. So pretty!
Can you let us know the beaches you did? And maybe the hotels you were able to stay in? We are always looking for great places in CA to stay and great beaches to hit. I love that first one with the blue umbrellas. Where is that?
Hotels and beach names would really help with our list of places to try. Thanks!
For the past week or two your blog keeps redirecting to Uber. Anyone else having that issue? Hope your site is okay!
Beautiful photos and what great memories. So sad that summer has ended. Boo.
I would like to know what name games you played with the group. Our family is growing and adding more cousins and I am looking for fun activities we can do together. Could you share? Thank you!
You must be excited Max got his mission in Taiwan! Good luck to Max!!
Great to see how all this worked out! So terrific!