the 4th

Dave was pleased as punch about that, HA!  But that girl was GOOD in that car for all those hours I tell you!

The kids were pretty delighted to get to have her around…I was a little stressed about the bathroom situation but she did so awesome.

We arrived to California just in time for an early firework show that filled up the sky with magical colors.

And it was on to beautiful scenes of these kids all reunited and joyful for the sea breeze playing with their hair and the cooler temperatures and the giddiness of reuniting after being apart for so long.

One of my favorite parts of the get-away was “church on the beach.”  Rather than overwhelming the local church with all our masses, we had our own little meeting on the beach.  We had each family with a missionary out (five of us) tell a little about what that missionary is doing to stretch and grow, doing the “seemingly impossible” (Dave read the quote from my Grandma back in this post back HERE).  We also talked a little how we can do things that stretch us each day, as we always have God’s help if we will remember to ask.

 The moms:

That first day Lucy wasn’t about to get all sandy on that sandy beach.  She claimed she only liked Bear Lake sand.  And she read a whole book.

But the next day sweet Kiley (great friend), somehow got her all hyped up to go to her own “island” of towels that she made her on the beach.

 Oh man she was happy!

 Lucy even ventured out to hang in the sand for a while.

That Kiley is a miracle-worker I tell you!

New book, new day…

Happened to run into one of my best high school friends and his wife who we love.  They lived in China right before we did so it was so fun to catch up a little bit!

 We soaked in that gorgeous golden hour…

…until suddenly Claire ran out of the water with blood gushing out of her foot.

She had been stung by a sting ray.

And it was really bad.

Dave carried her into our hotel room and soaked it in the tub, and not to be gross, but that tub filled right up with blood.

I honestly don’t know if I’ve seen that much blood before!

Apparently you’re supposed to soak something like that in hot, hot water, and we did, forever.

But eventually we decided Dave better take her to the emergency room to get stitched up.

It was deep.

She got four stitches.

She told me she had just told all the kids earlier that day that she had never had stitches (although she’s had four broken bones).  I guess it was her time!

 Didn’t slow her down on the beach the next day 🙂  (the 4th)

 I like him.

Then it was time to clean up for the traditional firework festivities.