Resort Day

After all the driving and exploring of the previous day, we woke up Monday feeling a little lazy

We decided it was a good day to stick around the resort and enjoy our little home for the week

The pools there are gorgeous but we found ourselves usually pretty close the the end by the volleyball net

We made lots of new friends and all of us spent time playing in countless matches

The girls liked it because the cute little pool area with sand a beached entry complete with pirate ship was right next to the volleyball pool

Toward the end of the day we wandered down to the infamous black rock. The boys did their fair share of jumping but we all had a great time just floating around in the waves with  a couple of sea turtles that kept swimming around our legs!

Four days in and our noses and cheeks were a little worse for the wear

not enough to keep us of of the sun and sand all together though

I loved all the time with the kids just enjoying each others company and all the laugher

I loved that Brynne was actually willing to get into the water a bit.  

She has a thing about the lake water being dirty and refuses to go in and the beaches at home are so much cooler so I wasn't sure how she'd deal with the Hawaiian beaches. I should have known no one can really resist them!

We were all happy to have Lindsey join our fun but probably no one was quite as happy about it as Wes <3 p="">

I love my Gare Bear.  He may be a big teenage boy but the kid still come to me daily for good hugs and  loves snapping pics with his mom. His poses my leave a little to be desired, but still I'm feel in the love!

The one thing Brynne begged to do on a daily basis though was hit the shops. Whether it was in town or just at the Whalers Village it didn't matter, that girl loves to shop! I think we wore these guys out by the end of the night.

Not that anyone was complaining though. Jeff made sure all of us purchased a few fun things before the night was through. Good quality family shopping time never made this girl mad!

At Last

Since Spring break I'd been craving a good beach day. I mean a full day with sunshine and relaxing. We got in a quick kinda crazy half day on my moms birthday, and then spent a few days in the wet overcast cold coast a few weeks ago. The latter just left me craving a real beach day even more than before.  Once I found a date that worked for us, nothing was going to keep me away from my beach day.  Not even kids who wouldn't wake up or a husband with a big trial coming up.  We left home bright and early.  My travel companions were not quite as excited as I was.

I was more than pleasantly surprised that when we arrived in Cayucos it was still bright and early.  No marine layer overcast for the morning! It was a beautiful day!

My niece Briannah had come home from the Bohn reunion with us and she was so excited to have a fun day at the beach too.  That girls gorgeous smile was on all week long.  Love her!

We were also joined by lots of friends

The Smiths 

plus Kylie

The Salways

Remingtons

I love this sweet picture I caught of Chris and Jackson!

Soldani's were already there with family but came down and joined us for the day

The McCauley Fam

The Arnolds

The West family

The Patteson family came a little later and left a little earlier and somehow I missed them in all of my picture taking frenzy except for in the shots of the whole big group on the beach.  With all of these fun families there the kids were all in heaven!  There were friends for all the teenagers

all the little ones

And even the almost teenagers had a crew

We took up some serious real estate on the beach!

We played in the waves

the kids and the grown ups

Wes and Briannah did a little exploring

They found lots of little treasures

Eric indulged the littles in a little whiffle ball game

One of the things Brynne loves best about the beach at Cayucos is the swing set right in the sand.  We were excited to see that they had added to that a whole jungle gym out there!

My heart was touched as I walked past and saw Drew taking care of Brynne helping her climb across the rings.

He is such a sweetheart.

The swings aren't just for the little kids though

Briannah brought me back to my childhood when she showed the kids how to do a real dismount from the swings

Garrett gave it a try too

It looked like so much fun 

I was itching to give it a go but chickened out

Brynne cracked me up as she discussed things with Jason

and explained the finer points in life to Brenda and Caleb

As the day wore on families began to pack up and head out but these guys wanted a last bit of fun with the holes that the kids had been working on all day

Kylie and Alli volunteered to get buried

Aaron decided he'd better get in on things to make sure they were completely covered

We had worked up an appetite and were ready for our favorite Cayucos grub at Duckies

There were only four families left with us when we headed over but getting seating for us all was pure luck! The food, especially that garlic bread were the BEST!

The kids all had a blast

It was a perfectly perfect day at the beach

It was the day I'd been wanting all summer long

at last!