Reunion in the Sand

The last weekend in July we spent at Manresa Beach at was was supposed to be a reunion for all of my dad's side of the family.

As it turned out we had one grandma, one aunt, one uncle, one cousin, and 4 of my cousins kids from the his entire side of the family that were able to make it.  

Since our numbers were pretty low and we had no reunion with my moms side of the family, Debbie, Melissa and Sequoia joined us.

We were all so excited that Tara and Jason and their family were able to come at the last minute too

The weather was cold. Really cold. And wet. 

We sat down at the beach and hoped, prayed and waited for the sun to come out all day long.

The boys got tired of waiting for warm and decided to just get in that freezing cold water and play

The little ones were mostly happy to just dig around in the sand

Paige on the other hand didn't want that sand to even touch her toes.  At one point she even climbed into a giant duffel bag Tara had brought down and then scooted herself the 5 feet over to where Tara was so that she wouldn't have to walk on the sand!

But of course once Jason got down there she decided maybe the stuff wasn't so bad after all.

By the end of day two we were all freezing cold and ready to get out of there and go just about anywhere.

Wes peeked out at us through his hood

Brynne wrapped up in a blanket, on a blanket, in a tent, out of the wind

But not until after she talked aunt Debbie into going on a walk in search of shells

It was so cute watching them together

They found lots of little treasures out there

The boys braved the cold for  a bit and got in some boogie boarding

Tyler was so excited to be at the ocean

The girls only got in up to their knees but had a blast splashing around

When we gave up on the beach the boys explored the area around our campsite

While in camp everyone mostly stayed close to the fire pit.

Shelby found somewhere dry to hunker down near one of the groupings of trees that the little girls decided was their club house.  The branches were low enough to provide a great network of climbing branches and hours of entertainment.

One night we ditched camp and headed ten miles up the road to Santa Cruz. I'm not gonna lie, it was a bit maddening to see that just a few short miles away the sun was shining and the air was dry.

Carter and his friend Natalie came up to play with us at The Boardwalk.

We rode the rides that make your stomach drop right out from underneath you

And then moved on to scaring me to death.  I commandeered one of the boys blow up hammers while we walked through because for some reason it made me feel a little safer, don't judge me!

The boys filled up on GIGANTIC food.  C'mon have you ever seen a footlong corn dog?!

Or a doughnut bigger than your face?!

The pitching game there and the winners hats have become a tradition with us.  Carter scored this rasta toucan beanie complete with dreadlocks. All business.

It was fun to have Tyler and Emily there and to see how excited they were about all the fun.

Brynne and I rode a little coaster and she kept her hands in the air the whole time

She was most excited though to have more time with her cousin Emily.  Just 6 days apart and such distinct little personalities they are a crack up together!

Mom was happy to go on kiddie rides with these two while we went on a few rides for us big kids.

I got to go spin on a hang glider with these two clowns 

I had this awesome view from the Zipper 

Upon which I had the pleasure of being tortured by Garrett for the entire ride, little turd!

 We took the requisite group picture at the sign before leaving but nobody was quite ready to get back to our cold wet camp.

So we headed to the only place still open that we knew we could seat our group of 20.

Denny's always accommodates, has unlimited hot chocolate refills and fantastic people watching.

However it's quite possible our group was the one the the other people were watching

Not just because Jeff was in rare form,

but because all of the kids we brought with us fell asleep at the table while we were procrastinating the nights end!

So the reunion was cold and wet and didn't have a huge turnout to begin with, but I had a great time with my family and I got a cute new sweatshirt, so I guess it all worked out in the end!