Day 2 -Beach Day

Today we went to Coronado Beach.  I think Coronado is my favorite place in San Diego.  It's so beautiful there and the beaches are clean with lots of soft sand.  The weather was perfect...in the high 70s...and even the water was tolerable.

As Brayden and I had planned, we built a sandcastle.  At least we tried.  Every time we built a tower, he would step on it.  But it was fun anyway.

Drew came to join us after awhile.  We went to the water to get a bucket full and a wave knocked him down.  After that, he wouldn't have anything to do with the water.

(OK, so this was Jason's castle with the boys.  Mine kept getting stepped on)

Of course, I can't leave out Zach, who was big enough to build his own sand castles.

Brayden and I also took a walk and we wrote his name in the sand.

It's kind of fun having little ones around, especially when your own are too big/cool to build sand castles with mom.

Ethan and Jason played a little catch with the football.

Nikki liked boogie boarding and just playing in the water.

I was able to get the cutest photo of Nikki and Stan.

Our view from the beach:

And of course, the reason we are here.  To celebrate Papa and Nana's 60th wedding anniversary:

After the beach, the little ones headed home for a shower and a nap, while we went for some ice cream.  

Fun was had by all and we were all exhausted and a little pink after being in the sun all day, but it was worth it.

Day 1 - The Adventure Begins

Our first adventure of the summer began today.  We met at my niece's house and all 16 of us caravanned to San Diego to celebrate my Mother and Father In Law's 60th wedding anniversary.   Thankfully, it was pretty uneventful.  I had a fear of a tire blowing out on the drive, as it has the past two times we came here.  Thankfully, no mishaps and we all made it safely to beautiful San Diego.  It's amazing how much faster we arrived not pulling a big fifth wheel behind us.  And our kids are at an age where they put on headphones and we barely hear a peep out of them the whole trip.  I don't know if the other vehicles were are peaceful as ours (I suspect not).

The house we are staying at is gorgeous.  It's in a historical part of Mission Hills.  Yes, all 16 of us are staying in the same house.  We happen to be a pretty close-knit family and get along well.  And this house is big enough so everyone has their own space.  There are 3 bedrooms downstairs and 5 bedrooms upstairs, along with 5 bathrooms.  The backyard has a great play area for the little ones and a nice sitting area for those of us who just want to enjoy the 70 degree weather.  And of course there was enough space for Ethan to play catch.

Tomorrow, it is beach day.  I'm pretty excited.  I love the beach, although it's hard not to compare it to the beaches of Hawaii.  Brayden and I already planned to build a gigantic sand castle together, so hopefully I will be able to post our masterpiece.  

Trying Something New

We are heading out on a couple of road trips this summer and I thought it would be a good idea to try something new...blogging about our adventures.  It will be a good way to share our adventures and pictures with all of our family and friends.  Hopefully I can get the kids to post sometimes because:  1) it would be neat to hear from their point of view and 2) the teacher in me thinks it would be a great opportunity to do some writing over the summer.

I had a really hard time coming up with a title to our new blog.  I asked friends on Facebook, who came up with some great ideas.  But in the end, Stan and Ethan thought Just Dew It would be a good name.  It was Ethan's motto when running for student council and it kind of stuck  (now let's hope when he's in the major's, Nike likes it and gives him a big endorsement deal...and there's also Mountain Dew!  Ha!)  Hopefully I will get the hang of formatting the blog and add all of the cute things that I see in everyone else's.  

Stay tuned as our first trip begins soon, when we head to San Diego to celebrate my Mother and Father In Law's 60th wedding anniversary.