To start off the trip, we sat the kids down and had a talk with them about stranger danger and all the other rules for the week.
Auburn was already missing Bryan just hours after we got there!
Ellie & Roxy were dancing in the "condo" as Auburn called it - this was mine & Suzanne's "room" of the first house we stayed in (long, dramatic story) and where we turned our ipods up LOUD!
This is the only picture I took at the Orange Country swap meet - one rule of going there is that we get a churro (among lots of other food) - Noah loved it!
My sisters did the grocery shopping for the week on bikes. The first few days we were there, we weren't going anywhere in the cars! It took us hours to find parks and we decided we'd be taking the bus everywhere for the rest of the week. (How do people live there with that parking situation?) On Monday we moved to a new house and never ever had a parking issue for the rest of the trip. It was "awesome to the max".
The kids loving the ocean...
All 3 little kids in the bath together - that made for the sandiest bathtub ever!
PRECIOUS CARGO... (can you guess what's in the box?)
DONUTS & MILK... mmmmmmmmm!
Classic of Ellie - sitting in her "splits"
Brad (my brother on his mission) is going to love this picture:
Noah was so exhausted every night at dinner time...
Yes, he IS sleeping and stayed in this position forever!
...but he woke up in time to enjoy a tasty dinner at Knott's Berry Farm and take a picture on the chicken outside!
Noah could not be any happier than he was at the beach!
The last day on the beach, we took so many pictures - just in case we hadn't taken enough all week long.
Riggs - my 9 year old nephew
Jaxen - my 7 year old nephew
Aunt Leasy took Noah "surfing" -
...and she pulled the kids around for some fun rides on the boogie boards:
My niece Roxy (2 years old)
Another classic picture in the sand for Noah's Daddy-
I LOVE this picture:
Ellie & Noah are so cute in this one -
Roxy wasn't very happy when we started taking pictures of all the kids...
... so Aunt Suzy pulled out the bribery candy / tic tacs!
Auburn was going crazy trying to get Roxy to smile. It was funny to watch but she didn't think it was very funny.
Finally, the bribes worked and Roxy put on a smile!
BFFs forever.
I made Noah & Ellie do the prom pose that my sisters & I love to do for pictures.
I love my buddy boy!
Alisse, the photographer of the family, took some really cute, clear pictures of the kids.
We watched fireworks from the sand - the beach and the streets of Newport were CRAZY on the 4th of July.
The beach seriously wiped the kids out, every day!
Alisse brought her laptop with us - good thing, so my mom could stare at Brad's picture. So many times she would walk by the computer and say "Hi Brad" in the same tone she would say it when he got home from work before his mission. Every time she said it, it caught me off guard for a split second. Having the laptop was nice for the day I stayed in my pajamas til like 2:00 in the afternoon and blogged! I was too burnt to go out in the sun.
Here we all are right before getting in the cars to head back home. I was depressed. I looked forward to this vacation for so long and I already can't wait for the next one.
Thanks for making this trip possible for all of us mom! I love hanging out with my mom, sisters, Noah, and my nieces & nephews. It was heaven for one whole week!
