California!

So we were fortunate enough to take a family vacation to Southern California the beginning of July. It has been waaaaaaaaayyy too long since we have all gone to the beach together and I was having serious withdrawals. Everyone was able to come except my sister-in-law Courtney who is expecting and my niece Abby. We missed them but they were nice enough to let Andrew and Carson come alone. We stayed in Escondido for a week at the Lawrence Welk Resort and had 4 suites there...hallelujah! That meant plenty of room to stretch out there and not getting woken up super early by Missy's kids...although we still did somewhat because they were in the room above us and Milly did track and field events each morning (at least it sounded like it. :)
So I have couple hundred pictures and it is so hard to narrow them all down...so I am sorry but there are a TON of them here. Here is Ty on the car ride there...he always has his legs all over the place. He did quite well for only napping for about 10 minutes!So of course we spent a few days at the beach...but not nearly what we wanted too. Unfortunately it was record lows for July and was pretty dang cold all week. That meant I only boogie boarded once! and I am still super white because I had to wear so many clothes at the beach! Ty was a little sand crab on the beach and mostly just crawled all over the place.Digging a hole with GabeWiffle ball (that's Em at bat)We were able to meet my good friend Mary Ellen (from Theatre Ballet at BYU) and her cute family for dinner. It was so good to see her after so many years and have her be just exactly the same!
The 4th of July consisted of church
Tennis (I did not bring work-out clothes)Fun at the resort...too bad I don't have the pic of my dad hula hooping (Brandon is the only one who cannot do it) MeEmilyMomBrandon and Andrew
Bar-b-q (almost impossible to get a good picture of all of the kids)And fireworks from Camp Pendleton...now that's what I'm talking about...right over the ocean!We spent a day in Old Town San DiegoCarpenter FamilyDayne and Myhoa (who had to leave on Tuesday :( and were missed)Panning for gold at the Mormon Battalion Museum
Some of the family went to Legoland but we went to Wild Animal Park
Of course there were some cold beach days and more fun at the resort pools, water slides and tennis. We were able to hang out with our friend Sam a few days too before he moves to Chicago. On Friday morning Andrew and Carson left for home and we all checked out of the resort and checked into the Marriott La Jolla for the last weekend. We spent a very freezing day at the beach in La Jolla. Our last day we went to Balboa Park.

Then to the tide pools in La Jolla
and stuck our fingers and toes in all of the sea anemones (Emily and Gabe below)and saw the seals and sea lions (so cute!)
Then we went to Belmont Park at Mission Beach and went on the very old and jerky roller coaster...still so fun! Ty and Milly went on the carousel.

Then went across the street to Luigi's pizza for some small slices of pizza and ate at the park, yum!
It was such a fun trip. We stayed up late every night playing games and then Ty was fabulous and let us sleep in every day. He was exhausted from never getting naps. We ate way too much; as Emily put it we were on a 3000 calorie diet. I even got to read a fabulous book (These Is My Words) which I rarely get to do. The bad thing is now I have to read the 2 sequels! Thanks so much mom and dad for a fabulous vacation...we can't wait for the next one!