A Trip to the Beach

We're home again, home again with tanned bodies, smiling faces, and sand between our toes. Well, that first one may be a bit of an overstatement in my case, but Bran and Hudson sure got brown. Tyler got married last Friday in the San Diego temple so we decided to make a vacation out of it. Not to dramatize, but it was quite possibly one of the best trips ever. I don't usually do the day by day/play by play thing, but I think in this case I shall attempt it.

Wednesday
Brandon went to work for a half day while I had Emily Steffen (visiting from NC), Tess, and Lindsey (plus all their little boys) over for breakfast. We had a fun, crazy time eating pancakes and eggs and roughhousing with five little boys three and under running around like maniacs. It was great to see Emily for the first time in almost a year! Bran got home around 1:30 and we left right away to drive down to Temecula. Hudson did pretty well with the drive and we got to our hotel at midnight. The night was pretty rough since Hudson was not wanting to sleep in his pack n play in the hotel for some reason. We finally got to sleep around 2 am. Blah.

Thursday
We met up with Brandon's family to go the beach in Carlsbad and had a BLAST. Hudson loved everything about the beach. He loved the sand, water, waves, sunshine, and most of all being with so many people who all adore him. And I loved the help with watching him. I also loved that the sand slowed him down a bit so I wasn't constantly having to run after him like I do at the pool. We got home, showered and Hudson and I went to dinner with Bran's parents and little sister while he went to a bachelor party with Tyler and the rest of his brothers and the groomsmen. Hud slept like a rock that night. Yay.

Friday
Drove to San Diego for the wedding. The sealing was lovely and the temple was gorgeous. The bride and groom looked great and we all had fun taking pictures in the sunshine with the cooling ocean breeze. Bran and I took Hudson back to our hotel for a nap after grabbing lunch at Rubios with the family (while the couple took pictures on the beach) and got cupcakes at Sprinkles (to die for). The ring ceremony and reception took place at Brandon's grandparents' house in Temecula. The decorations were adorable. Very wild flower chic, if you will. :) Tyler and NaTaya looked so happy and cute together. We all had a wonderful time eating, listening to hilarious toasts, dancing and laughing. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I'll have to wait to steal some from other people.

Saturday
After a lazy morning, we checked out of the hotel and drove over to grandpa's to chill with everyone until they were ready to leave. We drove to Carlsbad again to spend the afternoon at the beach. Again, it was heavenly. We then drove to San Clemente to stay at Lorrie's friend Julie's house with a quick stop for dinner at Pedro's. Yummy tacos. :)

Sunday
We went to church with Julie's family at the most beautiful church building I've ever seen. A friend from BYU/Provo/The Avenues apartment complex days was there and it was fun to catch up, meet his wife, and introduce him to Hudson. After Hudson's nap we drove to my grandparents' and Auntie Joyce's house in Laguna Niguel. Such a gorgeous house with a beautiful backyard. It was really good to see my grandparents and help out a little with my grandma. Her Alzheimer's has gotten worse in the last months although Joyce said her new medication is helping a lot. I guess she was a lot calmer than she's been in the last few weeks/months. We had the most delicious roast and mashed potato dinner and Hudson had fun playing with Sawyer... Or at least he had fun stealing his cool toys.

 

Monday
The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love the colors, the fireworks, the festivities, the music, and the feelings of gratitude and freedom that shed a glow of excitement on everything around you. It's also Kenna's birthday so a quick shout out to her. Wish we could have been with you and celebrated your big day. Love you!
So after donuts for breakfast and a little shopping in town, we all headed down to a very crowded beach in San Clemente (Julie's husband Mark had gone down early to set up chairs and a canopy to reserve our spot. We were at the beach from 12:30 pm until about 10 pm and it was amazing. We had good food and chairs and shade when we wanted it and plenty of toys for the water. Sam and I had the best time ever riding the waves on inner tubes. Brandon and tanner joined us on mattresses and I think I laughed for an hour straight. My favorite moment was when Sam, who was several feet further out then the rest of us at the moment, got blindsided by a humongous wave. It picked her up and sent her crashing on top of me and my tube. We both came up sputtering and cracking up. We had a blast. Lorrie and Mike went to pick up KFC and brought it back to the beach where we all stuffed ourselves and waiting for the firework show to start down the beach. We could actually see both the San Clemente and Dana Point fireworks and they were both spectacular. Hudson fell asleep before they finished and he was seriously out cold. He didn't wake up at all while I carried him up the beach, through the crowded tunnel and bridge, into the car, buckled into his car seat, got him out of the seat, carried him up to the house past barking little dogs. He had partied hard and was so exhausted.

We left the next morning and got home during a crazy lightening and thunder storm. We also stopped at a huge outlet mall in NV to let Hudson run around spend a little more money at the Banana Republic outlet store. :)

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation and it was hard to realize we had to go back to real life where Brandon goes to work everyday and I don't have an endless supply of help with Hudson. Oh well, it's nice to be back in our home though and get back to routine. Two weddings down, one to go! :)