California Vacation

For fall break we joined the Rowley clan in California for a reunion. Frank and Elaine were kind enough to pay for a beach house for all of us to stay in.

For the most part, we hung out at the house and on the beach. It was quite the relaxing vacation!

One morning we were walking down to the beach and it turned out to be high tide. The waves were rolling clear up to the cliff's edge at the stairs we took down to the beach. So we hiked a ways down the beach to a larger beach area. Mabel and Gray were completely traumatized by this. They were sure the waves were going to take us out. They screamed the ENTIRE time.
Here's Mabel when we reached our destination:

None too happy.


Gray and I built a merman:

Mabel and I built a sand castle:

The weather was PERFECT the first two days. I actually braved the chilly waters! I tried to boogie board. It didn't go well.

I think I'd just gotten overrun by a wave when this picture was taken. I haven't boogie boarded since I was a teenager. It was a lot of fun even though I totally stunk at it!

Aiden braved a few waves:

Bret boogie boarded as well. He may have been better at it than I was.

All the cousins built a giant sand city.

Here's the view from the balcony of our beach house.

We went to the Mormon Batallion Museum. It was really good!

The kids panned for gold.

Mabel quickly got tired of it and found some stick horses to tool around on.

Aiden and Jackson (I can finally tell Chad's twins apart! Now, to work on Cade's twins!) were selected to show us what the gear looked like back in the day.

Since Frank and Elaine were on their mission over Easter, we held a late Easter egg hunt. Sadly, none of the Bret Rowley family found any of the golden eggs :(

Here's Grandma Yellow with the older grandkids.

Mabel isn't entirely aware of the need for speed in this hunt!

Gray with his winnings.

The fam.

All of the grandkids.

The WHOLE fam damily: