Now that we're in California

School starts tomorrow--I've got to finish all the posts about our summer or I'll never stay caught up to date!

We finally made it to California, after what seemed like a week in the car traveling.  Our wonderful sis-in-law, Auntie M,  got up and made a huge breakfast for us that was super good, and then we all got ourselves ready for a photo shoot!  Auntie M does photography on the side and I asked her if she would take some family pictures for us.  It wasn't necessarily a good time for either of our families.  They were getting ready to go on vacation for two weeks and we only had a few hours before we needed to leave to get to where Hubby was holding the meeting, but she was sweet enough to fit us in.  And she did a fantastic job!  A lot of photographers aren't very good dealing with kids, being able to be clear and precise with what they say so that all ages of kids can understand, but Auntie M was fantastic.  We got a lot of great shots of all of us, just the girls, and Hubby and I by ourselves.  I don't have any of the pictures yet, but when I get them I'm sure I'll be posting them for everyone to see!  Thank you again Auntie M for working us in and getting such awesome shots!

After a quick dinner prepared by Auntie M (yeah, I'm pretty sure I sat around like a slug that day.  My apologies M!) we headed down to Bakersfield to start the meeting.  And that is where we spent the rest of the weekend.  We had dinner and evening services each night and activities during the day.  We got to see friends and family we haven't seen since the last time we were in CA,

One of our nieces

new family members we had never met,

#4 and a second cousin

held a few snakes,

We all held the snake, even #4

and basically had a good time with everyone.

Swim time at the end of the meeting!

I love the meetings we do in CA because we know and love everyone there so it is a time of great fellowship, even if we don't get much sleep!

Sunday night we headed back to Tulare for one night and then got up bright and early Monday morning to head to the coast with Hubby's parents and brother P and his wife and 3 girls. We were looking forward to a time to relax, unwind, stick our toes in the sand, and just spend time together.

We had a bit of a snag when we got to the campgrounds we were staying at because the trailer our family was borrowing from a friend of Hubby's brother wasn't there because another trailer was parked in the spot we were supposed to have.  We got it worked out pretty quickly, but as we were finishing up getting everything set up inside and went back outside we noticed smoke in the air.  A lot of it. Turns out there was a brush fire less than a mile from where we were.  We decided to get out of dodge so we left everything but a few chairs and headed to the beach a few miles away.  Luckily the fire never got any closer to where we were so all the trailers were fine!

Cool classic truck painted the same color as the trailer it pulled

And even though I lived in CA for two years and went to the beach often during that time I had forgotten how easy it is to get burned at the beach.  We were only there for about an hour at 5 in the afternoon so I didn't bother to put sunscreen on any of us and I got burned enough to be miserable the rest of the night.  Luckily no one else burned much so they were OK.  I still love going to the beach, even though it is a ton of work to lug all the equipment to and from the cars!

Everyone put their toes in the water

Tuesday we were joined by brother D, Auntie M, and their kids and we attempted to go to the beach again.  It barely lasted two hours.  I really wanted to spend all day at the beach, but it was 60 degrees outside and the wind would not stop blowing.  We were all pretty miserable.   However, the sun was still shining and having learned my lesson from the day before I made sure we were all covered in sun screen.  Except that this still happened! 

I got sunscreen on almost all of my leg, except that large red spot.  And if you look closely you'll see that there are two large white spots where I apparently put my fingers that had sunscreen on them.  Y'all, those marks have not gone away!  So ridiculous!  Hubby and his brothers and most of the children did get out in the water, but after they got out they didn't want to get back in.  So we packed it up and headed back to the camp.

Then we felt bad that none of the kids had really gotten a chance to be in the water much so we got the bright idea to take them swimming in the pool at the campground.  A pool that was not heated.  And it was still only 70 degrees outside.  It was miserably cold.  The kids of course were having a blast.  Even #4 couldn't be persuaded to get out if everyone else was in the water.  So we stayed long enough to turn everyone's lips blue and then headed back to the trailers to get cleaned up.

This is our Suburban with twelve people riding in it after being in the pool!  The heat of sitting so close actually felt pretty good! 

We went out for dinner that night, we had to have some real fish and chips, and then Hubby's brother D just had to get some chocolate covered bugs for us to eat.  I think the pictures speak for themselves. 

Ants

Nope, she's not a ham

More ants

Worms

Cricket

Whatever was in the box

As long as you don't think about what you're eating...

"I'll eat one if you eat one!"

"It's just chocolate, it's just chocolate..."

I ate one, and like I said, as long as you don't think about what you're eating, it's not too bad.  But when I watch my 2 year old niece eat a cricket and she has a leg hanging out of her mouth, it is kind of hard to forget! 

She loved them

The girls all ate every kind of bug and my Mom ended up eating quite a few as well.  Hubby ate a boxful without even thinking about it.  I ate one cricket.  Go me!

So even though the actual beach was pretty much a bust, Uncle D made sure that the girls will never forget that trip!  It was a very relaxing couple of days with our family that we don't get to spend nearly enough time with!