Wordless(ful) Wednesdays - Hanging in the LBC!

updated with a super cute donut picture :)

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Long Beach, California at a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. We had a GREAT time at the pool, the beach and the aquarium. But even more importantly, we had SO much fun hanging out with so many cousins, kiddos, all of my mom's brothers and sisters and my grandfather. The hotel we were at had an awesome fenced in patio to eat on, and the kids had a blast running around it at breakfast and dinner every day. It was great for the parents as well, because we could let the kiddos run around without worrying about them while we got to catch up! Dylan and I shared a 2-story suite with the Morris fam. We were a little worried about sleeping when we found out there weren't any doors, but the kiddos all did great!! We already miss everybody so much...in fact at dinner last night, Dylan was asking for our cousin, Juliana!

So cute on the plane ride out!!

We went to the Long Beach aquarium one morning. The aquarium was great and the kids loved getting to pet the sharks and see all the fish!

Here I am in the lorikeet display. This nice woman let me hold some of her bird food and soon I had a million birds on me. The kiddos (and I) were a little freaked out, but it was fun. It reminded me a lot of Zach Venice when he LOVED letting all the birds land on him!

Not the best pic, but my favorite, the tang fish!

We had a great time at the beach both days!! The kiddos loved the "never-ending sandbox". D liked putting his feet in the water, but got a little overwhelmed if he got too deep in the water and the waves pulled him towards the ocean. My cousins Brian and Laura and their 3 kiddos brought along tons of sand toys, and everybody had a great time playing!!

Maggie's first time in the ocean!!!

She loved the sand!! And even decided to try burying her head in it :)

Saturday night, my mom, brother, and cousins Natalie and Laura went grunion hunting. Grunion are these little sardine like fish that over the summer months mate along the coast of California. The girl fish come up with the high tide and bury their eggs in the sand and then the boy fish come up on the next wave and fertilize them. Nobody really eats the grunion, but they are fun to try to catch and release. We went a few years ago and there were a million grunion and Zach loved catching them. Unfortunately, this year the grunion were not as plentiful! We saw a few from a distance and then one up close. I tried to catch it, but realized at the last second that I had my phone and camera in my pocket and I fell trying to avoid them getting wet. Of course, I pretty much ended up soaked anyway! It was a good time and we enjoyed ourselves, even though it was a bit disappointing.

A picture of the elusive (this time) grunion...

On Sunday morning Papa took Dylan and Ella to Krispy Kreme for donuts! As you can see, they love donuts and had a great special outing with papa!!

Beach Day 2 - My cousins on my dad's side and their kiddos (Mike, Liz, Hannah and Lauren) drove up from San Diego to go to the beach with us on Sunday. It was great adding them to the mix and we had a blast once again. My cousin Laura, a marine biologist, taught us how to find sand crabs and the adults had a great time finding them. (except for my brother, who for some reason could not find one!)

Everybody decided it was a good idea to bury me and turn me into a mermaid :)

Hanging with the San Diego cousins. And a very impressive picture of 5 kiddos all looking at the camera!

D slept on an air mattress at the foot of my bed. He did a great job! On Sunday night when I came home, I had a momentary panic attack because I couldn't see him. (Andrea and Morris were in the room, so I knew it couldn't be anything too bad, but it scared me.) Finally, my eyes adjusted to the light and I saw him completely under the bed except for his head! I had to actually pick up the air mattress to get him out :)

All the great grandkids (that made the trip to CA) on the breakfast patio!

D crashed on the plane ride home! It was extra nice, because I got some sleep as well!

Happy 4th of July!!!