I love my family and I love that we love to be together! We had a brand new daughter-in-law and son-in-law along for the ride this year. It was fun to have them and get to know them both a little better. We broke them in right away even before we got out of Utah!
We decided to drive late at night ( may or may not have been a good idea) and drive as far as we could then stop and take a rest. We made pretty good time until around . We had just stopped for a bite to eat not too long before. We were in three cars. Craig and I and all the boards and bags. Natalie and Ryan in their car with Zach and Sami. Ryan and Amanda with Jeff and Brad. We were plugging along all safe and snug until I got a call form R2 , "Jen, we hit a deer and the car is totaled." Can I just say that my life flashed before my eyes? The scariest moment in my life, until we caught up and saw Snow White off to the side of the road and Natalie not in the drivers seat, but holding Sami. I thought for sure she was dead. Long story really short because it is too traumatic....we spent a long few hours on the side of the road in Parawon until we could get our breath back and decide what to do.
How we pulled off, with Snow White on a tow truck and ALL of my kids safe with not a scratch on them will always be a tender mercy that I hold dear. Natalie made such amazing decisions and trusted the Spirit as she steered the car in such a way as to not roll.
We headed to Hurricane where graciously Olin lent us his sedan and we continued on to Cali. We made the rest of it without incident including sleeping in a scary parking lot!
First day there was to Laguna Beach. We were sponsoring The Vic for EOS!! The kids enjoyed seeing the pros in action and Natalie and I had fun testing out our photog skills. We meet some really cool contacts and our rider from Brazil... LUCAS in the house!
Ryan's birthday was on the 2nd so after he enjoyed a fun day with his beautiful wife we had a fun dinner and celebrated with him all night... super fun!
We were fortunate to spend most of our time at the condos and did a lot of beach days. We went to Knotts one day and decided we are all grown out of Amusement Parks! Crazy huh? Well, it just isn't as much fun as it used to be. Too many people subject to motion sickness/migraines. And we don't need to pay 60 plus a person to have fun! All we really need is a camera and a blow up dolphin!!!
For the first time we've been making this trip we decided to stay over the July 4th weekend. Holy cow the beach was CROWED! We will have to camp out the night before if we ever do that again. We did however learn the true meaning of high tide.
Fireworks on the beach after it had cleared out was amazing. We were a bit far away, but that made it possible to see a few other towns doing their shows. Fireworks on the ocean is just something that can't be beat, very peaceful and serene, definitely allowed for me to feel the beauty of God's creations and be so very thankful for the country that we live in, to share that with the ones I love is simply a bonus.
All and all we had a blast! We swam, we ate, we cried, we laughed, we played, we slept on the beach, we dug a few moats, we celebrated another year, we celebrated our freedom, we built new bonds, but most importantly we made memories to cherish forever!
Until next year!!!
