Thursday, October 21, 2010

California Trip -- Beach House

At the end of September, we finally went on the trip that we have been anticipating all year...it's gonna take me 3 posts to talk about it all. I'll start with the reason for the trip in the first place.
It was my parent's 40th wedding anniversary this year, so all the kids wanted to plan something really special. We ended up booking a huge beach house for 3 nights. My parents and all 7 kids plus spouses had a fabulous KID-FREE weekend. Yeah, did you get that? Kid-free! That means I actually ate my meals while they were still warm! (Technically, Britt did bring her kids because Shawn couldn't make it, but they are pracitally adults, and Emilie brought a nursing baby, but she is super easy...and not mine) It was glorious.

The place was massive:
Main floor. The bottom floor had a kitchen and living area just as big as this one!

Bottom deck. There were two hot tubs, one on this deck and another on the second deck.


Second deck view.
Third deck view Mom enjoying her 'personal' hot tub. That glass door leads into their bedroom which was awesome and had the best view in the place!

All the fam at our 'semi-formal' dinner at PF Changs. My sister Stacie presented a really great photo book she made of my parents' lives together. We each got our own copy.
The happy couple!
Brittany and I after hittin the waves.
The boys filled their boy-ness quota by building a giant sand castle.

That's me and don't worry...a dolphin. We actually saw a TON of dolphins on our beach and some of them were even jumping over the waves for a while. We all went to a Padres game together! My parents love baseball so this was a perfect way to spend an evening. The Pads won and we had a blast! Here is a video that Aaron took of a classic ball-game moment:





Refer to the previous post for a photo of Aaron and I on the last day of the beach house, which was also our anniversary.


It was so nostalgic for me driving around Oceanside since that's where I lived when Aaron and I met, dated and got engaged. I lived in an apartment half a block from the beach with my sister and went in the water nearly every day. On our way out, Aaron and I drove by our first apartment and I was flooded with memories of our first year together. Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! I hope our next 40 years are as wonderful as yours have been.

3 comments:

tara said...

i am in absolute awe of how totally cool this trip must've been. it is so amazing that you were able to be there (without children...oh blessed event that is in itself). you guys are all so lucky to have each other. amazing.

secondly, that video of the game is great, but the best part is when it panned past brittany's son--the look on his face was totally priceless. gotta love it. happy anniversary to you and your mom and dad! love you guys!

tara said...

ps i totally meant brittany's DAUGHTER of course!! sorry, i was distracted by my son and i wrote the wrong word...i'm semi-an idiot.

Garn said...

I feel honored to have shared in the seventh inning stretch with Tom and the rest of the Harkers. Excellent video work by Aaron I might add.