California Trip: Part 1

We were lucky enough this year to have a fabulous trip to California this year that was generously sponsored by my parents. They paid for a large portion of it and rented a beach house for all of us--my siblings and the grandkids--to stay in. It turned out to be a truly DREAM vacation thanks to my wonderful parents! (Thanks again Mom and Dad!) On the way down we stayed in a simple motel in St. George and celebrated my sister Emily's birthday (Happy 19th sis!).We got to the beach house late Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a little relaxation after the long 12+ hour drive. We also picked up my brother Nate and his family (wife: Allison, kids: Owen and Olivia) from the airport since they flew in from Atlanta.On Sunday we went to one of the local Newport wards and then couldn't resist a visit to the famous Newport Beach that was only two blocks away. We didn't swim because it was Sunday, but that didn't stop the kids from having a blast playing in the surf.Owen in about four months younger than Gavin, but because of language barriers and oldest child attitude (?) Owen had more fun playing with Emma.Josiah didn't seem to mind the beach at first, but at later visits, we discovered he didn't really like it--too much wind and noise and not much fun for one so little. This is the only picture we have of him smiling while at the beach (and that's only a partial smile).That night we visited the Newport Temple which is pretty new and very beautiful. Unfortunately it was too dark to get people and the temple pictured together.
We had so many activities that we did during our week stay in California that I need to seperate this post into several sections--I hope you enjoy! (We sure did!)