We had a great time with the Gazdiks in their California home on Sunday but said goodbye Monday morning to head to the beach!  First, though, we stopped in China town!  We did some shopping and had fantastic Chinese food before heading to our campsite by the beach.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we took our wetsuits, boogie boards, and sand toys and headed to our favorite spot at Salt Creek Beach.  Oh the fun that ensued!

Meg and Mariah even did some running with Dad!

 

Julia and Sanae joined us for a couple hours!

Wednesday night, we went looking for a fun spot to have ice cream and happened on a Ruby's Diner 50's style.  We all had milkshakes and loved it!

On Thursday morning as we put the last of our camping supplies into the van, it started to rain!  Great timing!  How lucky were we to have great weather while we camped!  We did some shopping that morning and had one more farewell glimpse of the ocean before driving to Grandma and Grandpa Elton's house in Las Vegas.

We had a great visit with my family in Las Vegas.  Ben's birthday was on Saturday, so on Friday, we took him to the Lego store.  Grandma got him some Legos and his cousins Liam, Ezra, and Roxabelle all came, too!

We met at Amy's house that night and ate pizza and visited and let the cousins play.  Amy let Cali, Chey, and Beth sleepover so they could spend more time with their cousins.  We all loved spending time together again!  We picked them up Saturday and drove on home!

Since we were in the car for a large part of Ben's birthday, the girls tried to compensate by singing him as many birthday songs as they knew for as long as they possibly could.  It all got pretty hilarious.  They are nothing if not supportive of each other!

Sadly, Kevin B. has been very sick since about our third hour on the road.  We keep waiting for it to get better and each day he continues to cough and hack and look completely miserable.  :(  In spite of it all, he took us each place we wanted to go and suffered through so we could have the vacation we planned.  I wish he could have enjoyed it, too, but I am grateful he gave us this vacation even though it was hard for him.  We love our dad!

Late that Saturday night, we finally managed a party with cake for our big man Ben who turned 6 years old!  We love that kid, too!

Happy Birthday, Ben!