San Clemente

Every summer, the Funks go camping on the beach of San Clemente.

Somehow Jimi got some days off during that week, so we flew to Los Angelos and joined them.

This means that they and Grandma/Grandpa Larsen packed and set up all our camping supplies. They did SO much for us! I am not sure how to thank them properly. (Thank you!)

I want to keep the memory of those first few beach hours with the kids permanent in my brain.

We were all so enchanted with the waves. It's such a dynamic, playful thing, that ocean. Very different than the rocky bay we are used to.

Jim jumped in the water while me and the kids played in the surf.

Holding hands, giggling, squealing, looking at our Grandmas in delight as we watch the water shrink back in around our ankles.

Finally a wave crashed Evan under the water, so we took a break in the sand.

Grandma Cook turns 80 next month and she still plays at the beach and camps in a tent.

We love her.

Then we played "bury Jim",

and Evan,

and Avery.

Every morning we come to the light house. 

This is the place the kids can be loud in the morning so that everyone else can sleep.

I love this San Clemente morning ritual, but for some reason the kids this year...did not.

There is always one whining about something while we sat there looking for trains and dolphins.

This day we went down to the pier for the San Clemente Ocean Festival. 

The kids are melting at this point.

It was so hot. 

Eventually we made it back to our camp.

This day was our exact 12 year anniversary.

I told Avery to take a picture of us love birds.

She was so annoyed. "Ok done" after barely waiting for us to set up a pose suck in my gut.

The next day was an all day beach day.

 Eat chips! Nap on the towel! Dig in the sand! Run in the surf!

  Get sunburned! (oops)

Swimming in the water with Jim is my favorite.

Sometimes the waves take you through "the washing machine" and it is intense. I got really scared one time when I really needed to breathe and the water spun be through one more cycle.

Andrew is my only baby who loves the water and waves at this age.

I took him down there and he just giggled and squealed.

There were lots of families in our "group", so naturally the kids played and played like old pals.

This is Valicia.

When the sun went down after dinner, all the kids got glow sticks and ran around the camp ground together.

The next day we went to Dana Point and rented sea kayaks.

I really wasn't expecting to see much wild life, so these sea lions were such a treat!

A baby seal was splashing around putting on a show for us.

I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time. "are you guys seeing this?"

Another San Clemente tradition: pizza at Sonny's.

and we are ice cream addicts.

We played lots of camp games,

and set up a pickle ball court on the road.

One day me and Jim played Morgan and her friend. They were super good, so after getting beat 3 times, we finally rallied and beat them. Woo hoo! It's exciting to beat high schoolers. They are so spry.

You can kind of see the court chalk lines.

Oh, skunks.

They were everywhere once the sun went down. Gross. So gross.

One night we were sitting around the campfire and this guy came up and got a drink. He didn't even care! We were sitting right there!

Another night when the kids were running around playing night games with their glowsticks, Tanner (one of the teenagers) brought Avery back to our camp, holding her hand the whole time. He asked her about her favorite colors and such.

Turns out there was a skunk nearby and it frightened Avery (no duh) so she said she wanted to go back to her camp.

When she was safe with me, she whispered, "It was like Tanner was Kristoff, and I was Anna".

The next morning we got up super early to make our flight back home.

That means we didn't take down our tent. Grandpa Larsen did for us.

I know, it's crazy how much everyone did for us so that we could come camping without any gear of our own.

Jim's family is amazing. We had so much fun.

And, back in our own beds. The best.

(especially after the last night there...we forgot to pump up the air mattress again for the night, so it was all totally saggy. Then Andrew was up all night in and out of saggy bed with me. And the neighbors were talking in Russian til 1:30am, and my unisom would not send me to sleep like it usually does.)

This was our third year.

The other times we came were 2009 and 2010

It is CRAZY to look back and see how we've changed/grown since then.

Time is blowing my mind lately.

Also in 2010 we were sad to say that Jim lost his wedding ring.

Well in 2011, we got a text message from Sharley "Grandma found your ring!"

We freaked out. In our minds, she had found it in the sand after a year of being lost on the beach.

But actually, she had found it in her air pump box.

Still cool.

Barn Swallow

While we were moving in, there was a mama bird sitting in her nest right by our front door.

I thought we were going to scare her away.

Today I noticed some movement up there, so I got out my telephoto lens to zoom in and see what was going on.

Then the mama came and those balls of fluff opened their mouths and squawked!

It was so cool! 

She's been flying all over the yard and fields and pond, bringing food to her babies.

Getting the Hang of a New Place

Even though this new house is only four miles from our old house, there are things we have to get used to.

Like, where to go for family walks - without loading up the car.

This is a great "trail" across the street. A mile will take you to an ocean overlook.

We found a snake in the yard.

Jim heroically caught it and took it to a field across the street.

By "caught" it, I mean he literally picked it up with his fingers.

 I will never ever pick up a snake with my bare hands.

Avery was running round and round the house the day our friends were loading up some stuff in their Uhaul.

She siddled up to me, tugged on my arm, and whispered, "I fell."

She was covered in dirt. It cracked me up.

We have been going to Birch Bay a lot since moving here. It's just down the street now!

I've had to find new running routes. For some reason I get really nostalgic for my old routes. Even though the run this evening was amazing, I miss my old check points. Kind of strange.

You can see Baker behind the tractor. 

Also behind the tractor is some BP oil refinery buildings. They aren't as picturesque, so I covered them up.

Then you eventually meet up with a view of the ocean and islands. With the sunset, I was really ooo-ing and aaah-ing.

BP owns all this land, but it's open to pedestrians. 

I do love the lay out of this house, but there is SO much counter to clean,

and SO much dark wood floor to sweep. 

It's a hard house to keep show room ready.

(also...post haircut...)

(and pre-haircut)

One day Avery and Evan were playing Flynn Rider.

He was tied up for at least 30 minutes. That's one of my favorite games in the world right there.

And on another boring day, both kids were asleep at 3:00 in the afternoon. It was nice.

Oh raspberries!

You little nuggets of summer heaven!

 I love fresh picked berries so much.

Andrew picks and shoves them into his mouth. 

I get such a kick out of watching him eat for some reason.

So pretty.

More Birch Bay. 

The tide came up, the sun was hot, so we got in. 

These kinds of days are my favorite family memories.