California 2009

I think this was my 5th (or maybe 6th) annual beach trip with the Proffitts. Though Clark's family has been coming for years and years. How my in-laws managed to take 11 kids camping for a week every year, is beyond me. But I'm sure glad they started such a fun tradition. This year we had 14 adults and 30 kids (or so I've heard). Each year, we stay at the KOA in various motor homes, tent trailers and tents in sites right next to each other. I wish I had taken more pictures at the campground because I love spending time at the KOA almost as much as sitting on the beach. We eat our meals together, sit around a campfire together and let our kids run wild together. It's heaven.

Here you see our sites... at 6 in the morning. Yes, my boys didn't want to miss anything so they decided that waking up at the crack of dawn all week would be a great idea.

So we took lots of early morning walks. And I made Booker push the stroller the whole way because I was too darn tired. That lady in the background probably thinks I'm cruel. At least I got to see some awesome sunrises.

Each morning, we wake up, make lunches and head to the beach. Because our family is one of the smallest (and because we had already been awake for HOURS), Clark and I were usually the first at the beach- which meant we had the responsibility of securing prime beach real estate for everyone else. We had to tell a nice Eastern European family to quit encroaching on our territory which made me feel awful.

But it was necessary- see, we take up a TON of room. And this year, the beach seemed to be more crowded than usual. Luckily, we only lost one child the entire week (is that right?). Of course, it was mine. Booker wasn't even lost that long and thankfully, he's the type of kid to sit down with a sad look on his face and wait for someone to find him. I feel much worse about losing Greg's flipper than I do about losing Booker. I'm so sorry about your flipper, Greg!

We took lots of walks on the pier where the sights AND the smells were intriguing- think homeless people fishing for their lunches...

And lots of trips to the ice cream store. Teichert loved being carted around in his backpack, complete with sunshade.

He wasn't as thrilled to take a nap each day. This tent-within-a-tent setup made sure he couldn't escape, but it also made for a very hot nap.

This kid ate sand by the fistful.

This guy didn't eat sand but he fell down...a lot. So he was constantly covered in sand, which made reapplying sunscreen somewhat difficult.

And he spent a lot of time thinking about boogie-boarding.

But never did. Maybe next year. In fact, I don't think he fully got in the water once.

Teichert, on the other hand, loved the water.

Booker just preferred to play with his cousins. Or in this case, fight with them. This picture cracks me up. I noticed that Booker and Dax were missing and when I asked Clark to go look for them, he found them in this hole... locked in a death grip. Who knows what the started the fight, it clearly wasn't going anywhere.

I love this shot of my nieces and nephews.

And this one of Brenley, Booker and Trigg.

And here are a ton of photos. Like I mentioned before, I lost a bunch. And that included one of my brother-in-law Dan that I promised would make the blog- will an honorable mention cut it? I'm so disappointed, but at least I have some photos to remind me all tremendous fun we had. Can I start a countdown until next year's trip?