California 2010

It's hard to explain why I like this vacation so much. By all accounts, it shouldn't make sense. Camping? With your in-laws? Public showers? 30+ kids running around at all hours? Air mattresses? These things should not add up to an incredible vacation.

But they do.

Why?

Because I love Clark's family. So stinkin' much. And our annual beach trip makes it possible for us to eat, sleep, play and roast Starbursts together around the clock for a week straight. I love every minute. Not true. I hate the minutes early in the morning when I have to share a tent with my boys after they wake up. But Clark usually deals with them and those minutes were few and far between for me. It turns out, I can fall back asleep just fine on an air mattress.

Speaking of tents... here's our Vacation Lodge. One thing I love about camping is setting up your site. I love creating a space to live out of nothing, complete with carpets, fans and laundry hampers. I take my tent very seriously. Just ask the girls from Girls' Camp last year.

I wish I had taken more photos back at the campground. Bocci ball is not as boring as I once thought. Quite fun actually.

There's not much to this vacation... it's all about the beach.

Not much has changed since last year, although this year Booker finally decided to venture into the water. It took two days but he finally got over his fear of the ocean.

As usual, Greg and Dave built an awesome tunnel system. This one eventually had two tunnels.

Ike learned pretty fast that even though we were at the beach, he still had to take a nap. He was pretty good about going down.

My little snuggle bear. I loved it.

Sometimes it took him a really long time to wake up.

We took walks on the pier and made lots of trips to the ice cream store.

But mostly, our focus was on the water...

And on the sand.

And hanging out with cousins, naturally.

Lots of cousins.

Booker had so much fun that at one point he came up and informed me "that all the fun was making his tummy hurt." I'm surprised that he only got one migraine the entire week. He recognized it right away and came over to lie down under the shade.

Ike offered up his blankie to make it better.

For the past couple of years, Clark's grandma (who lives in Escondido) comes and joins us for an afternoon. Here's a picture of Booker with his great grandma, Grammy and his Grandma (Clark's mom).

This year I was able to read 5 books without my two kids getting lost, kidnapped by guys with white power tattoos or swept out into the ocean. I consider this to be a great success. The countdown until next year has officially started.

More photos here.