A Day at the Beach

This weekend we packed up our minivan and headed to Port Aransas for our very first Texas beach trip.  I will say that my expectations were relatively low.  The thought of driving 3+ hours to get to a beach sounded like a lot of work after living just 10 minutes from the beach for most of my life.  That's why it took us so long to commit to doing a Texas beach trip.  Six years to be exact.  Port Aransas was not as easy on the eyes as California beaches, but I was pleasantly surprised at how family friendly this beach was.  The sand was very fine, which translates to softer to the touch, cooler on the feet, and more packed and easier to walk on.  The water was ridiculously warm and had a shallow shore that my children could walk out into for several yards before getting in too deep.  We had a great time playing in the sun and sand with our friends, Benedicts and Landreths.  

A Little Getaway

Matt and I had the luxury to get away for four days without the kiddos.  Our destination was San Diego, California.  We felt that it was necessary to have some time alone before we welcome another little one into our family. Our California visit was nostalgic, relazing, and absolutely necessary.  There is nothing like getting away for a time and leaving the laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, and church responsibilities behind.  San Diego was a perfect destination.  We have always wanted to explore the city and with a hotel right downtown in the Gaslamp District we had the perfect opportunity to do just that.  Everything we needed was right within walking distance, including great places to dine, shop, and watch movies.  Balboa Park, La Jolla, and Old Town was just a short drive away.  We also had time to visit Matt's cousin, Marisa, in Pasadena and my Aunt and Uncle, Rudy and Pattie, in Fallbrook.   It was a nice little getaway.

Can't visit Cali without hitting up In-n-Out.  We seemed to luck out with handicap rooms and table for this trip.

 Car shopping in La Jolla.  Matt found his dream car

The view from my aunt and uncle's home

Just Like Old Times

We had the pleasure of having our good friends, the Spicers, in town for 5 days over the weekend.  They are the rare kind of friends (although I will say that we are blessed to have a couple "Spicer" families in our lives) that everyone needs to have.  We could literally go without seeing each other for a year, reunite, and nothing changes.  Being around them is easy and fun.  No drama.  No judgments. No expectations.  No work involved whatsoever.  Just plain fun!  The Spicers just finished 3 years of podiatry school in Philadelphia and are now onto new adventures as they travel to Phoenix, AZ for residency.  Phoenix is still further than we'd like them to be but I think we are all hopeful that they will return to Texas for a job after residency.  For now we will just have to take our occasional visits and soak up as much Spicer time as we can.

This trip involved the following activities: Landa Park, golfing for the guys, the pool, the zoo, a little shopping for the girls, homemade fried ice cream, Blue Bell Italian Cream Cake ice cream, a stint of food poisoning (apparently no meat should be consumed even 1 day after expiration, lesson learned), South Riverwalk food trucks, Safe Haven movie, painting nails, lots of hang time, and nonstop playing for the kids. I've never seen Rylan play so well with anyone for an extended period of time.  Bentley, Tatum, and Rylan had a blast together.  Oh and Jennie even got a job while she was here. She mentioned that she wanted to get a part time gig now that both her kids will be in school. I threw out the idea that she should sell hardwood floors in Arizona and she was all for it.  We mentioned it to Matt and Damon and they were on board and excited for the potential to grow the Arizona market.  So, she met with Damon for a quick training and overview of the business, bought some shirts for embroidery, and is on her way to getting started when she gets to Arizona.  I'm excited to see what she can do!