Our California Vacation

We went on our first family vacation!  That is right!  In our 3 and a half years of marriage we have never gone on a family vacation before, although if you ask Ben every summer he takes us to these exotic places {like Oklahoma City} for four months of the year!

I was so excited to go on vacation.  We went to Pismo Beach in California with Ben's family.  It was a blast!  We left Sunday morning for the airport.  Reese was SO excited to go on an airplane.  She had been talking about it for weeks now.  But what she didn't realize was that we also got to ride on a bus!

At first she thought the bus was the airplane, but I explained that this was a bus.  She laughed and then told me how fun the bus was.  I honestly think she enjoyed the bus more than the airplane.

After standing in LOTS of VERY LONG lines we finally made it to our gate right as they were boarding {it is a good thing we left our house 2 hours before our flight took off}.  Reese was so tired of standing in lines that she didn't want to wait for our turn to board the plane.  But we finally made it to our seats.

Reese did really well for the most part.  She really didn't want to sit in her seat {the poor people in front of us}.  Now Benson on the other hand slept the whole entire flight.  He did AWESOME!

We flew into LA and got there about lunch time.  But by the time we got our car and I fed Benson it was about 4:30.  Ben wanted to go to one of his favorite places to eat El Torrito.  Let me tell you it was DELICIOUS!  So glad Ben took us there.

After a VERY yummy dinner we drove 3 hours to get to the beach house in Pismo Beach.  We had a very tired little girl and a very tired baby boy.  But we were all so glad to be there.

Reese woke up the next morning {Monday} at 6 a.m. ready to go and very excited to play with her cousins!  That morning we went grocery shopping for all the food the the next week.  But later on that day we went surfing!

We went and rented surfboards and wetsuits from a shop there in Pismo.  Let me tell you, getting into a wetsuit doesn't make you feel skinny at all.  But I was so glad that I had one on because the water was only 50 something degrees!  It was chilly!

Ben took me out and I attempted to surf.  It is really hard and unfortunately I never got to my feet.  But it was a ton of fun and I was so glad that I had Ben next to me trying to teach me how to surf.

Reese saw the sand and was in heaven!  She has been asking for the last few weeks for sand so she was super duper excited when she saw all the sand!

She has never seen so much sand in all of her life!  She was a little scared of the ocean.  She pointed to it and said it's scary mommy.  I think Monday was one of the coldest days and all of the grand kids were sitting on the beach with grandma and grandpa while we were all surfing.  When I went back to the beach to check on my kids all of the grand kids were crying and miserable.  So Jan was a trooper and took 4 of them home.

Tuesday we went Ocean Kayaking!

I thought surfing was fun but Ocean Kayaking was even more fun!  Grandma and Grandpa stayed and watched the kids again while we all went kayaking.

We had a tour guide and he taught us how to kayak right on the spot.  Ben and I were probably the worst ones but we got the hang of it eventually.  Ben and I were the first ones to tip over our kayak.  Thankfully it was right on the shore so I could still touch the ground.  I did NOT want to tip over in the middle of the ocean.

Our tour guide showed us around and showed us a bunch caves, seals, and sea otters.

We were so close to the seals and the sea otters.

Then we stopped at a little cave and picked up seashells and just gave our arms a break . . .
among other things!

 My arms were seriously burning the whole time and I was definitely grateful for the break.

I was definitely sore the next day but it was so much fun and so fun to spend some time with Ben!

Wednesday we rented some ATV's and we went to the sand dunes to ride.  I couldn't go because my thumbs hurt too bad from kayaking the day before.  

 

Ben had so much fun and rode for the whole 3 hours.  

 

The guys went out first and the girls stayed on the beach with all the kids. 

Reese and I decided to go and look for seashells.  She was excited to play in the water and sand again.  We took her little sand pail and went to look for seashells and take a few pictures by the ocean.

Reese wanted to fill up her bucket with water and muddy sand just like her cousin Trey.

While I was looking at the pictures I had just taken of Reese the waves came and knocked her right over and into the water.  We laughed and Crystal let Reese wear her swimsuit the rest of the day because I was dumb and didn't bring it because I didn't think Reese would get in the water.

I learned my lesson and made sure we brought Reese's swimsuit wherever we went from now on.  

Thursday we went to the outlets and went shopping.  I got 50 dollars from Brad and Jan for my birthday so I bought myself some new running shoes.  Then we went to Moro Bay and saw some tide pools except we stayed in the car to let Reese have a nap and let Benson eat.

Friday we went to the beach again and just played.  Reese and I played on the playground and Reese finally overcame her fear of the slide.  She spent the rest of the time going down the slide over and over and over again.  

These are Reese's cousins.  She had so much fun playing with them and we sure are going to miss these guys.  

We had such a great time in Pismo beach.  I was so glad we got to go and spend the week with our family.  I am definitely going to miss living close to our families, that is one thing that I haven't been looking forward to at all about living in Dallas.  I am so glad we got to spend some time with both of our families before Ben starts school in a few weeks.  

 And I am especially happy that we FINALLY got to go on a family vacation.