Trip to CA/Part 2: Morro Bay AKA The Great Beach House Debacle

We left Bakersfield in the morning of Gillian's Birthday and headed straight to the coast! Morro Bay, CA.  It was only a 2 hour drive but the kids were beyond anxious to get there and see their cousins that they hadn't seen in years.   We finally arrived at the house we were staying at, which was owned by my brother's friend.  It was an amazing house with a gorgeous view of the beach and Morro Rock and the entire little town of Morro Bay.  It was quite spacious and really nice.  We were so excited.  We quickly unloaded our stuff and drove a few miles over to our family-owned Beach House to see everyone.    It was instant madness...squealing, laughing, hugging, etc and I loved it!  The 2 families staying there got all unpacked and settled in and the women instantly left for the grocery store as it was almost dinnertime and we had NO food!  At the checkout line I got a call from Don and he says, "We have a little bit of a problem over here".  I honestly couldn't think of one thing he could be talking about.  He went on to explain that his cousins two families had just pulled up from UT and they seemed to think it was THEIR turn to stay at the family Beach house.

Oooooh Nooooo!!

Don seemed completely calm, cool, and collected.  He told me that everyone (meaning 2 big families) was moving over to the place we were staying so just to take the groceries over there.  Thank goodness we had that place or I don't know what everyone would have done!  I hung up with Don and told my two sisters in law what had happened.  One of them instantly burst into tears and I don't blame her.  She had just pulled in from a looong drive with 5 kids from Nebraska and had already unpacked and was all settled, ready to stay there for the full 2 weeks, and now she was homeless!   Well, to make a long story short, everyone packed into our place and it was wild and crazy fun amidst trying to find another beach house to stay in. We had to be out of that place after only 4 days so we all packed up and moved to Don's sisters house 30 minutes away, while we searched and searched for another beach house to finish off the vacation.  It was a lot of packing and unpacking, but we didn't mind because we were ALL together and it was really a non-stop party!  The kids were great with their cousins and we loved our adult time as well.
Here we are celebrating Gillian and Bradley's birthdays on the first day of arrival.

Aunt Melissa was so awesome to spend her day making these fabulous cakes since we had all been traveling all day.  

Happy 13th Birthday, Gilli Bean!  Another teenager in the house.   

Aren't these cakes awesome?  Yes, that is a cake even though it looks like logs on a fire!

Standing room only.  :)

We spent the better part of each day at the beach.  Exactly my kind of vacation.  It was amazing.  I love and miss the beach so much so it was so therapeutic for me to just sit and watch and listen to the waves rolling and crashing.  It was a little colder than the beach where I grew up, but I didn't care.  It was perfect to be surrounded by family and away from 108 degrees back home in Texas!  

The kids had so much fun reconnecting with their long lost cousins and thoroughly enjoyed the long, warm summer days with nothing to do but sit on the beach.  Rough life.  

I married into the best family.  I could hang out with these girls all day, every day.  They make me laugh so hard and have this way of boosting my self-esteem whenever I'm around them.  We were sad to be missing two of the women as well as Don's mom.  :( 

The boys loved their "guy time".  I think they played golf ten times, I lost count.  They deserve it, though.  They are good hard workers and good husbands.  Steve is so good he even takes care of the pregnancy's for his wife.

We spent one morning exploring the tide pools at Avila Beach.  It was so beautiful and the kids found some really cool creatures.  

Ben found this huge crab and then proceeded to attach it to his mother's earring.  It made us all crack up so hard!  It's a good look for you, Stacy.  

Here we are (most of us) packed into Reece and Melissa's house.  They were so willing to allow our crowd to completely overtake their home for a few days and we were all spoiled with Melissa's amazing cooking.  

We spent a gorgeous afternoon visiting Montana de Oro--a required destination for any trip to Morro Bay.  It is the most beautiful place and so serene and peaceful.  

The big kids took off right away to climb and explore.

The girls tasting Bel Frites, the most amazing french fries ever! 

We hit the San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market/Street Fair, the Cayucos candy counter, walked on the Pier and just had the best time with everyone.  And that brings the 2nd leg of our trip to CA to a close and we were sad to leave!  We love Morro Bay and we miss our family!!