To California! Day 1

My parents celebrated their 50th anniversary (!!!) on July 18,

so they decided to celebrate in a big way.  They rented a house on the beach

in Oceanside, California, and we all went to celebrate with them!

Here's where we stayed!

"We" includes my parents (Tom & Dory), my brother and his wife (Mark & Jillian),

my precious nieces (Cora & Esme), Greg, and me!

 We actually like each other and have fun together.

Greg and I drove from Arizona to California (around six hours in the car).

I planned lots of food in advance.

This is a veggie pasta conglomeration with an apple 

that I had at McDonald's while Greg was eating McDonald's food.

A man sitting next to us saw us pray before our meal.

While I was taking a phone call (about 1:1 team stuff),

he told Greg that we reminded him of him and his wife, that he missed her because he was driving a truck across the country, and that he would like to treat us to lunch that day. 

Awwww!  Thank you, sir!  I hope you're back at home with your beloved wife!

Everyone else flew.

We met them at a cute little yellow house on the beach.

Here's the back (from the beach side).

As soon as we walked through the front door, we could see and hear the OCEAN.

This was right outside the back of the house.  There were incredible views.

It wasn't too long before we were at the beach, getting in the water!

Getting down this steepness was a little tricky with a hurt ankle, but I did it!
(We found an easier way later.)

Even Greg got his feet in the sand!

And in the waves!

Cora & Esme got their baths and then read books with Grandpa.
I brought the books!

Some of us got pizza, and I had some of the pasta & veggies I brought from home.

Brown rice pasta

eggplant

red bell pepper

carrots

corn

mushrooms

onion 

I co-opted a full drawer and one corner of counter space.
Sorry this photo is blurry, but you can get the idea.

Here's the cute kitchen!

I bought special M&Ms from their website that said 

"Tom&Dory

50 years"

on each one!

They were a special treat.

We ran to Wal-Mart after dinner to pick up supplies for the next day.

And here's what I wore!

This was on the drive:

skirt: Rekucci (Amazon)
camisole: Kohl's (about 10 years ago!)
blouse: Ross
purse: Amazon
hair bow: J Crew

I changed later because I got quite wet from the beautiful waves.

t-shirt: Bold Banana (Amazon)
pants: Target
hair bow: J Crew

Tune in for more vacation fun soon!