Beach bumming in December

We made a trek out to California 2 days after Christmas for my BIL's wedding in L.A. & San Louis Obispo. My one request is that we visit the beach. I didn't care if it was overcast, raining, snowing, hailing, storming, tsunami (well, that one I would make an exception for). I was determined to go to the beach. Growing up, we would go to my Grandparents beach house on the Oregon coast in the summer. We learned to wear layers, my most common attire was a swimsuit with a sweatshirt over it. I have such great memories running down the beach, rolling around in the sand, then running back into the ocean to wash off. All the while we were pretending to be on motorcycles.

We went to Morro Beach, for anyone who is familiar with the area.

Since it was December, the local K-mart (the only store around) didn't have beach shovels and buckets. We got creative and bought the kids Tupperware containers for buckets and serving spoons for shovels, which worked great!

We were having a great time until Mason got a bit of sand on his foot. It was pretty devastating for him.

Then Reece decided to get his feet wet and was surprised by the pain caused by salt water in a fresh scrape. Boy, this trip to the beach wasn't turning out as dreamy as I had anticipated.

I decided I needed to show them what the beach was all about and got a sandcastle going. The kids began to shed their sweatshirts and jeans. Maya was the first to get down to just a swimsuit, that's my girl!!! Luckily, Michael is scared of my camera, so there are no pictures of me.

It wasn't long after that they got more adventurous, and started venturing into the water.

Mason wasn't quite as adventurous as Reece and Maya

Eventually all 3 of them were down to their bathing suits.

It ended up being everything I had hoped for that day at the beach!

Quick Flight to L.A.

I was asked to fly to L.A. to photograph a family before their wedding anniversary party. I flew out at 10am from Salt Lake, shot for a couple of hours, and flew home on a 4pm flight. I got into L.A. , and saw the groups of people walking to the beach, and drove past Venice Beach (my favorite beach), I wished I had a couple more hours there in L.A. No, I wish I had a whole week there with my kids and hubby. Next summer, no Disneyland or Sea World for us, give me a week at the beach!

The family I took the pictures for had been married 70 years. They built the house they lived in probably 60 years ago, most of the other homes around them have been torn down and replaced with large mansions. Chris O' Donnell lives right across the street from them. I attached a picture of him in case you don't know who it is.

I wish I had my camera out during the car ride, but I didn't. So, I got it out for the plane ride. Here are a few shots from the plane.