Our vacation to the beach

Last week, we went to Newport Beach. Because JaNae and Dallin were on the church history trip and Trevor is on his mission, it was only my parents, Devin and me, and my grandparents (for a few days). My parents bought a Marriott timeshare there about two years ago, but this was the first year that we actually went. We had a lot of fun and it was wonderful to have a vacation; especially since Devin and I haven't had a vacation in a while and I have been working six days each week. We loved it! Here are some pics of the trip....I actually REMEMBERED to take some pictures this time!

Here are my parents playing powerball. We all had tournaments to see how many times we could hit it before it hit the ground.


Here is Devin coming back from boogie boarding. He went out a lot more times than me because I got sick of it after a little while. Plus, we saw dolphins pretty close several times; so, my logic is...if you see dolphins that close, there must be sharks as well. I'm not much of an ocean fan for that very reason....not to mention, I have seen several shark attack shows lately. That doesn't make me feel much better. Devin is a lot more fearless than I am.

And grinning....


I buried him in the sand. :O)


Dev and the parents on the beach outside the timeshare.


All of us at the Newport Beach temple. It was paid for entirely by the people in the Newport Beach area. I think that is cool. It was really beautiful and as always, was very fun to be able to go to a session with the family. I can't wait until all of us can go together! We met some missionaries who are very acquainted with that temple and perfect picture places and they took the pictures. It will be a fun tradition to continue in the future. (We get to go each summer)


We saw a HUGE butterfly on the flowers on the grounds. I am a sap for nature; so, I just had to take it.

We rented a four person bicycle to ride up and down the beach. It was a blast! At one point, three Newport beach residents (pre-teens) jumped on the back of the bike and we dragged them along for a while. My mom saw a pamphlet she wanted; so Devin jumped off to get it and was going to catch up, but then one of the boys jumped into his spot and started peddling really hard to get away! We were all laughing pretty hard; especially because we had NO IDEA who those boys were....and couldn't believe their audacity. It was a fun, leisurely bike ride along a beautiful beachfront!

We went to Disneyland/California Adventure to celebrate my birthday...AND the fact that I had won vs. Devin during March madness. Although we were head-to-head most of the tournament, I pulled out on the Kansas-Memphis game at the VERY LAST SECOND; so he owed me a trip to Disneyland. It is NOT his favorite place in the world. Surely, the fact that we walked for at least 14 hours that day didn't help very much. This particular picture is about halfway through the day. He was a great sport about it; I'm sure that he'll like it even more when we take our own kids someday. He was actually quite fascinated with the firework show and Fantasmic. We are Mickey and Minnie Mouse here. Don't we look like 'em?!

We found Pluto! Man, I wish I had a dog again! Seriously though, I can't tell you how hard it was to ACTUALLY get a picture with this guy! We truly had to force our way in amongst a group of kids whose parents were shoving them in before we could get a chance.

When my mom was little, her parents took a picture of her with the chipmunk. She was NOT a happy camper. We wanted to get a picture of her all grown up and happy with the little guy. Lucky for us, we found him! She did a great job!

This ride is the ferris wheel at California Adventure. It made everyone really motion sick; including my mom and dad. I was just fine, as usual! Normally, my parents don't get motion sick; so considering Devin gets motion sickness very easily, I understand why he had to sit on the bench for about an hour and a half afterward. Luckily, no food came up! :O)

Devin is SO strong! He stopped the spinning ball at Disneyland! Here is his proud face!

At the beginning of the day....not-so-tired faces.

I took a picture of the picture of us on the drop of Splash Mountain. I just think it's funny because my dad is screaming SOOO hard! And it was a REAL scream! lol


Eating at the expensive restaurant Disneyland has to offer!

Pretty parents at the beach!

Pretty us!

This was funny because they were all sitting in a row on the bench in this order. Well, I told them to move and put their arms around each other. This is what they did! We were all laughing pretty hard cuz I really meant for them to sit by their own SPOUSE and put their arms around each other!

Me and the parents~

We love one another!

The grandparents on the beach. They really were much happier than this shows!

My mooter..

This is Devin, Mom and Dad, and Grandpa. They were looking for crabs. (I am on a cliff above them)

Looking even closer for the crab.

And he caught one! It pinched a little, but he managed a little smooch!

He conquered this little crab!

And last of all, us on the beach! We had a blast! Thanks for coming along!