Lobster Family, party of seven.

When I saw the weather forecast for Utah this last week, I cried.
I gnashed my teeth, and shook my fist at the sky!!

It was Spring Break for my kids, and all five of them would be home for the entire week.

Mother Nature was sending us snow.
Yep.
SNOW.
In April.

What a weird way to kick me when I am already down...more SNOW.
So we did what any free flight scoring family would do...
We got the "H" outta here.

We went to San Diego.
Where the sun still shines.

The first day was a little chilly, but we still went to the beach.
You know why?

CAUSE WE COULD.
And that night my Dad called and told me that we had made the right decision, cause it was snowing back at home.
You wanna see what we missed?

(I stole this picture off of my cousin Kim's blog, thanks Kim!)
Meanwhile, since snow is for suckers, this is what we were doing:

The boys built some mean sand castles.

The girls modeled the latest in seaweed sarongs.

Sam and I just hung out.
Watching the kids, and talking.
This was our attempt at a photo together.
Sam is mature like that.

That evening, we hooked up with our good friends, the Sadleirs who live in San Diego.
We have been friends with them since before we were married.
We had our kids at about the same time.
They have a daughter who is Jayden's age.
They kinda have a little thang going on.
And how cool would it be if the thang panned out, and we ended up related?
I can see the beauty of arranged marriages...
This is a layout I did three years ago of the two kids.
The bottom right hand photo is from when they were both just toddlers.
Their first kiss...
Awwwwww.

Here they are yesterday:
That slightly awkward, trying so hard to be cool, and NOT act like you like each other.
All the while both sets of parents mocking them.
This is one of the true joys of parenting.
The mocking.

The next day, we got up to spend the day at the beach.
I got up and went to the hotel gym.
Shut-up.
I know!
But I really wanted a guilt-free belgium waffle for breakfast.

We ate, and headed out for the beach.
It was warmer than the day before.
It was cool enough though, that we thought we didn't need sunscreen.
Besides, we were only staying for a couple of hours...

The wind was blowing, and it was slightly overcast.
The sun was really attracted to the pasty white folks.
With no sunscreen.
Not.
Making.
That.
Mistake.
Again.
We are all a beautiful shade of coral.
And one giant leap closer to skin cancer.
I realize that as parents, Sam and I are complete and utter morons.

Once we were nice and crispy, we took a drive down to La Jolla, and saw all the Pelicans?

(Big ugly birds.)
And the Sea Lions.

(Big Ugly Mini-Manatees.)
Then the kids explored the tide pools.
Covered in shirts and jackets.

They saw crabs and poked sticks into sea anemones to watch them close up.
Then we left for home.

The flight was a little painful on scorched backs and bottoms.

Glad to be home!
With Aloe Vera.