san diego-day 7

One thing I have loved about this trip is all the sweet moments with cousins.  We don't see each other very often, so every little moment just felt special.  Like when these two had breakfast together at the little cafe table...

Or when they were all playing a game of chess together before we headed to the beach.  (Grace fell in love with Brooke's hat, so we were wishing we bought her one from the street vendor as well!)

We spent our last full day together at Cardiff Beach.  Kevin really wanted to try to surf, and supposedly this was a good beach for that :) I was mostly excited about all the beautiful rocks, so I made everyone take pictures before we slathered on the sunscreen. 

Madi and Ellie

Owen, being silly :)

Me, Dad, and Mom

Dad, Mom, and Jeffrey

The original 5 :) 

Jeffrey was always teasing Brooke and she LOVED it :)

The Griffiths

I don't talk to Kimberly as often as I would like, and I definitely don't talk to Madi very often, so it was really nice to have the week together. 

There was a lot of seaweed washed up on the shore, and several conservationists were combing the beach looking for evidence of animal life.  They found this huge shell, which they said belonged to a lobster that had outgrown it. We found several other empty shells, which was super interesting since I didn't realize that lobsters move on to a different shell as they grow. 

We had a blast playing baseball until Brooke hit a homer and the ball was lost among the rocks!  I had a video of her amazing hit, so we knew the general area where it should be, but those rocks were stacked high and we had no way of reaching deep down to find the ball. 

So, we moved on to kite flying and sand castle building.  The kids didn't play in the water much because the riptide and undertow were super strong, and at one point, the lifeguard said that the kids couldn't be in the water at all. 

But that didn't keep the dads out of the water! It made me super nervous because they were really far out there, but thankfully they were all okay.  They each caught a few waves, so we can consider it a successful adventure. 

When it was time to return the board, Colby accompanied Kevin and they (not surprisingly) came back with a fun souvenir.  Colby loved Smash Ball and was not happy when we finally had to pack up and leave. 

As we drove away, Kevin mentioned that he wanted to take me through the cute town of Cardiff where he rented the board.  The surf shop was awesome and we even found a pizza shop with cool merchandise.  We left with full bellies and a few new hats :)

We went home, showered up, and Madi and I came out twinning in our new San Diego shirts. We had a low key evening playing games and just hanging out. 

Kimberly and Josh met a friend for dinner, so Nay Nay (or Nana as Kimmie's girls call her) was in charge of reading to the girls and getting them to bed. 

It was sad to think that our week together was coming to an end, but we were definitely grateful for all the fun memories we made together!