Day 7 and 8: Thompson Family Road Trip - Santa Barbara and Home

We spent over SIX hours at one of the local Santa Barbara beaches, Hendry's. We swam, boogie boarded, skim boarded, built sand castles, buried our loved ones, ate food, found seashells, dug for sand crabs, and relaxed. It was a perfect day! The beach is truly my favorite place on earth. I love everything about it. 

 Later that night we had over 30 cousins and close friends come over to my mom's house for taco dinner. It was great to reconnect with so many loved ones. I have such a wonderful extended family. 

On Sunday, we attended our home ward in Santa Barbara, packed the car and were off to St. George for the night. We arrived late and the boys fell right into bed and fast asleep. We all slept in and headed for the pool where we spent a couple hours playing and horsing around. 

After stopping in Beaver for squeaky cheese, we were able to finish out our trip home. Aww...It was a long road trip, but totally worth it. We had a great time!

After 9 days and 2300 miles, we hope that it is a trip that our boys talk about for a LONG time!

The Beach

Every time we visit Nana in California a stop at the beach is a MUST!! Tyler's favorite is skin boarding and boogy boarding. The younger boys are getting are getting into boogy boarding as well, which of course is AWESOME!!!

We sure LOVE Santa Barbara!!!

More Hawaii

The sunsets were amazing in Hawaii, every evening we'd sit and watch it. Peaceful and so beautiful.

We went snorkeling several times at many different locations, it was incredible. We brought the Go Pro and took pictures and videos under the water. I'll post of that later. We brought our own snorkel gear so we could take it with us wherever we went.

 
We went on a hike to see petroglyphs which was pretty cool. There were also rock shelters that the Native Hawaiians built to protect themselves from the wind.

We're lounging on the beach watching the sunset at the Marriott Resort in Kona.

We stayed on Kona for 6 days then flew to Kauai for a couple days. We're at Marriott Kauai Beach Club resort beach for the last part of our fabulous vacation.

Sad time, we had to pack up ad head home. Preston was great on the flights and was extra hungry, so we fed him Scott's hat.

One of my last view's out my window of the beautiful tropical islands.

Beach Fun

 Of course heading to the beach is on the list of "Santa Barbara To-Do's", several times actually!! Because I have more of the little kids we didn't bring the skin board or the boogie boards. They played in the sand and jumped over waves. We were there for only 2 hours, it became a little chilly for the baby so we headed home.

 Nathan loved playing, but he didn't like how the sand felt on his legs. He kept itching them. I guess it's been too long because he's forgotten how it feels to play in the sand and splash in the water.

 This was Preston's first time to the beach, and he slept most of the time. I would of too snuggled in a chair hearing the waves crash. Nice!

It was fun watching the boys have such fun at the beach. I sure love the beach. I love the smell, the sand, the sound...It's so beautiful!

Boden Family

While in Santa Barbara over the summer I was able to take family portraits of the Boden and Mann family. Here are a few of the Boden's. Such a good-looking family! Such a wonderful, fun family!
Love you guys!!

Boogie Boarding Fun!

 

 All the boys improved so much during our 3 weeks vacation to Southern California. We've always loved the water, but the boys spend most the time playing in the sand. We bought some more boogie boards and a skim board and they had a blast. There was a few days the waves were pretty big (3-4 ft) and they had a blast boogie boarding.

Scott (finally) joined us in Santa Barbara and boogie boarded

with us!

I was so happy to watch my boys and Scott boogie board so well and have so much fun. I taught them all everything they know! :)

Henry's

 When heading to Southern California, Henry's Beach is a MUST! We all flew to Santa Barbara and stayed with my mom for three wonderful, relaxing, full, fun weeks! We headed to the beach almost every other day. It was fabulous. We have collected boogie boards, sand toys, an umbrella, chairs, a skin board and other goodies for the beach at my moms house. We always have a blast!

I love the beach. I love the smell. I love the sound. I love the colors. I love the temperature. I love the water. I love the sand. I love to swim out to the buoy. I love to boogie board in it. I love dive into a huge wave. I love taking walks down the beach and collecting shells and sea glass. (I do not like swimming in sea weed. I do not like jaws or walking on rocks while trying to head out to deeper water!)

 This was Tyler's first attempt at the new skin board...and he did great! He kept practicing on that and became pretty good. I did teach him to slide into a wave. It helps his to add a little lift to his run and most importantly if/when he falls the wave provides a better cushion.

 Nathan did not like the sand one bit. He had to have his flip flops on to walk on it. If his shoes were not on his feet he would just sit on Nana's lap or on a boogie board and play. He was so silly!

Will, Jackson and I boogie boarded the most but Tyler, Gavin and Brig's went out a little too. More of those photos later!

If was so fun! I already miss it!