Newport Trip: Days 1, 2, & 3

Every other year Scott's family goes on a trip to Newport Beach for a week. This year was an 'on' year and so for months we've been planning to 'get the heck out of dodge' and go somewhere sunny with sandy beaches.

The week leading up to our trip was a nightmare to say the least. Scott stayed late to work every night (14 hr. + days) in order to get all of the work done he needed to while I stayed home to clean the house, go on RS visits, prepare for girls camp (next week), and do the meal planning/preparation, grocery shopping and packing. On Friday night we took Aspen up to be puppy-sat by her grandparents and rigged up a little house for her to be in while she was there followed by ice cream at The Pie Pantry--a small restaurant owned by Cherry Hill where I used to work during the summers in high school. After saying adieu, we then went home to finish packing and load up the car.

{on the road}

Saturday morning we woke up at 3:30 and were on the road by 4:45...yeah, that is a.m. folks. While it was definitely a challenge to roll out of bed that early, we were glad when we arrived in Newport around 2:00 that afternoon. We checked into our villa at the Marriott around 3:30 and lugged our stuff up to our third floor, ocean-view room. ahh.... Since every villa has two bedrooms, two families bunked up in each room (with a total of 3 villas). Our roommates were Carter, Marsha, and their two kids, Ella and Cole. Because the 'guest room' has a pull out bed, they stayed in there with the kiddos and Scott and I stayed in the 'master suite'.

{the outside of our building}

Everything about our villa was so nice! We had a washer & dryer, kitchen, dining table, barstools and then a large flat screen in the common area with a couch, coffee table and two comfy chairs. Our bedroom also had a large flat screen, king size bed, duel sink vanity, large tub and a double head shower.

{our comfy bed}

The remainer of Saturday was spent picking Ashley (Scott's sister) and her family up from the airport and catching up with the gang.

Sunday was Cinco's (our brother-in-law) birthday so we started it off right with a wonderful breakfast prepared by Scott's sisters. We lounged around for most of the day while everyone attempted to adjust themselves to the time change. I cut Scott's hair because we hadn't had time to do it the week prior and then we all went up to the pool. Scott and I didn't swim but enjoyed watching two of our cute newphews and a niece. Dave, Cinco, Ashley...it was fun to watch you, too. :)

{ashley & ava}

{logan}

{cinco 'the birthday boy' & ava}

Later that evening we had a great dinner prepared by Carter & Marsha and then birthday cake for Cinco which Ashley made. After dessert, Cinco opened a few birthday cards from family members...a few of which were a little questionable...just the way we like them...haha. Happy Birthday, Cinco!

Monday was a beach day! Imagine for a moment that you are laying peacefully on the beach when all of the sudden you feel a rumble beneath you. You think it might be an earthquake, maybe even an F-16 landing nearby, but then you look up and see all 19 of us storming the beach and setting up camp next to you. Beach days were quite the undertaking!

{the compound}

We set ourselves up a little compound right there on Huntington Beach including two shade tents, and about 3 large umbrellas. Don't forget that we also came fully equipped with food to feed all of us, drinks, beach towels, sunscreen, boogie boards, cameras, books to read and beach toys. Boy, do WE know how to have fun at the beach. Ty & Scott went out boogie boarding for awhile while I enjoyed my book from the beach and the rest of the crew went to splash in the waves and build sandcastles. After awhile I went out to have my first lesson in boogie boarding and had a pretty fun time once I was able to ditch the fins. After about 5 1/2 hours we were all pretty exhausted and head back to enjoy some of my mother-in-laws amazing homemade lasagna.

{ella}

{chelsea & jack}

{mom & daughter, megan}