Cousins at the Beach

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged! What can I say, I've been super busy...reading The Hunger Games trilogy. Yep, I read the first book a couple weeks ago and then the second two this last week, and they were totally amazing and worth me falling behind and neglecting everything else in my life. (This is why I hardly ever read, even though I love it. Because when I find a good book, I can't put it down and then NOTHING gets done!) So now that the girls are in bed, I've stuck the first load out of four over-flowing laundry baskets in the washing machine, started the dishwasher, swept the kitchen floor and wiped washable marker off the wall (What else are kids to do besides turn the walls into artwork when their mom is reading the day away? I promise, I did remember to feed, bathe, clothe and love my children, but that's about where it stops.) I've decided to spend a little time blogging.

Last weekend we went down to San Diego for a long weekend. We had been planning to go down for quite a while that weekend because Quinn's Aunt Melinda and cousin, Leslie, and her family took a family vacation to Southern California, so we wanted to see them. It wound up turning into a mini Clawson family reunion though, because Katie and Ava drove down (since Josh was away at military training) and brought Aunt Annette with them, and Annette's daughter (Quinn's cousin), Jessica, and her family just happened to have also planned a family trip to San Diego that same weekend! We spent two days at the beach and couldn't have had a better time.

The first day (Friday) was Brett's brother Todd's 50th birthday party, and we had a little luau party for him, complete with real hula dancers (see the videos at the bottom of this post...these were filmed during costume changes.) We didn't have all the Clawson gang there, but Leslie's family came and Katie, Ava and Annette made it into town for the end of the party. Here are a few pictures from the party:

Payton was the expert hole digger I love these pictures of miss Halle...she's a bit camera shy, and content to do her own thing for the most part, so I didn't get many other pictures of her, but she sure was cute playing with her buckets!

Funny enough, I hardly got any picture of Cailyn last weekend either, but here she is with flowers in her hair, eating her Hawaiian chicken

Saturday was the day when all the Clawson bunch got together. Here are all the kiddos:

Emma

Ava

Halle

Cailyn

Payton

Ila

Avery

Rylee

Cael

And here's how the day went...

I could spend every day like that day and be happy!

Quinn wasn't there because he had to stay and work...but he wound up taking the train down late Saturday night to meet us because he got a call for a third interview on Monday morning in San Diego. And he got the job! So, starting October 4th he will be working as a Sales Supervisor for Cox, and we're really excited to be living close to family again (although it may be a few months before we get the whole family down there.)

Oh, and remember that penguin suitcase from Sea World that Rylee worked so hard to earn money for? Well, Ila and Emma went to Sea World and brought it back for Rylee! Here are the girls counting out Rylee's money from her piggy bank

and here's the suitcase...isn't he cute?