Mandalay Shore

Summer has begun, and it couldn't have started in a better way. This past weekend we rented a beach house with 3 other families at Mandalay Shores in Oxnard--the best kept secret in So Cal. It was seriously beautiful. The sun smiled upon us and we sat out at the beach every day; we flew kites on the sand, walked along the water at sunset, watched dolphins from the shore and the kitchen window while preparing dinner, enjoyed a seal from our beach chairs, played Guitar Hero way too late, ate more Cheesecake than should be possible, relaxed, ate and just had a fantastic time. There are only certain friends with whom one can take these types of vacations...it was wonderful to live on top of these people for 4 days. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We'll see you all next summer (and many times before that...)


Tessa baby, we forgive you for crying every time we got too close to you...


Valerie, Charlotte, Chris and Noah...they represented all of us at Church on Sunday morning...the rest of us saved them a spot at the beach...

I bathed Kate in the kitchen sink one night...with the water directly behind her.



Valerie, Allison, Kerri and me...Allison and I grew up together, but the rest of us met freshman year at BYU...


Hosing off feet before coming into the house...usually to no avail...there was sand everywhere--the way it should be living on the sand.

Our house is the blue one directly behind the kids...DC, Katie, Kate, Noah, Charlotte and Lauren...we had two 4-year olds, one 3-year old, two 2-year olds, one 1-year old, a 7-month old, 4 month old, and 2 month old...and surprisingly every child got great naps and we all slept well at night---the challenge in finding a beach house was locating one with enough space for us--this one had 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms--space...check.

DC and Katie



We got the kids ready for bed one night, and then decided to walk along the beach...we walked till the sun went down...beautiful...Oxnard, really? You did not disappoint.

We keep hoping that with all these kids, someone will grow up and marry...Kate would be one lucky girl to get Noah B.


Don flying kites with the kids one morning...the blue sky and water were so pretty this morning...


Hey Mitchells...thanks for hauling the Wii to the beach...so, so fun...and Chris? I'm sorry I said that your singing was awful...it's just that it was almost midnight and I was trying to sleep and you sounded like a dog with the flu, maybe not even that good...but anyway, sorry. I'd never have the guts to be the singer, so I give you credit.