Santa Barbara Family Reunion 2018

We kicked off summer pretty quick this year with a week long trip to Santa Barbara, a few days after school got out (June 23-30), for a family reunion with my mom's side of the family and to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary.

My parents rented a house for my family, my brother's family and my parents to stay in in Carpenteria, at Rincon Point. It was the perfect house for us, had a short walk to the beach and it was the perfect place for entertaining all of the extended family that was staying at my aunt and uncle's house in Montecito.

A tiny ocean view from the deck of the front of the house

The first full day we were in Santa Barbara was my parents' anniversary, June 24th. We spent the day at the beach (although the sun never really did come out much) and then all of the family (all 17 of us) went out to a Mexican food restaurant for dinner to celebrate. Afterwards we did s'mores by the fire pit at the rental house and the kids insisted on having my uncle Don help them make a lemonade stand at 8pm. It truly couldn't have been any more perfect for my parents to be surrounded by so many special people near where they got married 40 years ago!!

Cousins reunited once again!

40 years of marriage and 5 amazing grandkids because of it

First day on the beach

Exploring a teepee on the beach

Family is everything

Fosters Freeze treats

All dressed up in the fun water gear

Sand play with the LeSages

Happy 40 year anniversary mom and dad!

The anniversary dinner crew

S'mores after dinner

Aren't they cute?!

Trying to sell lemonade at 8pm

The price is right for Montecito people, right?!

The next day, June 25th, we explored a little more in Santa Barbara and walked "the break water." The kids thought it was great getting splashed by the water crashing on the wall. And some even did a little further exploring walking out to a little island via a tiny wood plank on top of some rocks. Afterwards we visited the pier and did a little shopping. The sun finally made an appearance in the afternoon and that's when we spent the remainder of the day down at the beach boogie boarding.

Walking out on a tiny plank to a little sandy island

Matching braids

A windy family selfie on the pier

Cammy tried boogie boarding

Drinks on the beach to celebrate the sun

Cousin twins

Once the Trolsons arrived we had to take a family picture!

On the 26th we headed to the Santa Barbara Zoo!! As most of my friends know, the zoo is one of my favorite places to go, so this was fun to be at a different one for a change. There is always something exciting to see at the zoo! And the train ride at this zoo was a big hit for the kids!! We ended the day with a big family dinner at the rental house and Cammy topped off the night by losing her second front top tooth while eating dinner!

Cousins checking out the elephants

Silly cousins

Fennec Foxes were a favorite

Just monkeying around

Most of the family on the train

Train riding with my cousin Olivia

Dinner with my uncle Scott on the deck

Cammy lost her top front tooth while eating dinner!

On the 27th we decided to do our own thing and we ventured on car trip to Pepperdine, where my cousin Olivia is working on a summer project. She is researching Grunions (these are fish...Google them) and actually hatches baby grunions and looks for is any are "egg heads" (where part of the fish egg stays attached to their head). We met up with Olivia and she gave us a little tour of her summer dorm room, the lab where she does her research and let us all be involved in some grunion hatching. The girls thought this was just so great, as did we.

Hanging out on Olivia's bed

Learning how to hatch baby grunion

Those little black specks are baby grunion

Swirling the water in a wave motion to help hatch grunion

Checking out their heartbeat under the microscope

Man Pepperdine has an amazing view!

After our visit at Pepperdine, we drove further South to the Santa Monica Pier. None of us had ever been there, so it was fun to play and explore. The girls got wristbands and did a bunch of the rides. We also got to meet up with Jason's brother, Brian, who works in Santa Monica not far from the pier. He came down for a short visit after work and we took him on a ride on the ferris wheel. It definitely was not enough time, but we loved getting a chance to see him!! It felt like a long drive back to Santa Barbara at the end of the day, but it was so much fun getting away for the day and doing a bit of exploring.

Santa Monica Pier

Hot air balloon ride

Ferris Wheel with uncle Brian

The girls with their uncle Brian

Boat ride

The giant swing was a favorite

Merry Go Round ride (Hailey didn't want to ride near us)

The 28th we played tourists in downtown Santa Barbara. We rented the quad bikes and rode them on my most favorite biking trail right next to the ocean. After working hard we met up with some other family for a pizza lunch and then cruised the streets for shopping, ice cream and a little visit to Olivia's boyfriend's rock climbing place that he manages. He gave the kids free rock climbing "lessons" and the kids had a blast! Thanks Noah!!!

Riding the touristy quad bikes

Attempting our own selfie with a nice sun glare

I don't know how these 3 managed to squish together in the front

We ran into Olivia on a run so we got a more quality group photo thanks to her!

I swear the kids tried every possible combination between the two bikes

The kids take over!

At Noah's rock climbing place

Coming down like an expert

Watching each other climb

On our last full day in Santa Barbara, the 29th, we met up with my old college roommate Kim and her daughter Hanna. They live in Monterey, but occasionally come back to Santa Barbara, where her parents live. I was so thrilled that she made the drive to come see us while we were so close!! We spent the morning at the beach. The sun didn't come out once while we were there, so it wasn't too warm and the tide almost had us packing up to head elsewhere, but we enjoyed catching up and letting our girls play together. The last time we saw each other was right after her daughter was born 5 years ago!!!

College roomies reunited!!

Hanna loved going in the water with Jason

Group picture

Oh my how the times have changed since college!

Sand angels with Hanna

S'mores back at the rental

Grams and all of her grandkids at the fire pit

Silly Cammy!

Since we didn't fly out until mid afternoon on the 30th we decided to squeeze in more activity...the Moxi Museum! A few of the remaining family members wanted to join us so we had a fun morning exploring all the cool hands-on science things the museum had to offer.

The Moxi

My parents playing with parachutes

Building race cars with dad

A giant lite bright with Olivia

We had such a fun time in Santa Barbara! I already want to go back!! Family reunions are such a memory maker and we have been fortunate enough to be able to do these fairly regularly in different places the past few years. Here's to many more!!