Cooking is a passion of mine…mind you, one that is being constantly developed.  Keep in mind passion doesn’t equal perfection or a state of euphoria.  Sometimes everything turns out great and people are watering at the mouth and other times I’m not so luck and I’m sure people will go running for the door.

Either way, while my family was here I put them to work – more specifically, my brothers.  I’ve always wanted a su chef or two.  We chopped, diced and sliced our way to dinner.

They were really good sports to let me take on the roll of Bossy, Miss Boss A Lot.  Thanks guys!

We couldn’t let my family leave without seeing Coronado Island.  Off we went and enjoyed part of a beautiful day checking out the sights and letting the kids play on the dunes.  Honestly, there wasn’t too much sand playing on the kids part due to the temperature of the sand.  We tried to convince my parents to book the haunted room in the Hotel Del, but it’s booked out several years…maybe another time.

I finally picked up this hat that I have had my eye on for quite some time. I have nver been able to find an excuse to get another one.  A week at the beach was excuse enough for me.

Hitting the Pier over in Oceanside was a must.  Several fisherman had catches of stingrays and other ocean critters flopping around on the pier as we strolled that peaked a curiosity from a few of us.  How can you not stop to sneak a peak?(I don’t know why I have that expression…mid-sentence maybe?)

The sightseeing concluded with a trip to the San Diego temple.  I almost added the picture where everyone was actually standing still and brightly smiling, but that just wouldn’t be the real us.  This is a much more accurate representation.  Although I have seen it countless times, I never cease to be awed by its beauty and overcome by the peace that it brings.  I love having the daily comfort that my family and friends will always be with me – now and forever.

After spending a week at the beach as a family we are finding that our children have changed a good 5 or so shades darker.  Because the amount of time we spent at the beach, we found that we gave a lot of time to ocean as well as the sand and got a bit creative.

My dad, brothers and Will spent plenty of time in the water and I even joined them for a little bit.  We were lucky and had perfect beach going weather the entire time.

I think my brothers enjoyed exchanging their normal mountain scenery for that of the beach.

And…maybe I felt a little bad about not getting my little brother a rash guard…oops!

My brother Casey seemed to very much enjoy burying my youngest brother.

My brother didn’t want to be a Mermaid so we created this tenticled and clawed creature instead.

Annie and my mom just enjoyed the sand and the shade.

Annie did have a few first while we were there.  She found a new love for seaweed, pulling it up and down the beach.  She is also now no longer afraid of the water.  She splashed and played the last day we were there.  A fearless 2 year old and large amounts of water are enough for an anurism in my book.

My brother and sister in law came into town for the last couple of weeks with their kids and we were able to meet up with them a couple of times.  We chose to spend our time together at the beach.  Is there really a better place than that?  Will and our niece, shown in the picture above spent  quite a bit of time in the water boogie boarding.  I was impressed with their dedication.  The water was FREEZING.  I’m a little embarrassed to say no more than a toe of mine ended up in the water.  Hudson spent a large amount of time being chased or chasing his cousin…6 hours worth.  Annie and I chatted, dug holes and relaxed in the sand.

So we did a little power packing of our 4th of July this year.  We were all about sticking to tradition.  The ward pancake breakfast/flag raising started the day.  We actually missed the flag raising partly due to a pipe bursting in the house, but we did make it for the pancakes.  After that delicious start we piled back into the car to decorate the kids for our neighborhood parade.  Will joked that it was considered a death march if the parade lacked observers.  Boy are we thankful to the 7 or so people that watched and waved from the sidewalk.

Note my amazing decorating abilities to the wagon…oh so lovely, yet, you notice that Annie never actually rode in it.  She chased Hudson for most of it, begging for a ride, until he pulled away.  Only later did I find out that someone told him to follow the lead parade guy.  Apparently, he felt like following directions to a T that day.  Not only did he follow exactly behind within a few feet, but continued to follow him after the parade was over as he rode in circles and then went and talked to his wife.  One of our friends eventually detached him.

Once again we found that Poway had their great Old Fashioned 4th of July going again – period costuming and all.  The kids took a train ride, which happened to get a robbing so we ended up in a fun Old West shoot out.   Honestly, the kids were a little oblivious to everything until the gun fire started.

We got our normal picture with Uncle Sam, which Annie so lovingly confused with Santa Claus.  Will informed her that they were brothers and…she bought it!  The quilt exhibit was extraordinary as well.

Crafts turned out to the be quite a hit, but the sack races took the cake.  Annie lost control after they said, “go” and fell into fits of giggles.  I helped her out as she giggled the entire way.

Hudson took things a little more seriously and was able to hold his own through all the races.

Fireworks proved to be great once again.  Although, Hudson started asking me when it was going to be over about 2 minutes into it.  And just for the record…these pictures are all thanks to Will.  He was the photographer of the day. What fantastic firework pictures! He got some awesome shots.