Best.Time.EVER!

Last week we went on our first family vacation to sunny Newport Beach in California!!!! It was sooo amazing! We had a flight out of DFW last Thursday morning...so we started our day before the sun came up at 4am!!! Let me tell you that packing for a 3 month old isn't as easy as I thought. I swear Asher's stuff took up more than me & Mike's together!! Anyway, we managed to get through security with everything in tow. (I was really nervous about the TSA folks but they were super great and we went through w/out and issues!) We were SO lucky that our flight was only 1/2 full. We literally had the back 10 rows to ourselves! We took Asher's car seat in and he slept the WHOLE way there! Whew!

We got to Cali at 9am and went straight to my brothers house...stayed there for about an hour and then went to my sisters house. We had lunch with her family and then we all headed to the beach front house that my mom rented for us all to stay. My mom, stepdad and stepbrother flew in on a different flight from Dallas and my grandparents flew in from San Francisco. There were EIGHTEEN of us total! Our house had 8 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, huge family areas, balcony, patio lots of bathrooms and most of all...an amazing ocean view! It was located right near Balboa Pier with tons of places to eat, and do within walking distance! We really had SO much fun. We went on 3-4 walks each day with the strollers to the park on the beach, pier and down the trail of shops & restaurants. The girls went for sushi one afternoon and the guys drove to LA (Mike was determined to go to the huge guitar center in LA). Each family (my sisters, brothers and mine) cooked a big dinner on separate nights. Mike & I had the first night so we grocery shopped for 18 people which was very stressful for me (HA!) and made delicious tacos, queso, beans, guacamole, chips, etc. It was yummy. My sisters family made jumbo shrimp fettichini with delicious bread and salad and my brothers family made Mediterranean chicken with pita bread and Greek salad. It was a great idea to rotate cooking dinner that way my mom an/or grandma wasn't stuck in the kitchen each night. It was perfect!!

We came home Sunday afternoon and unfortunately our flight was 'full' (even though I saw 2 empty seats near us!!!) so they wouldn't let us take the car seat. I got really nervous/anxious because it wasn't quite Asher's bedtime yet and he had already had a good nap that afternoon. Luckily he did great and only cried just for a few minutes at takeoff & landing. Everybody around us thought he was the cutest thing and complimented him on his calmness!! :) WHEW! He fell asleep for 90% of the flight, it was not comfortable AT ALL for me because I had to sit still the whole time and felt like I couldn't move since I was so nervous that he'd wake up! But, we made it home safe and luckily I took off work on Monday because we got settled in at home around midnight.

I was so happy to see all my nieces & nephews and have everybody together at the same time. This was very rare for my family!!! We hope to continue this tradition and do it each year! I haven't gone through all of the pics yet, but here are some random ones...

me & my love on the beach!

feeding Asher in the airport

happy baby!!!

my grandparents with Ash-man

3 newest additions: Everly, Asher & Corban SIL & Brother

beach bound

morning walk

Cory & his 3 girls :)

my sister and 1 of her 4 boys

My stepbrother, Paul, & my mom

COUSINS!! All of the kiddos!!

gorgeous!!

my mom & grandma with sky & aiden

he loves his hands!!

me & my mom at sushi!!!

logan showing me his tricks!!!

loves to giggle!!! xoxo