coronado

We are so lucky to have great friends who let us come along on their summer vacation.  This year was more fun than last, mostly because the kids are getting so much cooler, and we spent almost a whole week in Coronado.

Seriously, look at these cool kids.

Yes, I understand that not all of them are looking at the camera, but you can almost see all their faces, and they are all under six.

We get to stay at our friend’s dad’s house, and it’s an incredible house.  So incredible that people tend to look into the yard as they pass by.  My favorite part of this is that it’s an amazing house that looks like a daycare center when we’re there.  We have a bounce house set up, a working Mini Cooper, a multitude of balls and toys, and six noisy and active children.  It cracks me up to think about what people must think.

This year we had grand plans of going to the zoo, or a baseball game, or something.  We did none of these things.  We did meet some great friends from Peace Corps for lunch, and my cousin and his sweet family came down for a day at the beach.  Other than that we just stuck close to home.

When Michael, Michelle and Avalon were here, we got to take all the girls to the beach.  Michael took to older girls to build castles and play in the water when Michelle and I hung out on some chairs.  Harriet did this amazing thing where she seriously conked out the second we got to the beach – she did this every time we went to the ocean.  She never sleeps in my arms, so I enjoyed every second of holding her sweet sleepy self.

We also walked to a cafe for lunch while Harriet took another nap back at the house.  I love seeing Alma and Avalon together.  They are sweet friends and sweet cousins.  My girls are also lucky that Avalon outgrows her princess dresses and hands them down!We spent a lot of time outdoors.  The kids took turns jumping, driving, running, making mischief, and having mini meltdowns.

We ate all our meals on the front porch.

One night we had just finished dinner when I noticed that the sun was starting to go down.  I said, “Let’s go take pictures with the sunset!”  Oh my gosh, you won’t believe how fast we mobilized our 6 kids and got out the door and across the street.  The light was perfect.

I love so much that we are building memories for our children where they get to play and interact with these other families.  These friendships are important as they grow up.  It gives them a sense of where they come from and a confidence in where they’re going.

And I love that we are building memories with these families.  The kids are all fantastic and hilarious.  Their parents are beautiful, wonderful people I’m happy to have as my co-parents.

Some memories I want to make sure to remember, but might not make sense to the average reader of my blog:  forgetting that I was the saboteur, and “The slime’s de flickin!”