Our last weekend away as a family of five

We held off for as long as we could, but it was time.  The five seater car just couldn't hold us all anymore.

Months and months of car research led us down several roads and ended with me staring at a computer screen while a man spewed numbers faster than any mouth should ever be able to speak, clicking a mouse button in pure panic, hoping I didn't end up spending thousands of dollars on a new bulldozer.

Well, I didn't end up with a bulldozer, but it was a pretty big piece of machinery.

Thanks to the Richie Brothers auction, I am now the owner of a 2008 Chevy Suburban we lovingly refer to as BB (the blue burb) or by Asher, the Bourbon.  We knew very little about our purchase, we pretty much knew that it could drive and the mileage.  But we piled the kids in the old Acura and drove out to Perris, CA to go pick her up.

We have been happily surprised with what a great vehicle this is.  It has lots of fun, fancy features like a DVD player and GPS, automatic doors, and seats that fold by themselves, not to mention XM radio and a CD player which is a big jump from the radio I have had for the past 9 years.

We enjoyed our new ride so much we decided to keep driving and spend a little time at the beach.  We used some credit card miles to stay at the Sheraton in Garden Grove for two nights.   But before heading up that direction, we drove straight to the beach and broke in our new ride with a little bit of sand.

It was a perfect weekend.  We spent time with great friends, the Mercuros and the Campbells, our kids had the best time playing in the ocean and digging in the sand, we ate delicious food, and we played ourselves to exhaustion every night.

It was a good thing they went to bed tired and loved the beach because I wasn't totally aware when I booked the hotel that I had booked a Disney hotel.  Not so much on the property Disney hotel but basically every guest that was staying there was headed to the Happiest Place on Earth the next day.

"Hi guys!  Do you get to go to Disneyland tomorrow?!" asked a lot of enthusiastic hotel employees and guests to my hopeful little children.

"Nope, we're here for the beach!"  I got to respond every time, trying my hardest to make the beach sound just as thrilling.  It got old quickly.

Scarlet discovered her love of the boogie board this trip, and thanks to the Mercuros we got some great shots of some of her rides.  Scarlet with Zoe Mercuro.

Emerson Campbell, Rhode, Scarlet, and Zoe

Catching a wave!

With the Campbell kids, they were so happy the whole time.

Jon, Scott and Chase (not in the picture) got to do some body surfing while the ladies monitored the sand crew.

The sand crew was pretty well behaved until this one decided to bolt straight into the waves.  I got to get my 9 month pregnant belly sprint on and grab him before he got sucked into the Pacific.  I succeeded, but it was a good 20 minute recovery before I could breathe again.  Lucky you are worth it kid.

Speaking of that nine month belly, seriously guys its a big one.  If this is a 6 pound baby, then I have absolutely no idea what the heck else I am hiding in there...

We had two babies on the beach with us, Cru and Mirinda (who is only a few weeks old and beyond precious)

It always seems like a big deal to get away (seriously we changed the weekend about 3 times before we finally came out) but it is always so so so much fun.