Summer Vacation 2012

We spent a week in Huntington Beach with our kids and the Clark family this summer. It was a grand time, and here is some photographic proof that we had some fun besides taking Sabrina to the emergency room:

 We bought annual passes to D-Land earlier, and the Clark family sprung for some passes, so we all spent a day hangin' out with Mickey.

 Gavin had a great time being turned into a merman. He could not have been happier.

 Caleb discovered a latent talent at SmashBall - seriously, he was practically undefeated the whole trip.

 Marci, on the other hand, was basically...well....defeated.

 But that didn't stop her from looking as beautiful as always and being proud of the conquering hero.

 The Red-man had the unique experience of having a seagull drop a gift right on his arm. I won't bother showing you the close-up photo. You're welcome.

 Josh and Alisha and crew paid us a visit on the beach one day. It was good to hang with old friends.

 McKenna, Red-man and Sabrina spent one afternoon building this sand "couch" - it included cup holders, arm-rests and was quite elaborately done. Everyone will have one in the future.

 Sabrina and McKenna enjoyed "surfing" - seriously, you needed to watch this to truly appreciate the cuteness overload that played out.

 Addie was having a lot of fun with everyone paying attention to her and generally just being cute playing in the sand and surf.

 One day we made a trip out to "The Wedge" - which supposedly is where the largest waves in the western US can be found. And I have to admit, even on a low surf day they were pretty darned impressive:

 That is a deceptive picture. There were some body surfers out there and that wave is about twice the height of a person.

 The Red-man faces the surf alone.

 We tried our best to have a cook-out one evening on the beach, but the winds were so strong that we could barely get the fire going, much less get comfortable or enjoy anything. It was pretty cold actually. Weird.

 I probably enjoyed shooting right around sunset on the beach, the lighting and the shadows made for some pretty fantastic stuff. For example:

 I have a whole set of photos just like this that were just a ton of fun to shoot.

 But this is my favorite. That is Gavin running after some seagulls - just a great picture and probably one of my top 3 pictures I've managed to take.

 Weston basically lived every day, all day in the surf. Let me just say, that surf was COLD. I tried it two different days. On one day the current was so strong that you were spending most of your time just fighting against it. The other days the water was so cold you lost feeling of your extremities in about 10 minutes. I've enjoyed the CA surf before, and it is always cold, but this was just brutal.

 Weston, however, did not care.

 Nope - he does not give one wet slap about cold or anything else other than catching the next wave.

 Sheri and McKenna had a great time splashing about in the surf. It took Sheri probably 15 minutes of standing there working up the courage to go out into the freezing water.

 I love McKenna's face in this picture. What a fun time.

Here is one obligatory photo of me relaxing on the beach. Yes, that is a rain-jacket/wind-breaker. Did I mention that the wind was pretty cold just about every day. In July. It sure did stink to come back home to the desert where it stayed above 110 degrees for the next MONTH.

I'll take the cold.