Burningham Reunion in Oceanside, California

We had a great trip to Oceanside, California for the Burningham Reunion. We had all 30 of us there, 14 adults and 16 grandkids. We had a lot of fun playing on the beach, visiting the Legoland rides and water park, and seeing the San Diego Temple together. The time always goes too fast! I loved the girls' morning out to breakfast. The funniest moment for me was trying to fit a week's worth of food into Kirsten's Pilot with all 6 us that went. We were all literally surrounded with piled up grocery bags everywhere....but we fit it all in! :)

We each had our own little studio apartments plus a big beach house. We were literally across the street from the beach so we could visit it as often as we liked. We cooked our own meals as a group and stayed up late playing games and talking. As the youngest grandchild, Ethan was still referred to as Baby Ethan and got this little cheeks patted and pinched dozens of times each day by the cousins. :) Ethan got used to the sand pretty quickly, but was a little scared of the ocean so he didn't play in the water much. His favorite activity was playing at the Legoland water park. We're grateful to Steve and Kirst for arranging it all. We had a great time!

Wearing grandpa's shoes. Ethan loved playing with Grandpa.

Hanging out on the beach

San Diego Temple Family Picture

Picnic lunch at the temple

Family Picture on the Beach

Ethan playing with the sand

Sword fight with pool noodles

Burningham Brothers

Jason, Jeff, Dallin, Andy, Tim, Dad B, Steve

Boogie boading

We spent a lot of time with Lisa and Josh since Josh and Ethan could go on the same rides together.

One of the Star Wars Lego scenes

Lego USA shows scale model of Washington DC. Legoland USA was one of Jason's favorite parts.

Lego play areas while the adults wait in the line for the ride. The line wrapped around this play area.

Playing with the cousins

Ethan really liked riding the carousel, but didn't like looking at the camera :)

Ethan's favorite activity was jumping off the side of the pool!

Beautiful ocean sunset!

4th of July

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday. There are three things that make a great 4th of July for me: family, fireworks, and patriotic music. Fortunately we had just been with family, so Saturday night we went to the Cincinnati Pops Red, White, and Boom concert. It was held in the Riverbend Pavillion and we sat on the "lawn" in the back on camp chairs and a blanket. We all had fun! Ethan danced, blew bubbles, and played soccer, and just listened during our time there. He entertained many of the people around us as well. He didn't love the fireworks after the concert. I held him and he was ok, but he doesn't like the loud noises.

I just think this is a funny picture. :)

The tickets we bought also included a day's admission to Coney Island Park next door. We came to the concert a couple hours early and let Ethan ride the kiddie rides and carousel. He really loved that. You couldn't actually see it on his face during the ride because he is so stoic, but afterwards he would keep saying, "ride, ride, ride."

Richards Reunion in Branson, Missouri

We had a great time at the Richards Reunion last week. Our drive to Branson, Missouri went really went. We did it in 10 hours with only 2 short gas station stops. Ethan did very well considering he was in his car seat all day. We stayed in some cabins at Westgate Branson Woods Resort. It was really nice. Each cabin was like a house with four bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Ethan slept in a pack-n-play in our bedroom and we had our own bathroom. Allison and Katie bought food when we got there and divided in among the cabins so we ate good food in our cabins all week.

Tuesday we went to Dogwood Canyons and went on a tram tour. I really liked it! The canyon was beautiful with several waterfalls, a small river, and animals that came up and ate right near our tram. It's a little unnerving to have a buffalo eating so close to us, but Ethan and I got over that pretty quickly.

Wednesday morning we went to the Talking Rocks Cavern. They had a cool beautiful cave with lots of formations inside. There were lots of stairs that we carried Ethan up and down, but he did pretty well. Afterwards we went mini-golfing with Mom and Dad B. This was Ethan's first time mini-golfing and he really liked it! We all had a lot of fun!

That evening Dad B. stayed with Ethan and put him to bed while Jason and I and Mom B went to see Jonah with the rest of the group. The staging was really incredible! I think that was my favorite part of it, just trying to figure out how they did everything. The main boat itself was 30,000 lbs. And they had live animals on stage like a donkey, camels, goats, sheep, a horse, etc. It was fun to see.

Thursday Mom B took Ethan to the Butterfly Palace while Jason and I caught up on some other things. Apparently Ethan really like it, which doesn't surprise me. In the afternoon we took Ethan with us to see Buckets and Boards. It's a comedy percussion show geared for kids and families. I thought some of their tricks were pretty cool, like playing the drums on the bottom of propane tanks and getting different sounds. Ethan didn't like the loud noises and flashing lights, but he eventually warmed up and enjoyed the second half of the show.

Thursday afternoon we tried to go swimming. We were only there for 5 minutes before we had to leave for an incoming thunderstorm. That evening we had a family home evening with a slideshow and games about Grandpa Richards. We also got a family T-shirt and took family pictures. After we put the kids to bed we stayed up and played games with the adults.

We left early Friday for the drive back home. We stopped in St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch. They had a lot of construction going on, so we didn't get very close, but we walked a couple blocks to the Citygardens and ate lunch while Ethan played in the fountains. He had a blast!! It was was a great trip!