A Trip to California and the 4th of July

We headed to California for the Fourth of July weekend again this year.  We spent most of our time there at the beach.  Skyler is the only one young enough to still want to spend his time there digging with the sand toys.  The older three kids have really taken to the body boarding.  They would stay for hours and never want to leave.  It was perfect beach weather while we were there but crowded with the holiday weekend.

We were planning on running the Surf City 5K on the morning of the 4th.  Kaitlyn and Jared decided to run the 5K this year instead of the children's race.  Jason pushed Skyler in the stroller so we could all participate. The stroller race started 15 minutes after the rest of us started the 5K.  Jason was worried about getting the stroller through all the walkers but got a police escort to clear the way since he was leading the race.  The course was an out and back so we all got to pass each other.  Kaitlyn and Jared loved seeing Skyler and Jason pass in the stroller (twice since he caught up to them before the end.)  Jason won the stroller race in 18:35.  I won the women's race in 17:56, only my second time breaking 18 minutes for the 5K.  It's not very often Jason and I get excited about trophies but the awards (for first place only) were these awesome '49 Woody model cars with surf boards on top.  Skyler loved the cars and was a little disappointed when Jason didn't let him play with it.

Andrew ran a great race and got a new PR.  He finished in 19:26, his first time breaking 20 minutes!  He was sixth in his age group, behind mostly older runners.  Kaitlyn and Jared walked most of the 5K so it took awhile.  Jared was pretty miserable from a rash he had gotten at the beach the day before but he made it to the end anyway.  Kaitlyn took her time until the end but was excited to sprint to the finish around the last corner.

Here are all the happy and not so happy finishers.  I'm not sure Jared loves running as much as the rest of us!

We stayed to watch part of the parade.  Skyler loved the horses, cars and fire trucks.  When we got to a big break in the parade he was getting tired and we went back to my parents' house to watch the Brazil World Cup game and let Skyler try to nap through all the cheering. 

My brother Spencer and his girlfriend came over for a barbecue.  Then we headed down to the beach for more body boarding and stayed until dark for fireworks.

Saturday evening we went to the Angels game.  It was hat night and the kids were all excited about the free flat brim baseball caps they were giving out.  Jason kept trying to get his to bend and the boys were laughing at him.  Jared was interested in the rally monkey the boy in front of us was holding so I bought him one.  Apparantly he didn't like the one I got him though because he handed it back to the lady working at the store after I bought it for him.  It was an exciting game with the Angels rallying late and batting around in the 7th inning.  We also got to enjoy a firework show after the game.

All too the weekend was over and it was time to go home but we had a lot of fun!