Beach Camping Trip

Well, we just came back from our last vacation of the Summer.  We've been very blessed to have taken such fun trips with our family.  We went camping in San Diego with the Nelson family, and had a wonderful time.  We usually go to Leo Carillo Beach, but decided to try somewhere new.  So we decided to try the place everyone from here goes to.  It was great, and the beach was beautiful.    

Every year we try to get a family beach picture.  On the way home we stopped at Dana Point to see the tide pools.  The tide wasn't very low, so we didn't get to see much, but found a few crabs and some dead lobsters.  Dave reminded me we hadn't gotten our family beach shot, so luckily we grabbed this shot just before we left.
The first full day we were there we drove to Oceanside and met up with Dave's brother Jeff and their family.  They happened to be vacationing there, too.  It was fun for the kids to get to play with their cousins at the beach.  Kyle, Tyler, Lyndi, and Lizzy liked being buried in the sand...
The next day, the kids decided to go for it and get all the way buried.  I used to love doing this as a kid!!!!
Tyler's favorite thing to do at the beach is look for sand crabs and collect them in his bucket.  Kelsey got a kick out of seeing them swim around in there.....
I love this picture of the girls.  It's so nice that Jessica and Ashley have each other to play with.  They had such a great time together....
They spent most of the time in the water boogie boarding and jumping the waves.  They are getting to be pretty good on those things!
Ashley spent the most time in the water.  Jessica found the joys of reading a great book on the beach, but Ashley pretty much stayed in the water.  She'd come out every now and then for some food, then hop right back in.....
One of Dave's favorite parts of the trip, besides surfing in the mornings, was going out with the kids.  The kids loved being out there with their dad.....
Kelsey spent her time at the beach eating sand, and getting dirty.  She definitely didn't mind the sand, and was such a good baby.....
She also got a kick out of the water.  She just loved everything about the beach.  Takes after her mommy.......
The last night my sister Denise and her family came out for a night, and it was fun having more kids to play with.  My nephew Josh is getting so big, and the kids loved digging in the sand with him.
Kelsey was such a big girl walking around the campsite.  She loved this beach chair.  She could climb up and down all by herself.  She doesn't look too dirty in this picture, but believe me, she sure got dirty on this trip!!!
Kyle loved doing whatever his big brother and sisters were doing.  There was this amphitheatre just across our campsite, and the kids loved going up there and putting on performances.  Kyle was right there with them, even doing a few shows of his own!
Jessica and Ashley were great helpers with the younger kids.  Someone asked me if it was hard camping with 5 kids.  I was telling them that really I think it's easier now then when I just had a couple of little ones, because the bigger kids help watch and play with the younger ones.  And it was especially nice having the Nelsons along, because there were more friends for the kids to play with.  On the way home my kids commented on how it was nice having them along, because they felt like they got to bond with them.  We were so glad they were able to come.
It was a great vacation.  We miss living by the beach, and were so happy for the chance we had to be back there.