California Adventure

We flew from San Antonio to Vegas, and spent a day working and catching up on laundry, before we took off again- this time for southern California. We took Cahl's step dad along, and they spent 3 days fishing in the Channel Islands, off the coast of Oxnard. They had a great time catching white sea bass, halibut, and tons of rock fish.

Meanwhile, Brinley and I hopped in a rental car and headed south to San Clemente. We stayed 2 nights in Dana Point, and the best time cruising around and seeing all the places we used hang out when we lived there. She loved going to Camp Pendleton and seeing the base and San Onofre, San Clemente beach and pier, and doing a little shopping. We stopped at the Santa Monica pier on the way back for lunch and to ride all the rides. 

We headed back to Oxnard to meet up with Cahl and Jim for the night, then the next day we drove to Vegas to drop off Jim and visit, then headed back home on Sunday. It was a long time to be away, but we had a great time!

Texas Trip

Cahl and I headed to Austin after his work conference finished, and we had an extra day and a half to spend in Marble Falls. We spent Thursday afternoon checking out the town, and just hanging out at the house we rented. We even did some fishing at the pond there, and caught 2 big catfish!

Friday we found a really cool safari animal park nearby, and we had the best time feeding a giraffe, capybaras, and goats, before we hopped on the tractor ride, and rode around rode the train around the park. They have hundreds of different exotic animals- gazelles, springbok, fallow and axis deer, camels, watusi, zebras, elk, mouflon sheep, ostriches and emus, water buffalo, bison, kangaroos, llamas, and many types of antelope. It was so fun to see them up close, and feed them by hand. Later that afternoon, the rest of the family starting rolling in, so we met everyone at the house, then went to town for dinner. 

Saturday morning we were up and out of the house early, to pick up the kids from camp. It was so good to see them all and spend some time at camp, before heading out on the next leg of our journey- our first stop was Buc-ees of course, then lunch at Rudy's, and finally driving down to South Padre Island. It took most of the afternoon to get there, but that evening we checked out the hotel and beach. It was the perfect spot- with a path that led right to the beautiful sand. 

Sunday we spent the day at the beach and the pool, then headed into town to check out the shops. Brinley and Mia got some sweet temporary tattoos, that they proudly showed off the rest of the trip. 

Monday we spent a little time at the beach, before packing up and driving back to San Antonio, to fly back to Vegas that night. 

Summer Camp

Brinley headed off to Texas for the first 2 weeks of June this year, back to Camp Balcones Springs. She flew to Vegas on Saturday May 30th, then flew with the rest of the group to Austin on Sunday the 31st. There were 14 total cousins this year, and Brinley and her cousin Mia were on the Work Crew. She said it was a ton of work- long days doing dishes, meal set up and take down, and doing trash runs. Luckily she also had some time each day to work on her summer school class, so that gave her a little break. Overall, she had a great time catching up with the friends she's made over the last few years, and spending time with her cousins.