CALIFORNIACATION - Family Reunion Style

WARNING: AN EXCEEDINGLY LARGE AMOUNT OF PICTURES

My grandparents, in their GREAT generosity, save up "time share points" for four years and then gather all of their children, grandchildren and great-grand children for a week of fun in the Oceanside, California sun! We had such a marvelous time!

For the first time in over TWO years, all of the Krebs Family was together again! As you can see, we wasted NO TIME in maximizing our fun factor. I just LOVE my siblings and wish we could all live in the same state or HECK would even love to live in the same side of the country. As this is not the case, we have to appreciate the times when we can gather together.

My brother Matt gathered all of the "adult" cousins together for an "adult only" lunch on the pier. We all agreed that the lunch title sounded a little dirty - so we tried to keep our conversation as raunchy as possible. No problemo. I have the GREATEST cousins!!

The 4 Krebs grandchildren just LOVE spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Krebs and they are spoiled rotten with love and kisses. Here is my Mom with cousin Aliya.

What can I say? I have the cutest brothers in the world. Sorry if you thought you were competing. John (and Chuck) are headed to BYU in the Fall and we are thrilled that they will be a short 10 hour drive from us. Can anyone say ROAD TRIP?

Oh yes, and Emma's hair is FINALLY long enough to put in pig tails. She doesn't even mind when I do her hair because she loves to say, "so pretty" when I'm done.

Grandpa Krebs and the boy cousins, Ben and Tyler. I could just eat up their sweet little faces. (No Ashlee, I won't ACTUALLY gnaw on your child's face or break skin.... GEEZ.)

The weather was a beautiful 65-70 each day, which made the outside air GORGEOUS and the ocean water FREEZING. Here are Greg and I taking Emma for a walk to the water, but once it hit her feet she would scramble to our arms for safety.

I guess we'll just have to FOREVER vacation in Hawaii for our beach time where the water is always luke warm. DARN.

Q: Wanna know how to make 4 squirmy grandchildren look in the same direction for a picture with great grandparents?

A: Have ELEVEN adults act like circus clowns / entertainers / IDIOTS!

A Krebs family pyramid. You'd think we were all professional cheerleaders with our poise, huh? Nope. You'd be wrong. Just a bunch of musical geeks.

OK. Really love the beach, but seriously... how could sand get in SO MANY PLACES that I SWEAR I never even touched with sand? At first I tried to keep Emma clean from sand in her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, etc... but after about THREE minutes of unsuccessful attempts, just let her enjoy her sand time. I think I am still cleaning sand out of her hair and won't mention it coming out in her diapers.

Luckily, Greg got to join us for 4 days and then had to leave to get back to a huge project at work. Our family vacations always seem to fall on the worst work times for him. I sure appreciate all of his hard work, so that we can play. But BOY do I feel guilty when he has to leave for Phoenix and lawyerly duties and Emma and I get to stay on the beach. Anyone else have this guilt complex? Does it eventually go away? Poor guy.

These 3 cousins were born within 4 months of each other. How DARLING is this picture? I know that this one will be in their wedding videos. Besides Emma being a toy hog, they get along rather well.

And we can't forget the fourth doll face. Big Ben is such a good cousin to the little girls. Countless times I saw him approach one of the girls with a toy he thought they would enjoy. Unfortunately, he does not show the same chivalry to his little brother. :)

A cousin walk to the beach on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The time share is about 1/2 mile from the beach, but it is a lovely walk along a pier with shops and restaurants.

Emma is still infatuated with her uncles. And who wouldn't be when they shower you with unconditional love and affection and doting? She seems very bored this week with ONLY Mom around for entertainment.

This little thing loves to get dolled up and was pleased as punch to wear the sunglasses and beach hat.

All because two people fell in love...

My cousin Jenny grew up in California and her Dad was kind enough to bring surf boards and wet suits down for the cousins to try out. They all had a BLAST learning how to surf and lots of them even caught such tubular waves, dude.

What would a beach trip be without burying someone in the sand? Glen started to get a little nervous when he realized he couldn't get out on his own. :)

And last but not least, some formal pictures taken after church on Sunday. It was a gem of a testimony meeting where we learned from a 9-year-old boy that if we find our friend tied up by a jump rope, we should let him loose. Yes, yes. I'd like to bear my testimony about that too.

A special THANK YOU to my dear grandparents who foot the bill for another FANTASTIC Hancock family reunion!!! What a wonderful week of memories!!