Santa Cruzin-Part One

For the Fourth of July (yes, I'm still playing catch-up!) we headed to Santa Cruz with Alex's brother, Jake, and his family. We loved spending this holiday weekend with them. We hardly ever get to have time together with just our families and it was great to get to know each other on a deeper level. We absolutely adore their kids and had such a blast! 

 I was sitting in the sand with Annie strapped to my chest, trying to take pictures of Alex playing in the sand with the two older kids when a gentleman walking by stopped and simply said "BYU?" I was looking around for a hat or t-shirt or something that had the BYU insignia on it. But we weren't wearing anything. How did he know?! We talked to him for a little bit and he just said that he "could just tell". You mean a young family of five with pasty white skin has "BYU" written all over their faces? Hmm... I could see that.

Kellie and Jake...and Cheetos.

 Reesa and Jake...and Pringles.

 Annie and Mitchell were there too...they slept under our make-shift tent most of the time.

Towards the end of our beach day, birds just started flying in. Like HUNDREDS of birds! I had never seen anything like it! It was truly a spectacle. The birds peppered the sky and water. We might as well have been in Hitchcock's The Birds. They circled and grazed the water as they slowly headed north. Pretty cool is all I have to say.