McGrath Family Camping Trip

With that last quite long and "informative" blog, I left off at mid-July. We hung around the house, watched movies, played computer games, read lots of books and drew LOTS of pictures over the hot summer days.

In late July, the family (minus Dad) headed to McGrath State Beach Campground for the week! Our motorhome was vandalized while sitting in it's super protective storage lot, so we ended up renting a "motey" for the week! I went up early Sunday morning to get our sites and long story short, didn't even need to go up early. However, it was not for naught. :) I did get the chance to head out to Ventura & Oxnard and take pictures as the day was beginning. Here are some shots from that morning...

Ventura Harbor fogged into before sunrise.
House Sparrow...
Two snowy plovers scuttling down the beach...
Not quite sure what birds these are, but they were not very afraid of me!
This guy apparently forgot you need to push the kayak into the water first... ;)
Killdeer hanging in a field...
SO cute...a mama sparrow feeding her baby...Vibrant!
Immature gull in Oxnard...
Such a pretty beach...
After the sun rose...I headed up the coast just a bit to the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Bird Reserve and caught some pretty awesome shots!

Here is a turkey vulture...A mama mallard with her six ducklings...four were camera shy!Cowbirds....BOO!
Mute Swan looking quite regal...It looks so inviting...Now...onto the actual camping part of the trip....first night around the campfire!
Cole was pretty concerned about the stickiness of the smores...He really liked his own little bunk bed above the cab!
Jackson had a grand ol' time looking too cute!My friends, Shaun & Kristal came up with their two cuties, Natalie...
...and Landon!
We had a blast playing at a nearby park for a while...
Then decided to take a walk to the beach...
I figured I could practice with my new camera and take some family pictures for the Sawyers...
Cole and Natalie decided they wanted to get a play in the ocean, so I told Cole to take his jeans off...
Natalie apparently didn't care if her clothes got wet at all...she just had a blast splashing in the water!
Cole and Wyatt hung out in their camp chairs...
JJ looked all cute and cuddly...
On the 28th...I got a surprise birthday donut and coffee! :)
We all headed down to the beach to catch some rays and hang out...

A sea monster...Uncle Kyle...emerged from the deep to try and get Cole...
...and then the sea monster buried Cole alive!He then decided to practice his Baywatch run. :)
Mary and Wyatt went to the water's edge to watch Kyle body-surf...And I snapped a pelican diving into the waters!
Brice caught some wicked waves...
And then we all got cleaned up and headed over to the Ventura Harbor to celebrate my birthday! Dad drove up for the evening and we ended up at Andrea's and I had the best fish 'n' chips...EVER!
We continued the celebration back in the motey with some cheesecake, a highlighter yellow shirt, a purple ribbon in the hair and some white fan-friggin-tastic gloves. HA!

On the 30th, Mom and I headed up to Santa Barbara and got our 2nd tattoos each...Mom got an anklet...And I got an amazing hummingbird!
We finished the day off with some dinner at our fav spot...The Palms!
We had a wonderful trip with the Judy, the Richardsons and the Villaflors! Many fun memories were made and many crazy games of Pictionary were played!

So many things...

...to blog about! Cole and I have been super busy this summer, along with the rest of the family, and I guess I'll start in June and try and catch y'all up in a few posts over the next week. So...June: Mom, Judy and I went on a bird walk down in the valley. We had a great time birding and saw a few new species. :) That always makes it fun!
Mom and I looking for some birds... :)A great egret fishin' for some lunch...Cole took his first swim lessons with his cousins and had a blast (most of the time) "learning" how to swim. Ashlyn, Addison, and Cole along with Abbey and Emily all took lessons at the same park. Cole, Addie and Emily were in the same group and they had SO much fun together...


Buds!They are SO cute together!Apparently Addie thought of something funny to say!
Abbey and Ashlyn were in the same level too...
Amelia was lookin' oh-so-cute...
And Andrew was such a handsome little man keepin' his mama busy! :)
For the 4th of July, Cole and I headed down to San Diego to visit the Obergs! It took over 5 1/2 hours to get there...
but once we were there, we had a blast!

We hung out at Amy & Russell's casa and had a great time in the pool...
and taking pictures of the cutest pup around...Roxy!
The 4th of July feast:
Take a whole bunch of seafood, potatoes, corn on the cob, onions and seasonings...
Throw it all in a big ol' pot and boil it...Add some melted butter and voila! Enjoy the amazing food!
All of us kids headed off to the Naval Base...
...to watch the amazing fireworks show over Mission Bay!

After the fireworks show...Seth decided to take us on a tour of his hangar...We got to sit in a helo...

And the girls and I had fun in the female officer's "head!"
In mid July, my best bud, Jamie and I headed to the Staples Center for a little concert...only the American Idol TOUR!!!
Inside, in our seats and ready for the show to begin!

Scotty McIntyre...Tied for my fav...Matt Giraud...oh man.

Scotty and Matt did some UNBELIEVABLE piano duets!

This girl sure can rock...Allison Iraheta!The other man tied for my fav...Danny Gokey...he was SO amazing!
The "Idols" sing together...

Out came the big guns...Adam Lambert singing "Mad World"
Then rocking out like nobody's business with Allison!The jacket came off!
The winner!!! Kris Allen was super cool!
And man who can play piano, guitar and sing is a fan of mine!
The Top 10 sing!!

That wraps up this post...I'm getting more together for this week! We'll see if I can get my act together and actually keep this thing updated more often! :)