I think I waited too long to write this post, but we will see how many details I remember. Now that I have written much of this post I can warn you that it is a super disorganized post so if you get annoyed normally with my excessive randomness you may want to skip reading this until you are feeling extremely patient. This is extremely random and disorganized even for me. It is called Stream of Consciousness people and is an accepted style of writing. Think Virginia Woolf. And yes I just compared myself to a great author.

The beach house was awesome. I love visiting California. We drove up Thursday night and stayed with Summer and Phillipe in Vista. We always enjoy hanging out with them. We also invited ourselves to go to church with them on Sunday. Summer invited us over for Father's Day dinner, but Jared didn't think his dad would appreciate that. Friday we went on a walk and to a park. Afterwards Summer joined us to go to the pool where I began my sunburn. We left from the pool to go to the beach house where we met up with Tom and Lynn. We were the first to arrive. We walked down to the beach while we waited for check-in and then we went and picked out our room. The beach house was twice as big as our house, had a hot tub, and was right on the beach.

We relaxed for a bit while we waited for everyone else to arrive. After Stephanie and Bryce, Hillary and Ben, and Jen, Ryan, Brooke and Cole arrived we went and ate at the 101 Cafe that has been there since 1928. It is the oldest restaurant in Oceanside. We got free postcards, 2 of which I sent to my visiting teachees. Elijah sat at a booth with Grandma, Aunt Hillary and Ben. Away from his parents influence, he ordered a root beer and a full-sized Caesar Salad. If you decide to go there don't forget to bring cash. They have an ATM machine but to use it we paid $4 in ATM fees. The food wasn't stellar but it had a fun atmosphere.

That night we headed to the grocery store to get lunch and breakfast food as well as the dinners we were each assigned to prepare. The grocery store we went to was too expensive for Jennie and I so we only bought enough to get us through until we could go to a different store. On Saturday Jen and I went shopping. We tried the Wal-Mart thinking it might be super and had little luck there. Super Wal-Mart doesn't exist in California just yet. We did find affordable boogie boards there so she bought a few for her kids and I bought one for Jared for Father's Day. Her car wouldn't start when we were finished at Wal-Mart so we walked over to Stater Bros. just to check out the prices. The prices there were much more doable than the Ralph's we went to the night before so we ended up doing our shopping in its entirety. I purchased Root Beer float supplies for Father's Day dessert there as well. And part of my California plan included buying Carey her favorite Dunksters cookies from Stater Bros since her family was being so kind as to watch our birdies for the 3 1/2 weeks. Jennie went to get her car while I finished checking out and as she was loading her groceries a bag broke dropping and breaking a large glass jar of spaghetti sauce all over the car and new shoes. While she went in and talked to customer service about it, I loaded my groceries into the car. We wanted to keep the car running since we didn't want any more starting issues. Jennie came out with a "free" new jar of spaghetti sauce and a free pie. I wished I would have gone in there and had a chat with them for her since I think she walked away too easily. The bagger had placed two jumbo sized glass spaghetti jars in a single plastic bag. She ended up with a big mess and her shoes damaged. She was worried about getting the bagger in trouble and didn't want to ask for too much.

That night was family pictures, my burn at this point wasn't so bad that I easily covered it up with lots and lots of make-up. There was a bit of grumbling from my kids but it wasn't too bad. Hillary made a casserole for dinner that had tater tots and hamburger meat that was really good.

We stayed up super late every night there playing games and talking. Mornings were rough but at least Grandma and Grandpa both woke up early so someone could hang out with Elijah.

Sunday morning we woke up and got ready to meet the Rossels at their ward. Elijah wasn't sure about going but Jared had a talk with him about natural consequences to our choices and he ended up deciding to go. (Surprising, huh?) It was interesting because a high counselor was speaking that day and he spoke on that same topic that every action or inaction has consequences. We enjoyed the brief visit with the Rossels after Sacrament meeting and then we were off to have fun with the family.

Hillary made sausage and peppers for lunch and Jen made lasagna for dinner. The food was great. Unfortunately for all of us, the dishwasher wasn't working and after 2 repair calls we gave up and decided to wash the dishes by hand. Jared even washed dishes during the week which was quite sexy.

Before lunch and after church we all went to the beach. We sunblocked up and I ended up horribly burning my legs. Stephanie did too. The lesson I learned is that when both the doctor and the pharmacist warn you when picking up your prescriptions about photosensitivity you should definitely pay attention. I didn't think I had exposed my feet for that long, I was wearing a long dress that covered down to my toes, but I messed up. I also got burnt on the part of my back that I missed while applying sunscreen but not nearly as bad as the legs and feet. I couldn't really walk on Monday or Tuesday and my feet/legs were so swollen. I still wanted to do the fun girls' day so we went on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Hillary and Ben left Sunday night which was a bummer, but Ben had to get back for school on Monday.

Monday morning, Stes and Bryce were nice enough to wake up and make a big breakfast for us all. On Monday the men went golfing and had a lot of fun. Jared was disappointed with his game, but I think he still had fun. I think Jared and I made pizza Tuesday night but I could be wrong. Stephanie and Bryce made Sloppy Joe's either Monday or Tuesday night and we took the other night. Stephanie and I did much searching for Campbell's Condensed Chicken Gumbo for the Sloppy Joe's. After multiple calls to Campbell's and various stores we were able to track down 3 cans at a Target in Vista about 20 minutes away from the beach house.

On Wednesday Jen, Lynn, Stephanie and I went to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack, shopping, and then for pedicures. Thanks to Lynn for picking up the checks. Unfortunately Stephanie had to sit away from us during the pedicures but we still had a lot of fun. We got to help pick out some cute baby clothes for Andie which is always fun. I love picking out baby clothes especially for girls.

Grandma and Grandpa took Elijah on early morning beach walks a few times. This was super special for Elijah and he had a lot of fun finding tons of shells during low tide. Xander and Elijah both loved the boogie board that we got for Jared and had a hard time sharing it with Jared. The boys went down to the beach every day.

Saturday night we played Murder. Maxwell had us all cracking up. He got the Ace of Spades making him the murderer an unusual amount of times. He machine gun killed us all by rapid blinking and turning and we were all too busy laughing to call him out as the murderer and stop his rampage. He also outed himself out as the murderer more than once before killing us all.

On Sunday there were Anderson Family soccer games, frisbee, football, and boogie boarding at the beach. I manned a few cameras and a camcorder to try and catch a bunch of the action. Maxwell took a nap on the beach and Jared gave his dad a Father's Day gift of a flash drive with old family movies. Sunday night we had a dance party which was tons of fun. Elijah also got burnt on Sunday and he was well covered in sunblock. I went and purchased rash guard shirts for the boys and better sunblock on Monday.

I learned earlier that Cole can mimic the mask from Scream and uses this face to freak out Brooke. I tried to get a picture of him making this face but instead got a bunch of goofy pix of him. I had a lot of fun trying to get a picture of Cole. You have to be sneaky because he hides as soon as he sees a camera pointing his way.

On Wednesday evening we went to Ruby's Diner at the end of the pier in Oceanside. It was a lot of fun walking down the pier. It brought back a lot of memories of walking down that same pier as a child. We got tasty burgers, shakes, fries and onion rings all thanks to Tom for treating us all. It was a cool experience to be eating dinner in the middle of the ocean. Ruby's wasn't really equipped to handle such a large party but we still had fun. We were all freezing after eating and should have brought our jackets. I originally wanted to walk down the beach back to the beach house but it was too cold so we all rode back in the cars. While walking back a family caught a small sting ray. I remember when I was little someone caught a ray on that same pier as I was walking by. The poor kids were trying to get the ray off of the hook and throw it back when a man walked by and shouted, "Isn't that what killed Steve Irwin?" We were all laughing and the kid that was trying to throw the sting ray back was even more freaked out.

Thursday we went to the beach again and the Rossells joined us there and in the hot tub afterwards. We had a lot of fun. Evan took a nap. The kids all played. Summer taught Maxwell how to catch sand crabs so he caught a million of those. There was a bit of a volleyball game and I got all the way in the water. Jared joined us and helped me catch a few waves on the boogie board which was a blast.

Jen made delicious shish kabobs for dinner and afterwards we played poker. We played poker for money two of the nights that we were there. I have a disease where I need to see everyone's cards but somehow I kept it in check the second night of poker and won. It was a lot of fun. I also enjoyed playing Rage and our discussions were pretty interesting and tear-inducing for some.

Jared and I packed late Thursday night and we all arose early Friday morning to make sure we got out of the beach house on time. I had a lot of fun on this trip and am grateful we got to go. It made for a great start to vacation even if I got a major sunburn with swelling and oozing and purpleness. Thanks Tom and Lynn! We look forward to more of these in the future.

If you have any special memories about the beach week please add them in the comments. I enjoyed getting to know everyone better.