San Onofre!

e took off for our 3rd annual Koehler Beach Holiday!  This year we had more than just the Koehler Bunch going.  We also were able to get Mike Donovan's youngest out here, Tess, and our friends, Jared and Julie Casady!  Awesome!  

Here's Tess as she arrives at Ontario Airport after the flight from hell (how many delays were there out of Buffalo??  OMG!):

Ken and I reserved two cottages (we're hoping that we can get a ton more people together for this trip next year since we can reserve as many cottages as we want).

Sean helped Ken to get the truck loaded up:

Our first stop was In-N-Out to get something to eat before getting on the highway.  Tess has never been to In-N-Out, so we made sure that she got a great taste of what California has to offer.  She loved it!

So, we got on the Highway and headed down to Camp Pendleton where we are able to get the beach cottages at a GREAT price because of Ken's service.

When we arrived, there was complete cloud cover and the waves were choppy.  The Office told us that the weather had been great until that day, so we unloaded the truck and hoped for the best!


Here's what the setting is:

Here's the row of cottages

Our cottage

The girls get a tent out in front of the cottage for some extra space since there's only one bedroom in the cottage.  They love that they get the camp-out feel!

The sun never peeked out, but we had arrived late, so by the time we were done with the grocery shopping, it was late.  We had pizza for supper and then we headed down to the beach for a bonfire.

The best purchase I had made was the marshmallows.  These were the largest marshmallows I had ever seen, and they screamed out to be used for S'mores.  So, here are the S'mores with the super huge marshmallows:

I was LOVING this S'more!  So awesome with the super-humongous marshmallows!

The marshmallow was almost bigger than Jordan!

 Mandy showing off her S'more

 Tess was the world famous S'more maker!

We love having the bonfires each night.  The first night was great because we were settling in:

Ken is King of the Fire

 Julie and Jared

 Jordan and her Uncle Jared!

 Tess was trying to warm her toes up

Me and my Love

Jordan loves the camera!

 The next morning, we woke up to RAIN!  Totally not cool, but we made the best of it.  We watched some television, we played board games - What's Yours Like was wicked fun!  

 You can see the rain hitting the window, but Taylor is enjoying her breakfast nonetheless

Jordan stayed in her jammies most of the day

 Everything was wet and only the surfers were out in the ocean

Sharing the couch to watch TV

 Jordan was being totally cute making her lunch, but then she got shy when I tried to take a picture.

 Lunch!  Tess loves the camera as much as Jordan!

 "What's Yours Like?"  We kept it clean for the kiddos!

Mandy was our photographer during the game

We were able to have another bonfire when evening came.  The rain had stopped long enough that we weren't totally drenched.  Again, we enjoyed the S'mores but regretted that we had forgotten the iPod radio to have some tunes.

The bonfires are part of the best thing about these trips:

We have to hang close together and enjoy talking to one another rather than go in different directions

While I love all of the family close time that we have one these trips, it is also amazing for me to enjoy my quiet mornings.  Because we stay up late, the girls sleep in affording me the ability to enjoy my coffee with this great view:

After a while, we were finally able to enjoy some sun!  We all rushed into our bathing suits and hit the sand.   The  temperature wasn't as hot as we normally enjoy, so I actually stayed out of the ocean, but the girls could not be held back.  

Jules is giving Sean grief because he didn't want to go out when the water was so cold

Ken is on the left while Sean is on the right

Ken and Jared laying opposite to avoid "spooning"

Sean and Taylor created Boobtopia

Then, there are the after effects of playing in the sun:

We had great BBQ's that Ken created:

Some of the chicken tasted soapy!

Here's Jordan pretending she's too tired to feed herself, so Tess helps her out

Now, Tess is feeding Jordan, Jared is giving her a back massage, and Julie is massaging her head.  Wow!

More bonfire fun that night after an incredible supper:

The next morning was bleak again, so we went to check out the tide pools.  Tess had never seen anything like it.  I lost my footing and sacrificed my butt to save the camera and phone during this adventure!

So the weather was again nasty, so we played Uno for a while while waiting to see if the gloom would burn off.

Nope!  It was overcast, cold and sprinkling, so we decided to load up and go check out the newer cottages at Del Mar which is at the southern end of the Base.  Not only were we impressed with the lack of rocks and seaweed at Del Mar, but we loved the newer cottages and they had sun!

We showed Tess and the Casady's around Camp Pendleton since we couldn't go in the ocean.  We enjoyed some shopping on Main Side and I found a new favorite wine:

Overall, this was a great trip!  We all would have loved to spend more time in the ocean, but it was so great to hang out with friends and family!  We are already starting to plan next year's trip, and we're hoping that we can add more cabins to hold more friends and family.  


When we got home, Ken and I took Tess out to enjoy some of the California side of life - actual Mexican food and then Nubi's yogurt.  Tess could not handle the Nubi's - too many wonderful choices:

Well, our beach trip is over, but we have the memories as well as the hope for next year!  Thanks Julie, Jared and Tess for traveling to hang out with us!