Weekend Oceanside trip

My brother, James, got transferred to Oceanside, CA so we decided to go visit while the weather was still warm! Spencer doesn't have a lot of time off since starting his new job so we just drove over on Friday evening and came home Sunday afternoon - another trip of over 12 hours of driving for less than 48 hours of vacationing... totally worth it! (I don't think driving phases us much after so many 18-20 hour drives through the night when we lived in Iowa).
Jack has been dead set on being a pterodactyl for Halloween for quite some time now so I went ahead and ordered his costume and it came in the mail on Friday. He was so excited and wore it all day long. He wore the hat part of his costume on the entire drive to California! We were dying! haha We sure love that dinonerd :)
 
 
 We got to Oceanside around 11 pm, and woke up poor Calvin with all of our noise. They had a fun midnight cousin reunion :)

The next morning, Jack and David woke up at the crack of dawn, despite being up so late the night before. We went straight to the beach to look for shells so we wouldn't wake up Calvin.

 
 
 




We went back to James and Maddie's condo at about 9 for breakfast. Yep - condo. They scored an amazing deal living year round at North Coast Village, the resort where my family loves to vacation in the summer! I'm 100% grateful that they are kind enough to let us crash in their living room anytime we want and also 100% jealous that they get to live there year round!!!


View walking into their condo hallway

View from their balcony


Can I resentfully talk about how ridiculous James' luck is?!
Side story: When we were right out of college, we moved to Alabama and got bed bugs and it was the suckiest, most expensive, and traumatizing event ever. Last summer, James had an internship in San Fransisco and their extended stay hotel had bed bugs. The hotel washed all of their clothes and his company moved them out of there and to the fanciest extended stay hotel ever where they got a delicious breakfast every day, cleaning every day, and they racked up so many rewards that they were able to get a hotel for a week in Hawaii for free! Annie gets bedbugs = panic attack, fetal position, ptsd, and a thousand plus dollars down the drain. James gets bedbugs = fancy hotel in San Fran for a summer and a vacation to Hawaii. I'm not bitter or anything ;)
And now he's right out of college and living at a vacation resort and his backyard is the beach. Again, I'm not bitter or anything ;)
We went to Harbor Days in the morning and for lunch while it was still cloudy. Jack wore his ridiculous pterodactyl hat the entire time and got quite a few looks :) This boy loves dinosaurs and reptiles, and caught this little lizard in a matter of seconds of seeing it!
 
 
We walked to the pier and back early in the morning and then to the harbor and back all before noon. Jack and David were tired of walking! (But I think Spencer was the most tired after the walk back from the harbor ;)


We went the the beach in the afternoon and the weather was warm and sunny! We lucked out!





Obviously related ;)




Jack found 8 sand dollars on the beach and was SO EXCITED about it! Every time he found one he squealed, "I AM SOOOO LUCKY!!!!"

We had such a great time with James, Maddie, and Calvin and love them so much! Of all of James' luck, I think the luckiest thing that ever happened to James was finding Maddie. She's predictably happy, fun, friendly and easy going and we all just adore her. Whenever we are with them Jack and David say, "Why is Maddie always laughing!?" haha I foresee a lot of Oceanside trips in the near future :)