Family, Food, and More: 20 Years....

The 4th of July is a special anniversary for Mr. D and I. He proposed to me 20 years ago, standing in a giant cheeseburger float, wearing a hula skirt and a bikini top in Cayucos' 4th of July Parade. This year, we left the parade with one less child, leaving her behind to go to school there. It was an emotional week, but it's all good.

We started off the week going to Hearst Beach and hung out with old ward members, it hardly felt we've been away for 3 years. It's always fun to visit with old friends, in fact we NEED to visit our old friends, they are family.

While we had some time we headed a little farther up the coast to San Simeon. The gates were closed to the lighthouse so I had to take the pics from there. Then on the way back down to the beach we pulled over to see the Elephant Seals, they're always so impressive even though all they seem to do is lay out on the beach and snore and snort.

Then the boys and dad went on a hike out at Montana de Oro, even Grandpa went. You'll notice the "extra", that's my nephew, A, who LOVES Avatar. He's visiting Grandpa & Grandma for the summer.

Then we ALL headed over to Montana de Oro for Mr. D, his brother C, and his daughter, Long Lashes to go try to do an ocean entry dive. It's not the greatest place to go, but it can be done. They got there and there were no waves, it looked perfect. But, by the time we gathered all the dive stuff out of the back of the car and they started getting geared up, the waves were curling and it wasn't exactly the best conditions.

Mr. D went in first and now looking back I probably could have gotten some great training pics as to how to attempt an ocean dive under these conditions. But I pulled my camera down and missed it. But, you can tell by the look on Mr. D's face, he was WIPED out, literally.

So then Mr. D helped C and Long Lashes get into the water and they did it!!! Yay! But then he had to try again. Long Lashes sister was such an awesome help! She's always looking for an excuse to get wet anyways, but she really is always just right there to help.

Mr. D ALMOST made it. A few more tries and he called it quits. With all those added weights and the waves, it really sucked the breath out of him. We saw C and Long Lashes heading back in anyways. They couldn't dive, the water was too choppy. So, Mr. D helped them in. Long Lashes had to take her tank and vest off to get back in. It was tough getting back in with the currents, and one of her fins also broke. :(

C wanted his fins off NOW. lol They packed it all up and headed over to Morro Bay where they could just slip into the water. The rest of us packed it in and headed for a pool since we knew it would be much safer. Like there was anything we could do anyways at the beach for them.