Branch Buzz: California & Sea Kayaking

Drew was recently blessed with a new job offer to be a recruiter for a company called DaVita, still here in the DFW metroplex! We're thrilled and he has already been working there for a week now. God gave us an extra dose of blessing when it worked out that there would be a week in between Drew finishing his work at Ferrovial and starting his work at DaVita. Mom and Dad had already offered to fly us out to California sometime this summer and we didn't think we would be able to, but with the week off, it was the perfect time! Little Man had his very first flight (4 total with one to LA and another to Santa Barbara and back) and did as well as anyone could hope for. He always fell asleep on take-offs and only cried because his ears hurt when he woke up from a nap coming home from California once. Sometimes it was tricky keeping him entertained when he was awake, but between the two of us we were able to pass him back and forth and all went well. You wouldn't believe how much attention he got from everybody at the airports and the stuart on the first flight loved Grayson and even asked to hold him for a little while...and Grayson went to him without crying (a rare thing in these stranger danger days of his!)!! Toward the end of that first flight, the stuart came back to our seats and handed us a passport type book for Grayson where he had logged his first flight in it with the captain and co-captain's signatures as well as his first pair of wings! SO CUTE!! Nothing was more welcoming than getting off the plane in Santa Barbara to the cool weather. What a great start to our trip.

Fair warning...we have so many great pictures from our trip that there will have to be multiple posts and an absurd amount of pictures!!

So this is a little out of order, but one of the days we were there, Mimi and Raydad babysat Grayson so that Katie, Trey, Drew, and I could go sea kayaking! It was SO. MUCH. FUN! We got to go in caves, saw up close: sea otters, sea lions, and all sorts of birds, may have "tumped" (Katie that is for you!) over in our sea-kayak once, and enjoyed rowing on the beautiful water. Drew accused me of "fake paddling" but I faintly remember the guide telling us to let the LADY get back on the kayak first when a certain male someone hopped on first instead! Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun adventure!!

Ready to go! (Why did they give me the wetsuit with the wierd yellow stripe?)

So much fun!

Sea otter

Birds

Does that look like fake paddling to you?!

Sea lions

Caves

Here we come through the cave!

Pros!

Starfish

California Coast (with fog)

We made it! (I think this is the cave where Drew said that Trey almost got decapitated in as he and Katie went through!!)

Look at how cool those rocks look!

This was the cave that didn't have an exit. We were suppossed to turn our kayaks around, but Trey wasn't listening to instructions and kept looking for a crack in the rocks to exit out of and Katie claimed he panicked when he didn't see a way out! Haha!