la jolla

my mom is the youngest of 4 kids.

her siblings are 12, 16, & 18 years older than her.

i didn't grow up with cousins my age on my mom's side- 

everyone was a little bit older.

but i loved them and totally looked up to them....

3 cousins in particular:

kobi, nathalie, and laure-anne

i grew up thinking they were the most beautiful, amazing women.

i wanted to grow up and be just like them.

they were so sweet and always took me under their wing.

i even spent an entire summer with nathalie when i was 16 years old.

one huge bonus of living in orange county is being so close to nathalie & laure-anne and their families.

they live in la jolla (part of san diego), which only took an hour and 10 minutes to get there!

nathalie & her husband, ken, have 3 children: danielle (at college), erik & annika (freshman)

laure-anne & her hubby, shawn, have 3 kids too: annabelle (senior), liam (freshman), and elizabeth (6 years)

on saturday, nathalie invited us down to visit the family at her home.

i am not lying when i say her house is THE most gorgeous home i have ever been in.

(i wish i had pictures to show you. )

she planned every little detail, and it is amazing.  

it felt like a vacation just being there!

we had planned on heading down to the beach,

but when the kids saw her pool, backyard, and dogs...

we ended up hanging out there for awhile.

liam, bella, elizabeth, and annika in the spa

liam is hilarious, just like his daddy.  and quite the surfer.

elizabeth is sweet and silly and the kids loved swimming the day away with her.

annika is beautiful and kind.  and super fashionable :)

they have a giant trampoline. 

jackson got his jump on.

so did daddy

charlotte loved just running around the yard.

it is like a park right in their backyard.

if i could get married again, i would do it there.

charlotte with annabelle.  this is one amazing, sweet girl.

she loves jesus.  and she has her mom's gorgeous smile.  i can't wait to see where life takes her.

(jeff spent the day trying to convince her to go to college close to us :)

 they have 2 dogs, bailey and buster.

bella L-O-V-E-S dogs.  i mean intensely.

she spent the entire day throwing the ball to the dogs.

they would even jump in the pool to fetch it, which the kids thought was so funny-

swimming with dogs!

charlotte, however, was a little less excited about the dogs.

eventually the dogs had bella fetching for them!

charlotte took an afternoon nap on daddy- maybe his favorite part of the day.

she's getting so big... you rarely get a really good snuggle anymore.

after a fun afternoon in their backyard, 

we headed out to the beach.

liam was surfing, so we wanted to see him in action.

charlotte checking out all the surfers

erik helped with the kiddos on the beach.  

he is an amazing artist.  and just a kind, thoughtful person.  love him.

bella found a cup somewhere and decided to make sand castles.

charlotte splashed in the water

for the first time, jackson wanted to go in the water all by himself.

he let the water come all the way up to his waist!  he was loving it.

so was charlotte

she thought the surfers were pretty cool, too.

elizabeth and bella were happy to play on the sand

after the beach, we walked over to yogurtland for a treat.

yum!

we ended our day at tower 23, a restaurant right on the beach.

we snacked and watched the sun go down on the water.

what a perfect day with some super amazing people.

and since we are now so close....

i'm already excited for the next time!

i love that my kids can now grow up knowing these cousins better.

i'm sure they are going to look up to and love them,

 in the same way i did their mommies growing up.