beach hunt

saturday was dedicated to searching out
our beach.

the one we will frequent when we are close enough to be frequenters.



this one, straight west of us, was far too cold and windy:
(and apparently inhabited by some endangered bird
so you can't really hang out there...)

this one is shell beach:
no shells, just gravel.
too cold, obviously.

then we found *avila beach:
(also only 20ish minutes away)

"this one was juuuust right."

obviously this is a different crowd:



so i paparazzied this wedding that we watched start to finish.

dear bride,
if you ever stumble across this,
i have a few more you will want...

(the fotographer was missing out on this action)

avila is the winner
we will give you the update on that in a few weeks
when we are locals too!


*i corrected this post later from "pismo" (the beach we thought we were at.)
now that we have been here and been to the beach a handful of times,
we are a bit embarrassed at how obvious that this beach is in fact avila.
and there has been a wedding set up every time. awesome.

· NEWS FLASH ·

i always called myself the "west coast girl..."

but never thought i would actually get to live it!!

guess what...?

we're moving!!

side note:
[just found out last week.
we are in cali now finding a house.
we move in 3 weeks.
wow.]

hey california,
meet, the cliffords.

side note:
cc is kind of a big deal
so work is now in the santa barbara area.
tough for us, huh!
(all those pics are real!)

...in 18 months we will be in
san diego!!

i heart my life.

things that make me shimmy...

at the beginning of may, on a friday, i met with one of the peeps that i manage.
this kid has been dating a cute girl for a while....

as part of our one-on-one,
i asked about his thoughts on the topic of wife-having.
turns out he's for it.

so we set a goal to get him married this year,
which meant, engaged quite soon.

the following monday he told me he had a ring and a "blessing-giving" apppointment!
(ok, so we can deduct that the 1:1 was effective...)

turns out he wanted to propose on a beach in cali
near some relatives of mine.
he needed help, and i needed some vitamin D.

thanks, B-rendan,
for such a fun reminder of what it was like to be there
almost exactly 1 year ago...

and for letting me paparazzi a sec

after that adventure, i went straight to girl's camp.

now, i myself, like camping.
this here:

(though, i must say, a fantastic decor job)

NOT CAMPING!!

this is way too posh to be called camping.
lights in cabins and a full kitchen and showers?!!

so much fun to spend time with these cute chicks

and to spend some time with Niko (my camera)
in the great outdoors


miniature break from reality:

check.

Yep- we're THAT family...

how we roll in the family vay-cay dept:


early morning we make breakfast... named after ourselves (egg mcmoffats- hilarious huh...)


those shirts are definitely matching...


then we rode on this ride where you shoot things and get points and they let you email the picture to yourself at the end... i got the most points... cause i look intense.


the new pirates ride is great... lots of cameos from Captain Jack Sparrow that look just like him!


we all canoed on this canoe... cool.


proof that grandpa just needs someone to spoil...


the next day was Cami's birfday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMI -- I sure love you and love having you in our family. Thanks for letting us share your birthday with you!

which means cheesecake and ganosh (made my mac -- so naughty)


that morning we had to head back down to disneyland because of course we left the keys to one of the three vehicles in my purse that went home early... which meant that we had to leave the car there overnight. (we are staying in san diego, so that is a good hour and a half away.)

when we got there rob (who has an annual pass to disneyland) and i decided we just wanted to go to California Adventure for the day... cause we were already there...

so we did...
(this is at the "tough to be a bug" show (3D and so cute)


more pictures on their way... the Disneyland ones and more beach pictures are posted on my photo album. Enjoy

a few of my favorite things...

being an aunt to these irresistible things...

with these tdf smiles...


and this persistence...


and little tongues


and these cute beach bums...

and the sandy faces...


if anybody needs me, i'll be here:

(wishing i didn't look as tubbo as that picture might imply)

more pictures are posted if you want to check em out

If everybody had an ocean...

Last weekend I went on a mini vaycay-within-a-vaycay with the now small family to San Diego. Going to Cali always reminds me of how much I love my family. I love the long hilarious drives we used to have, and the long days on the beach, and the long nights of ab-killing laughter as we played games and what not.


I haven't been to the beach in a while, but the basics are always the same:

Cute little cousins that just love to roll in the sand,(Kate Thomas,7)

Adorable dad who gets in "vacation mode" and packs a cooler, usually with Fresca, Diet Coke, (DDP of course), and a soggy box of wheat thins,

and eating at a hole-in-the-wall burrito joint that is TDF and close enough to the border to be good Mexican, and just off of the beach...


Long story short, I have been needing some good famtime and some good I-am-just-going-to-sit-on-my-A-and-do-absolutely-nothing time. I didn't do much reading even, but I finally finished Harry Potter... SIX- so I can read SEVEN while I am not in school for 2 seconds. Between finals and rehearsals and work it has been almost impossible. I guess I was so in need of a relaxing vacation that I just basked in the not-so-perfect beach weather and loved every second of the breeze and the sound... and didn't do much more than that!

Speakin of sound- dad's "vacation mode" usually includes a few cycles through all of the James Taylor that we have (which I love). I did have to put some JT on my shuffle to listen to at the beach because my dad has trained me to need it-- mostly at the beach and the lake and on long drives where, of course, he is present.