Beach 2015!

We spent last week in Carlsbad, CA with my entire extended Collins family!

It was a BLAST. 

Poor JP had to study like 5 hours a day for the bar while we were there but even he said it was more fun studying in CA than studying at home haha. 

The weather was perfect, the beach was amazing, and I think my family is hilarious so I was pretty much laughing non-stop the entire week!

We got to paddle board, boogie board, get Coldstone Ice Cream 5/7 days, play spike ball, go to food markets, etc etc. 

It was a DREAM. And my first time to Carlsbad. I'm obsessed!

^^^ Obviously had to have matching shirts. I'm pretty sure I wore mine every. single. day. 

^^^ Having some serious beach convo's

^^^ Dad, Sister, Brother, Me!

^^^ If you can get past how strangely red my face is, this tower was pretty freaking awesome!

^^^ Girl cousin pyramid!

^^^ All-cousin pyramid!

^^^ That amazing polka dot swimsuit I'm wearing came from this etsy shop! 

Her suits are my FAVORITE!

^^^ ummmm. yeah. this was unfiltered. Need I say more?

My extremely talented cousin Sophie made a short video from the week's adventures and it seriously captures how much fun we had all week perfectly!  You can watch it below (click the HD button!) or also by clicking HERE :)

Collins in CA from Sophie Collins on Vimeo.

Gorges du Verdon aka Grand Canyon of France!

(There's absolutely no way the pictures can do it justice, but I'll try anyway!)

About halfway through our trip we spent a day at Gorges du Verdon, an absolutely gorgeous river canyon who's water is bright turquoise due to the limestone that the canyon walls are made of. 

You can rent boats, go hiking, drive to lookout points, and rock climb all through the canyon and it is awesome. 

We were pretty lucky that we made it to the canyon and ended up having such a great time given the fact that:

>>  driving through Nice is a lot harder than we realized, 

>> there *might* have been spiders falling from the ceiling while we ate lunch in smallest town at the top of a mountain, 

>> and lets just say winding mountain roads aren't great if you're prone to car sickness (like 2/4 of us are...)

So I mean, if we can have a fantastic day even despite all that, you know this place must be pretty magical ;)

Crawdad, Crayfish, whatever you want to call them:

On the last Saturday before studying filled all my free time, we went crawdad fishing! 

(we, meaning me, JP, Eric, Kimmi, my dad, brother, an uncle and cousins too! Quite the crew. Those crawdads didn't stand a chance.)

Using raw chicken legs attached to make-shift fishing poles and butterfly nets (we run a professional operation), we managed to catch over 200 of the little guys! 

Which we promptly took home and enjoyed at a big cook out all afternoon :)

see previous years here and here!

my little brother Max and Kimmi!

 Strawberry Reservoir is gorgeous this time of year!

 Basically a mini lobster. 

 ^^^ they're clearly friends. 

 The cooked crawdads turn a lovely shade of red, don't you think? ;)

Root-root-root for the home team:

On our last night in California we tore ourselves away from the sand and water to go to an Angel's baseball game!

It was "Mormon Night" and seeing as we're Mormon (LDS, etc), and also seeing as they were giving away FREE HAWAIIAN THEMED ANGEL'S JERSEYS (see below) at the game, it was practically fate and we had to go. 

I haven't been to a professional baseball game in quite a few years, so I had forgotten how much fun they are (even when you are literally on the highest row -- in all the pictures you can see that we're up against the wall haha) and also how delicious ballpark food is.

I managed to down an icee, crackerjacks (had to), a pretzel, some nachos, and a chocolate vanilla swirl ice cream cone though out the game...  and also I bought a hat so that makes me an official Angel's fan, right?

Ooh and the Angel's won!

If you're lucky enough to be at the beach, you're lucky enough:

JP and I have just returned from a fabulous week-long (and much needed) vacation at the beach!

Capistrano Beach, to be exact. In San Clemente, California. 

I've vacationed there every summer with my whole extended family since before I can remember and it's where JP proposed to me 3 years ago!

And what a fabulous week it was. As we were packing up to come back home we all agreed that we couldn't remember a week that has gone by so quickly or a vacation that was so hard to leave from. It was just such a wonderful little respite from real life!

We stayed in a beautiful beach house, right on the sand and steps away from the sea. We swam in the ocean, kayacked with dolphins (twice!), boogie-boarded for hours, read books on the sand, played games every night, laughed til we cried, and came away from it all with a renewed determination to own a beach house someday ;)

^^^me, JP, and my little brother!

^^^ There were many intense games of "Spikeball"

^^^ the house had this neon sign that we thought was pretty ironically humorous

^^^ my dad caught a 30lb tuna fish! That then got turned into the most delicious ceviche and seared tuna I have ever eaten, ever.

I am thoroughly convinced that if you're lucky enough to be at the beach, you are lucky enough.