Day 8: Celebration of God's Goodness

Friday, September 7 was our family, and Andrew and Cheryl's final day in California.  Dad and Mom were planning on staying another week but the rest of us had to get back to reality.

As I've gone through the pictures from Friday, I realized it was a day where God's goodness really shone through--from the beautiful sunrise, to his protection, to his blessing of more enjoyment in family, to his spectacular display at sunset.  We had prayed for a long time that this trip would be one where we would draw closer as a family but most importantly that he would be glorified in our time together.  Those prayers were answered in awesome ways.

Early in the morning I headed out to get pictures of the beach at sunrise.  What fun!

The number of surfers that came out that early was incredible.

The entrance/exit from the beach to the house, straight past the "25" and down the street a block and a half.

The four story house we stayed in.

View from the house to the ocean.

Mom and I decided to go do some souvenir shopping that morning while Andrew and Cheryl headed up to see another friend and Dad and Bryan stayed back with the kids.  We never did figure out what happened, really, but somehow Micah fell on his forehead and got a nice size cut.  Micah has hit his head many, many times, but has never broken open like this.  I'm beginning to be more and more thankful for and adept at using butterfly band aids!

Pretty sure he had a bit of a concussion.

After lunch and nap time we headed out to the beach again one last time.  This time the kite surfers were out and they are FUN to watch.  I'd love to try it some day!

For supper Dad treated us to Ruby's.  It's a fun little hamburger joint out on the edge of the Seal Beach pier. 

Yes!  I promised myself only one milkshake during the vacation.  I finally got one at Ruby's and Micah drank half of it!!  Good thing I love that boy an awful, awful lot!

The sunset was spectacular! 

 

The evening held the playing of "Power Grid" (the one and only time of the trip surprisingly), reading, packing, and generally hanging out. 

With that, our time in California had come to an end, but the memories will be vivid for a long, long time.