west coastin': happy third birthday!

Hazel woke up on her birthday to a room full of balloons! The day just kept getting better, with presents (a butterfly plate and utensil set, a toy dog, sand toys, a bike horn, and a new bike!) and a pancake breakfast with some of her favorite people.

We then headed south to spend a beautiful day at the beach. The boys spent the day surfing and playing the waves, and us girls and little ones played in the sand and relaxed.

making hazel's 'birthday cake'

these cousins in their wetsuits looked so cute (i couldn't decide on which picture i liked best)

hazel was just walked right up to this guy and snuggled up next to him. he kept looking at her and all around, and she was just chatting away with him. i was laughing so hard and had to take some pictures before i went over and rescued him. she had been piling sand all over his leg. haha!

hang loose!

By dinner time we were all tired and hungry and couldn't find a place to eat that sounded good to all of us. We got back in our two cars and headed for home, deciding we would stop along the way.

About an hour from home, our car started making a funny knocking sound. I turned to Isaac and asked if that should worry us, and he nervously said, 'umm, nooo...'. Less then a minute later, our car was dead on the side of the freeway. Ah!

(A little back-story. Our car had been going through an entire engine-full of oil per week for the past month or so. After almost 250k miles, we knew our car was about to expire, so we began car shopping. We finally found a car we loved, we got a loan, and then.... we waited. The owner had just paid off the title and the lending department wasn't going to be mailing it out for a few weeks. We had hoped it would arrive before our vacation fun began, but it was delayed. We were so close to owning a new car... And our car actually died in the same town where our new car was waiting for us. So close!

We called a tow truck. Corey and Isaac stayed with the car while the rest of us went out to dinner. Since it was Hazel's birthday dinner, I texted Isaac and suggested they ask the tow truck driver if he was hungry and wanted to join us for dinner. He did, and we all had a lovely meal together before he hauled our dead car home.

RIP, little buddy

This lack of transportation threw a wrench in our plans the next day, so we hung out around the house while Corey attempted to fix the car (no luck, it's a goner). I then led everyone on a walk to Isaac's work, but apparently I don't know the way and never heard the end of it :)