California Beach House Yospe Vacation! Day 1

ROAD TRIP- whaaaa?! For over a year, this trip with the whole Yospe clan had been planned and anticipated. Grandma and Grandpa Yospe found an awesome beach house to rent in Aptos, CA, and everyone cleared their calendars for July 17-25, 2015. We try to do something together as a family every summer, starting years ago at the Yospe cabin. Then as everyone's families grew larger, we moved to Zions Ponderosa Ranch, and then the Zermatt Resort, This time, we set aside a whole week for California fun. Needless to say, the kids were stoked. Adventures and beach days with cousins awaited!

We hit the road on Friday, July 17th in the afternoon, headed for Reno. This was to be our longest family road trip to date, and we hoped it was go smoothly! With my broken leg, it was more comfortable to sit in the middle seat of the van, with my leg propped up on the console for most of the ride. We had movies galore for the girls to watch, so clearly they weren't interested in a picture.

Headed west on that long stretch of flat road, we noticed that our van makes some weird noises with the combination of speed and wind. A weird whistling occurs somewhere up by the windshield or driver side window, which started to drive Jake crazy. So a little doll served as a noise blocker for a little bit. I just kept looking forward and chuckling at the frizzy hair in his face.

We made pretty good time, and arrived in Reno to stay at the hotel with most of the rest of the family. We found a place for our little family to eat, called Laughing Planet Cafe, which had farm to table, good quality, gluten free food. I loved the atmosphere, too. Every table had toy dinosaurs hangin out that kids could play with.

So quirky and fun. The food was good, too! Jake had mexican, I had a thai rice bowl...win win!

The girls were super excited to sleep in a hotel room. They swam in the pool before bed, and we got up and got an early start for the rest of our trip.

We made a slight detour to see some of Lake Tahoe. It was a beautiful day, and the kids just wanted to get near the water.

Yay for that first feel of sand between your toes!

In Fairfield, we stopped at The Jelly Belly Factory for a tour and samples! :) I remember coming here when I was a little girl, and trying the buttered popcorn flavor for the first time. (nasty).

Woo hoo!

My favorite part were the portraits made of Jelly Bellies. Holy cow that would be a lot of work! (P.S. Growing up, my mom had this painting framed and sitting in our family room bookcase. The farmers' eyes would follow us around the room wherever we went. Also, a spider once got inside the frame and crawled around the painting. Creepy!) Anyways, cute kids.

We were required to wear those nifty hats. Also, I got pushed in the wheelchair through the tour, which went through the factory from up above and had video stops along the way. We had samples at each stop, sample packs at the end, and then got to partake in the Sample Bar! You could choose 3 things to try, and then get in line and try 3 more if you really wanted to. :) I did. And I tried the big gummy candies to make it all the more worth it. The men enjoyed it.

I think Ike was trying to rip open a bag of jelly beans.

Little Lexi Lou enjoyed rides on my lap.

Check out all the nasty flavors you could choose from! You know pretty much all the boys tried at least 2 of the gross ones. Who wants to subject themselves to that?? I did that once in college with my roommate, Pippi, with a bag of Harry Potter Bertie Bott's Beans. We sat on the floor with glasses of water, and popped them in our mouths to await the surprise of which flavor it would be. Kinda fun, but definitely gross!

And one more portrait right before we left. Art!

We made a stop at In N Out for lunch somewhere along the way, and then finally arrived at the beach house in Aptos. It was called the Rose Tudor Manor, just a few blocks away from the beach. This house was amazing....it had room upon room, hidden nooks and crannies, bathrooms aplenty, toys, entertainment, and plenty of space for all 25 of us!

The owners also like to collect stuff and fill space, so it had lots of stuff but also lots of charm and character. The backyard was awesome.

The kids loved climbing and exploring on the hill out back.

And score! There were tons of boogie boards and fun things to do! (We never did play croquet, darn it.)

That first evening, we walked down to the beach (actually we drove, and parked next to this Rolls Royce, however you spell it, with white wall tires). Pretty fancy!

From the parking lot, you walked over this cool bridge to get down to the beach entrance.

This reminded me a little of Germany.

The sky was amazing. The girls felt free. And I was so glad to be on the beach again.

Lexi looking towards the sunset.

Those clouds!

That sunset. :)

Those baby legs....that dog. haha. Little Nora wanted to get close to this dog as soon as she saw him on the beach.

Everyone wanted to at least dip their feet in the water.

And some a little more than feet.

Beautiful sunset. I would be content and happy watching the sunset over the ocean every.single.day.

Ahhhh. California. Thanks for welcoming us.