Kids' Treat - Our 70th Birthdays' Celebration

I thought my parents were old when I got married - 

they were in their early 50's.

My husband just turned 70,

and I have just a slight reprieve until I do, next Valentine's Day.

It is all where you're looking from.

Our kids and spouses cooked up a wonderful surprise

for their old folks to celebrate this milestone with them.

Ryan's wife, Emily's, parents have a fabulous summer home 

on the beach, a few doors down from Hotel del Coronado 

on Coronado Island.

She arranged for all of us to stay there for four nights and days

September 24 - 28.

We love Seahaven!

Many, many thanks to Paul and Susan!

Ryan and Emily, Stacy and Tom drove together from Mesa, 
Mindy and Jeff drove from Highland, Utah,
Rick and Jodie and Missy and Jedd flew in from SLC and Boise.
We drove from St. George, planning to head up 
the California coast on Sunday 
to attend my 51st high school reunion at Cannon Beach, Oregon.
By Wednesday evening, we were all there, ready to party!

I am really the only non-athlete type in my family.

Next morning, everyone donned their running clothes and took off.

I do go walking each day, so Roger goes running, then joins up with me on my walk when he is through running. 

We headed for the local bagel shop for breakfast.

There was no cooking done this wonderful weekend -

these busy moms got a much-deserved break!

The surprise for the first day was for Roger 

to go golfing with the boys.

Roger was so excited that he out drove his son Ryan by 10 yards.

Picture proof!

And I got to have a hot stone massage at the del Coronado.

After my massage, which felt to-die-for amazing on this old bod,

I met the girls at The Del pool  and we ordered lunch.

It was Fantasy Land!

Then we all walked to a salon for mani-pedis.

Emily had made reservations at her parents favorite three restaurants in San Diego,

described each to us, 

then asked Roger and I to pick which one we would like to 

all go to that evening.

We picked, Peophe's, 

a fabulous seafood restaurant on Coronado.

 This was printed at the top of their menu.

We felt like celebrities!

It happened to be Restaurant Week in San Diego,

which meant that the restaurants had a three-course prix fixe menu with fabulous choices. 

I had the most wonderful gazpacho soup,

and this entree - mahi mahi sautéed with macadamia nuts and  bananas 

served with coconut ginger rice.

Delicious!

Roger had cedar plank salmon, and he loved it!

We all had either hot chocolate lava cake, Hawaiian cake or peanut butter pie for dessert.

We all stepped out onto the patio for pics.

Gynecology Doc brother had to tease his baby sister!

What a beautiful dinner celebration we enjoyed together!

Next morning, it was running/walking again,

then breakfast at a local sidewalk cafe.

Some of the kids took off on a bike ride around the island.

Seahaven has enough bikes for everyone.

Mindy did her own workout.

In the afternoons, we hit the beach.

Photo Bomber Missy!

Some of the guys went boogie boarding.

I think the favorite thing the kids/Roger did was play sand volleyball.

They had tourneys, ending with the inlaws playing the outlaws.

The Stratford outlaws won!

They are planning a rematch in Rick's sport court at Thanksgiving!

We spent some chill time on Seahaven's front deck.

We showered up that second night and got ready to take group pics.

We dressed to go through a session 

in the San Diego Temple together.

Roger tested the lighting in different spots. 

We wanted an informal pic, not one with everyone lined up.

Missy set the camera timer, then jumped into the pic.

We drove to Old Town for a Mexican dinner.  

This is one of Paul and Susan's favorite,

and now it is one of ours.

Virgin pina coladas - delish!

I had a wonderful carne asada, (something I discovered years ago in Old Town) . . .

. . . and Roger had seafood enchiladas.

The food was so good, 

and with more generous portions than we could eat.

We scrambled into our cars, got on the freeway, 

and zoomed to the temple.

As we drove into the parking lot, we could see that it was empty!

The website, where we looked up the times for the sessions, 

didn't mention that it was closed for cleaning!

We took lots of pics with Mindy's new iPhone 6,

which has a great camera. 

Then we all sat down together outside the doors and Roger recounted some of what Elder Holland talked about in the Salt Lake Temple when he married Shaylee and Paden.

It was such an awesome forty minutes to be in the temple with Elder Holland,

feeling of a truly great man's spirit as he instructed us in such a genuine manner. 

When Roger was finished, Missy asked her dad to bear his testimony,

which had all of us feeling the love for each other,

and for our Heavenly Father.

I shared with them how happy I was to have daughters/daughters-in-law 

whose priority was their children/family.

I expressed how we realize that each one has gifts and talents that they could have killed it out in the world with careers, and some did before they had children, but they each chose and were blessed 

to be able to be stay-at-home moms.  

And their kids reflect that.

Great kids, our grandkids!

It is about focus, where you really focus. 

Sorry to be so personal, 

but Roger and I are so grateful for these kids of ours!
  

Okay, so Ryan and Emily jokingly decided 

they wanted a romantic pic.

Jodie said teasingly,

"I want one of those pics." 

Ryan's brother just couldn't pull it off!

Back home at Seahaven,

we changed our clothes, chatted and then I got my uke out and we sang the song I wrote years ago and we performed around Roy when Rick, Ryan and Stacy were little kids, "Families Are Forever." Why that was so special to me is that I have not been able to play the F chord ever since my accident, but recently I figured out that I could substitute another chord in that song and some of the others that I play. It made me so happy. 

Ryan and Rick remembered some of the words.

It's kinda sounding like we were so serious,

which really wasn't the case.

It's hard for this group to be serious for very long.

We watched a video of a great comedian and laughed so hard our cheeks hurt. 

Of course, Jeff has us doing that all the time!

Jodie introduced this Baskin Robbins ice cream cake to us years ago - pralines and cream turtle pie.

It's a family favorite!

Saturday morning we had brunch at The Del - a delicious treat!

That afternoon, after beach time, 

everyone headed to The Del's pool.

Missy and Jedd went on their honey moon to San Diego and stayed at The Del.

We took a pic, 17 years later.

What a fabulous time we all had together!

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment,

or, to be more precise, lots and lots of happy moments!

Thank you, thank you, dear children.

Sunday at noon, we got on the 101,

heading for Cannon Beach, Oregon.