cousin reunion

Our cousins, Frances, Grace, and their family visited LA last week which meant it was the perfect excuse for us to do a quick trip down to have a big family reunion!

It was just me and the girls who flew down since Scott had to work all weekend, and I had a great time with them. Oh, Nora had a few whiny moments but in general, they were both well behaved, listened to me and didn't cat fight too much. It helped, of course, that there were so many cousin friends to play with in LA. At one point we had 11 kiddos under the age of 10 in the house!

The highlight of the trip for me was the taco dinner party my mom threw on Sunday night. She hired a taco guy to set up a station on the patio and it was a beautiful night to sit outside and stuff your face silly with tacos! It was also super fun that other cousins from Boston, SF and SD made the trek too so it was a really big family reunion - the last few Christmases we were missing people who were traveling so I think this may have been the most "complete" family dinner we've had in several years. The night was topped off with a fruit tart from Porto's Bakery to celebrate my mom's, my Aunt Ping and my Uncle Tim's birthdays.

On Monday morning, we accompanied Dan, Jack and Ella to Venice Beach to watch them take a surf lesson. The girls luuuuved playing around on the beach of course, and Evie was even a little sad that I didn't let her take a surf lesson too. Oh well - something to look forward to next time we go to Hawaii! The beach was fun and not too crowded. We also saw the Palisades fire start up and at one point even could see flames shooting up. Crazy considering we were miles away.

It was a really awesome but short trip that I'm so happy we did. It was such fun for the girls to play with all their cousins and cousins-once-removed (?) and for me to connect with my cousins too! We need another cousin wedding so we have a good excuse to get everyone together again! =)