Boy was it a blast to see the family again. Flew in thursday, got there about 11am. drove the three hours to our hotel in Camarillo. After we put our stuff up, we drove 30 more minutes to my great-grandparents house in Oxnard. We walked down to the beach for a little bit while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive. Came back and visited with everyone for a while and ate dinner. went back to our hotel and got in the hot tub.

The next day, our friend from Ventura took us to the Santa Barbara Zoo. It was pretty neat to see all the animals. We got to feed the Giraffes. The gorilla gave us a show (layed down scratched his balls and smelled his hand lol). The was this huge hornbilled bird. it looked about four feet tall!! The Lions were just catching some rays on the rocks. The Snow Leopard was really pretty too.

Third day, we took family pictures down by the beach. Then we went to Ventura Harbor and swam at the beach. The Pacific Ocean is very cold and very salty.Then we walked around the Harbor and saw all the shops and the boats. Really neat.

Fourth Day was the ceremony. My great-grandparents 50th Anniversary. They were renewing their vows. We get to the church (its a nice Episcopal church). it was really interesting, cause just before the ceremony they performed a baptism, so the baptismal bowl was still out. So we go through the ceremony and during the Homily hugging everyone and saying "peace be with you," one by one we thought of the same thing...one of my cousins has two little girls that haven't been baptized yet. So in the middle of my great-grandparents' renewal. we had TWO baptisms. So two baptisms and a renewal of vows. another one of my cousins thought about getting married, but then thought her dad would have a heart attack and we would have to have a funeral all in the same day. "Thats the McEwan way, we get things done." Overall we got a Buy one, Get two free deal. Bought a renewal of vows and got two free baptisms. After that we went to In-N-Out burger. Delicious, they need In-N-Out burger here. Then we drove two hours down to Simi Valley for the party. Lot of great food and live music. Us great-grandkids went swimming in the pool. The little girls that were baptized swam too. the younger girl age 3 had a little floaty thing that my brother dragged around the pool with her in it. The older one age 5, I supported her swimming across the pool. she just learned to swim so i just propped her up with  my hand on her stomach to keep her afloat as she paddled from one side to the other. Then in the hot tub, the older one could keep herself up so, i had the little one on my knee bouncing. I would move to the other side and she would jump to me. Such adorable girls. Makes me want to have a girl even more. After the party we drove an hour to Anaheim.

The next day, our friend from Ventura took us to Disneyland. Lots of waiting in line for very short rides. I didn't really enjoy it because i didn't really grow up under the spell of Disney. The fire work show got cancelled due to wind, so after that i became a crab. i was tired, my feet hurt and i just wanted to go back to the hotel and go to bed.

Next day we flew back, long flight from Orange county to Atlanta, followed by a less than thirty minute flight to Huntsville. we were in queue  waiting to take off longer than we were in the air. got home, took a shower and crashed.

Special thanks to marzolan for checking in on our cats.