The Southland Erwins

OK AMY! YOU TOTALLY WON!

My cuz, the one who got me started in this whole blog world, is pretty good at keeping up with her blog. I on the other hand can take a week, or two or even 3 weeks to get a post up. In short, we went down to The O.C. to visit some of my family, most of whom I haven't seen in over 10 years! We went down Friday, Sept. 12th and stayed through the 15th! (Amy had her blog post up on the 16th...jerk!) And I am just now getting around to it. Why bother? Because we had so much fun and the pics and video are worth it!

Anyway, we DROVE, yes, I said DROVE, in a car with a two and half month old baby all the way to Orange County! It was as crazy as you think. I even rigged the bouncy seat to work in the car! We stopped about every two hours to feed, change and entertain The Noahnator. He was actually really good in the car, but when he did melt down, it was collosial! It took us about 7.5 hours to get there. (not something I reccommend!).

We stayed with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Candee in Dana Point (B-E-A-UTAFUL!) by the beach and the rest of the family filtered through there all weekend! It is amazing how big the fam has gotten, we are all grown up and have kiddos of our own...Ashley has another boy in the oven!










Ok, time for the recap!
Friday: We hit it big with Amy's Kids (Jackson and Wyatt). We brought them Lightning McQueen toy cars, and when J showed Jackson how to make it flip, he made a best friend for life. Jack couldn't get enough of him all weekend! When my Uncle got home, the first thing he said was, "Is this guy taking care of you?!" I was honestly surprised he didn't threaten to break Jason's leggs...it's kind of a ritual he and my dad started. Jason's first response to my Uncle was, "WOW! You are like a cleaner, more put together Dick!" My Uncle then replied, "Who you callin' a Dick!" For those of you who don't know, my Dad's name is Dick, Jason wasn't calling him names, or was he?!! HA HA! Anyway, my cousin Marc and his family (Brandi, Kylee and Hunter) came over with Amy's Mr. (Luke), Aunt Candee got home and we dug into some pizza and games.

Saturday: We slept in, well I did, J got up with Noah at 8:30. I took my time getting things together, and we headed out to watch Jackson's soccer game. Sadly, we missed it all, but it turns out that Jackson wasn't in the mood to play, so we only missed a bunch of crying! We piled back in the car and went over to see the end of Kylee's game! Wy made friends with Noah and was pretty cute helping him out with the binki! Jackson was still pouting, and Wyatt was trying to follow! After the game, we were all STARVING, so Amy, Luke, Me, J and the kids all went to Cheesecake Factory (YUMMMM)! After our late lunch, we made it back to my Uncle's in time to visit with Ashley and Eric who were babysitting Parker! Ash swooped up Noah before saying hi to me or meeting Jason, LOL, and Noah LOVED her. He talked to her for like 10 minutes...it was the 1st time he really talked...soooo cute! Marc, Brandi and the kids came back too!

Wyatt and Noah finally make friends!
Jason...the Rock Star
Kylee and Noah waving at eachother
Coach Mark
Back at the house, we had a delicious dinner, A LOT to drink and got initiated into the world of Joker. It is a SUPER fun game, and we played all night long. We are all pretty competitive and, lets face it, the Erwin's are all hecklers. Thankfully, Jason has been around my Dad enough and not only has thick skin, but has some heckling of his own to dish out. Most of us were spending the night, so there were no reservations and lets just say we all got a bit tipsy and we had video cameras...I'll spare you the nonsense! Sadly, my Uncle and I lost terribly to Amy and Jason at Joker, but we sure had fun doing it! As the night went on, my Aunt and Uncle went to bed and the boys showed their true colors...Jason fit right in! Brandi and Amy went to bed, Marc went cross eyed! Luke was the last man standing, I think it was all the G2 mixed with his grape vodka. HA!






"GOAL!"
Wy had his own version of Joker

Marc & Brandi

Let's just blame Luke!

I wear my sunglasses a night....

"Captain Morgan"

the night ended shortly after this one....
Jason fit right in with my crazy family!

The last pic of the night...we decided that this pic makes Luke look like a Cowboy fan!!! LOL!

Sunday: We all stumbled out of bed...not feeling too bad, but not too amazing either. We had
some breakfast and got our stuff together to head down to the beach. It wasn't warm enough for normal people to jump in the water (Hunter and Jason did though) but it was better that we were on the sand. Jason got attacked by seagulls! Seriously, look!












It was hilarious! Amy and I convinced him to put it on his foot, just to see what happened...they swooped in and plucked a pice of pizza right out from between his toes! Classic. Noah did what he does best...sleep...and
Jackson and Wyatt were busy in the sand!
The only downfall, Il put sunscreen on Noah but none on myself.

Krystal + Beach - Sunscrean = SUNBURN FROM HELL! LAME!

































We made it back home and cleaned up just in time for the next family affair. There was 21 of us in that house! (Jim and Candee, Eric, Teresa and Sophia, Marc, Brandi, Hunter and Kylee, Ryan, Jenny and Parker, Amy, Luke, Jackson and Wyatt, Ashley and Eric, Jason, Noah and Me!) The kids were everywhere, heck, the adults were everywhere! We had yet another delicious meal, played some more Joker, and got to visit with everyone. It was soooooooooo nice to see them all and sooooooo nice to
meet my cousins kids!
We are all grown up....well grown older maybe but I don't know if any of the Erwins will ever grow up!!!

Meet the Erwin Family Kiddos!
(turn up your volume and turn off the music player )

Ryan & Parker

Eric & Sophia

Monster Eyes!

Eric showing off his
artistic ability!

Jason's new Best Friend


Thanks for a great visit, and I can't wait to do it all over again!