Swoon

Laird Hamilton

It's OK if I'm swooning, because John is too.

I just wish I had my good camera to catch some better amazingness.

Family Reunion Time

The Merrill Family Reunion was held July 5-9 camping at Leo Carrillo State Beach.

The cousins all had a blast getting reacquainted and playing non-stop on the beach or at the camp.

left to right: Madison, Spencer, Mikal, Uncle Matt

Maddy and Spencer collide.

I think every child was buried in the sand at one point or another.

Here are the ABC's of 2001.

Alyssa, Brooke, and Christa.

When they were just toddlers, we took a cute picture of them sitting on a sand dune at the beach, all wearing hats. Heather (Joe's) picked up some darling hats for them to wear for another history-making shot.

Then we used them on Becky, Miranda and Madison for fun.

Kids frolicking in the gorgeous surf.

Family picture time! Daniel designed these awesome family reunion t-shirts that we donned for the photos.

Here are the Heathers and me. Yes, they are all Heather Merrill. I am non-Heather.

Here's the whole Merrill clan. Grandma and Grandpa, 7 kids, 7 spouses, and 28 grandchildren.

Andy always wants to have an "outlaw" shot. We are the Merrill Outlaws.

S'more fun just about every night.

Uncle Andy brought this cool bottle rocket launcher (fashioned from an old Dish satellite).

The kids had a blast making that thing blast off.

We drove down to the far end of the beach. I had a dozen kids piled (literally) in my car along with 3 longboards and boogie boards, and Cole. They loved the unconventional way to travel.

I think Ashlyn here is not only enjoying the rays, but trying to breathe as it was pretty packed in the car!

Notice the kids playing happily in the sand . . . and the guy wiping out on the wave! So funny! I don't know who it is, but it was great timing.

Christian and Gavin goofing off.

On Friday night, John came back from work and went surfing. I brought the girls down to the beach after dinner so we could watch and take some pictures.

The pelicans were very active

dive bombing in the water

and making quite a splash.

Here John is coming in to say hi to us.

The setting sun put out such a beautiful light which made for some gorgeous photos.

Saturday morning we packed up camp and came home tired, hot, sweaty, dirty

to this . . .

Our neighborhood was completely closed off with

SWAT, a dozen sheriff cars and trucks, a hook-and-ladder, paramedic, 5th wheel, tents, trailers, K-9 units, battering ram, a chaplain and negotiators.

We had to park our loaded-to-the-ceiling-and-on-the-roof cars on the main street and have a police escort walk us to our house where we were to remain indoors the whole time.

John even got lightly reprimanded for trying to water the grass by our front door.

Turns out that a neighbor went berzerk and threatened his life (with a SWORD!?). His fiancee called 911 at 6am and she was outside the whole time with the police.

CRAZY!

For six hours our neighborhood was under house arrest (there's only one street to access) while the negotiators tried talking the guy out.

After about an hour of silence, they went through the unlocked front door and found him unconscious. Seriously, I'm hoping that law enforcement was using this opportunity for a DRILL as it was pretty over the top! There were no hostages, his fiancee was working with the police letting them know everything the guy owned. The man-power was pretty incredible and I don't even want to know how much it cost. Just goes to show how low-key this area is when something this benign can garner so much attention.

(the photos were taken from my balcony)

We were glad when it was over so we could unpack and go to the laundry mat!