Beginning of the Summer! California Adventures

I am so excited for this summer!!!! I will be here the majority of it, but I have a few adventures in store, besides those I've already had.  For starters, the day school got out, my mom, dad, and brother and I all flew to Californ-I-A for a few days.  My sister's wedding reception was there that weekend, because she had gotten married back in April.  Her husband and his family I discovered were possibly some of the nicest people I know!  I'm glad we're now sort of related in a sense.  On Wednesday, we got in and it was super sunny outside.  Me and Matt (my brother), got there really wanting to go to the beach, because, there was a beach.  We were in El Segundo, California, near Los Angeles.  It's a super cute little town.  There are lots of hills, palm trees, and all the houses are kind of crammed together, but still amazing.  That night, we went and checked into our hotel, then decided to go for a plunge in the ocean.  By this time it was like 7:00, and nobody was in the water anymore...most people were in hoodies and pants if they were at the beach, or walking along the pier.  The beach we went to was Manhattan beach, and the sunset was beautiful!  So...me and Matt, being the crazy Coloradoans in California decided to go in the water anyways.  We only went in for a few minutes and people, my parents among them, probably thought we were super crazy, but it was still really fun!  Even a family from Utah passed us and asked us about getting in when it was that cold.  The next day, we biked along the beach on cruisers.  Cruisers are fun bikes for flat surface stuff, and the beach was flat, so it was a pretty easy ride.  I think we rode abouttt 34 miles if I am correct?  It was quite a few hours.  Well anyways, we rode to Venice Beach, which is a crazy place!  If you've ever been there, it's interesting.  In a way you kind of get the creeps, but then there is so much going on on that street...anyways. We didn't stop to look around, but we went to a nearby beach.  I found some gnarly seashells which i brought back. Then we rode back to Redondo beach, where we started from.  The next day, I found I suffered from a major sunburn all over. Actually mostly on my knees, arms, and back.  Ouch.  I never really get sunburned because I usually ease my way into "summer skin", but this time it all came too fast, and you better believe I suffered the consequences :( at Nauvoo.  The next day, we went to In-n-Out burger with my sister Erika and her husband Woody.  Never been there before, but it was quite an enjoyable lunch.  We all went to the El Segundo beach, and used Woody's boogie boards.  They were a party.  I got another burn probably, but that didn't stop my fun.  There was a boundary on where you could go in the water, and where you couldn't go, and I accidentally crossed it.  I was on my boogie board, but I noticed the waves were yellow and a lot bigger.  It was kind of hard to get back, and the lifeguard noticed that too, but luckily enough, I swam out onto shore and was fine.  That night, we went to Woody's to eat dinner, we had great Mexican food called Tito's.  Me and Matt watched a movie with Erika's nieces and nephews called the Boy who cried werewolf.  Like most Disney channel movies now, it was dumb, but it was still an interesting movie to watch. haha.  anyways...the next day, we saw our old friends the Merrells (just Chelsea and her mom) and went to the beach with them for the day.  That night we had the reception at Woody's house and it was great!  The food was amazing and there was a bouncy castle there.  It was kind of the greatest idea ever.  After the reception, we helped clean up a little and took down decorations, then went back to our hotel.  We left on Sunday morning back for Colorado, and went to our ward right afterwards.  We had a great time in California, but it was great to be back in the dear ol' Fort.