FCS Cross Country Team takes a trip to Central Coast

This weekend we loaded up our hybrid and two other family vans with Ericlee's Cross Country team and a pile of food and headed for the Central Coast. It's been a year since we've made our trek to the beach. (Gasp!) We stopped for a fabulous Italian meal at Lombardi's in downtown Paso Robles and then arrived at the family beach house in Arroyo Grande. With six high school guys and six girls plus five adult chaperones and Meilani there's bound to be adventure. Friday night was a pajama party, including High School Musical 1, nachos and cookies, and even a rap performed by the girls!

Saturday morning we were greeted by sunshine and blue skies as we headed to San Luis Obispo for the Cross Country meet. The team ran through a really cool park with lots of winding paths through the trees so spectators could cheer them on at several points throughout the races. Meilani spotted a sandbox right away and parked there for awhile. Then she joined Mama and Daddy for a chase through the park to "coach the kids." (She's accustomed to this coach's kid lifestyle by now and tends to be one of the loudest fans.)

Frank, Nathan and Clark (pictured here) all improved there times on this fast course. The combo of beautiful weather in the 70s and all the fans along the route made this a great race for the team. Doug Daniel, the top guy runner, pulled 11th place and won a medal.

The star of the girls' team is Senior Janae ("Nay" as Meilani calls her) Ford. She had an outstanding race and placed 15th overall for a medal.

Following Janae was the rest of the girls team, including Kailey, Tatiana, Kaila, Chelsea and Rachel. Meilani knows them all by name and was excited to cheer them to the finish line with Daddy.

After the meet, we headed for the ocean for some party time. The team played ultimate frisbee, Red Rover and even buried Will in the sand at Grover Beach.

Meilani, of course, was in her glory as she had free reign to build sand castles and play with all her high school playmates.

Meanwhile, Mama attempted a nap. Not so successful a venture.

After our jaunt at the beach, we headed to downtown Pismo for dinner at Brad's Seafood place. The girls got Meilani this penguin balloon - a great distraction while we waited for our Clam Chowder Bread Bowls and Grilled Pineapple Salmon meals. Saturday night we headed for the movies: High School Musical 3 and Eagle Eye. You can guess who went to see which movie. Us girls sang, giggled and danced to the cheesy, romantic tunes. (Who knows what the boys did?) Then we strutted back to the Beach House for a night games and more sleepover fun. Sunday morning we enjoyed a Devotion & Worship time at the house along with brunch before heading home to Fresno. How we miss our high school friends!