Family Traditions
Happy first day of summer babes! I can’t believe I am writing that, as it seemed like only yesterday we were closing out the new year! As much as I don’t like the heat that the summer brings I look forward to summer every year to spend time with my family in our favorite place. Having just gotten back from La Jolla this week and summer kicking off today I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about tradition.
Tradition…specifically family traditions are something I cherish more than anything and something I cannot wait to pass down and also create with my own little family one day. I think Traditions are very important and can be great to implement in your family. Tradition to me creates bonds, and is a strong foundation for family values and creating memories that last a lifetime.
Speaking for myself and my family, it has for sure created memories that will stay with us forever and it keeps us all looking forward to certain times of year. Knowing that no matter how busy our lives get we know we will have those fun times ahead together and we can always reminisce on the fun in the past.
I am so thankful
My parents created traditions for us and have stuck to them all these years. We have two family tradition trips a year but, I am only going to talk about one of the two, as summer is here and we are getting ready to drive up in a couple weeks to continue one of our now 30-year-old summer family traditions.
Every summer since my older brother was born my parents have been taking us to La Jolla, California. The same beach, the same hotel, and pretty much the same rooms since we were kids to this very day.
When we were younger all 6 of us would pile in the car with loads of luggage and drive 6 hours to California to spend the summer. We always left July 1st and we would stay for the next couple weeks. And in those weeks, we spent all day at the beach together and finally at 5pm when the tide was coming in we would come back in to shower, change, and get ready for a beach BBQ and to watch the sunset. We ate dinner pretty much every night in the sand and with everyone on the beach. If we weren’t eating dinner on the sand we were walking up the street to any one of our favorite restaurants only a 2 minute walk from the hotel.
La Jolla Beach and Tennis club quickly became our summer home away from home and a destination that at the core itself runs off tradition.
From the same red, white, blue and yellow umbrellas, to the blue and white stripped beach towels, the same peppermint ice cream, amazing employees, and a lot of the same families. The years pass yet things seem remain the same.
One of my other favorite things is:
We are not the only family that has used LJBTC as their family tradition which only benefited us all as it created new and lasting friendships and a community of our own. We still keep in touch with those families today and see many of them back at the beach year after year.
Flash forward to now, we are all older and almost pushing thirty we come together July 1st and although we don’t stay as long and everyone’s schedule are a little different when come together we still continue and love to do the same things as we did when we were kids.
From building sand castles, to early morning surf lessons, daily lunches at the cheese shop, to nightly BBQs on the beach, roasting marshmallows and eating more s’mores than I can count, it never seems to get old it only seems to get better.
I love that no matter how old we get we still love to do the same things.
One of my favorite days and memories of the whole trip is Fourth of July. Everyone wakes up super early to secure their spot on the beach and from the north to south end of the hotel its decked out in red white and blue. From flags, to banners, bikinis, and food everyone celebrates to the nines and we end the day with a community BBQ for the whole hotel. They have face painting, they pass out glow sticks and by 9pm we all gather back on the beach to watch the fireworks go off of the cove. It’s pure bliss to me.
I love that Nathan gets to be a part of these family traditions as well now and has been since we started dating so he enjoys it just as much and looks forward to it every year as well.
Fun Fact:
A decade after coming to the beach my mom found and bought a pair of red, white, and blue flag pants and without fail, every year my mom wears the same pair.I don’t know what’s more impressive… 1. The fact she can still fit into the same pants she bought 20 years ago or 2. She has never misplaced, stained them and still remembers to bring them year after year.
I am going to be doing a follow up blog post about our trip this year to La Jolla with pictures, our favorite places to eat, what i wore for the fourth, and hopefully snag a pic of my mom in those pants!
I love hearing about other family traditions so if you and your family have some of your own I’d love if you shared them below. :]
