Stout Family Blog: New Years At The Beach

We packed up the family on New Year's Eve morning and headed to the beach to bring in 2011. A friend of ours family has a house in Ocean Park near Long Beach and they were nice enough to let us use it. Our family, along with Kyla who brought her friend Taylor as well as my sister Ellen's family and my nephew Austin's friend Carter who joined us spent a fabulous, fun filled (and slightly chilly...brrr!) weekend there.

After arriving Friday afternoon the boys took the kids to the beach which was a short couple blocks away to go digging for razor clams while my sister and I unpacked and got settled in. The boys and kids made a successful haul of razor clams that afternoon which we enjoyed in a clam chowder feed at my sister's house later the next week. That evening we all cozied up inside and prepared a dinner of steak, crab and truffle fries ( I will be ordering the truffle oil and salt to make these again!). For dessert my sister brought designer cupcakes in a variety of flavors from a bakery boutique. We rang in the new year that night drinking wine, chatting and playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii (See video at the bottom of this post for the Just Dance 2 show down of the best of the best!). The kids and grown ups alike had a blast, got competitive and burned off our delicious dinner!

Saturday after a great breakfast we headed into Long Beach to outfit the kids with kites. We spent the afternoon on the beach flying kites and looking for more razor clams. After a chilly afternoon at the beach we headed to Chico's Pizza Parlor in Long Beach for some pizza.... yum! We returned to the house and put the younger two kids down for bed, while the older kids watched The A-Team the adults watched Devil.

Here are a few pictures of our fun filled weekend of ringing in 2011!