The Chase Family: Erin's birthday party

For Erin's 16th birthday, she decided she wanted a beach bonfire party. The only dilema was that in order to get a bonfire pit on a Saturday at the beach, you have to get there really early. Another problem was that Parker was having his last baseball game at 8:00a.m. the morning of the party, so we either had to get to the beach at 7:30 or not until 11:00. Of course, Erin chose to go at the crack of dawn, so she and 6 of her closest friends loaded up in our van and we headed out at the glorious hour of 6:30a.m. We dropped Parker at the baseball field and then rushed to the beach so that I would be back in time to scorekeep the game (thanks Rick for helping with the first inning).

When we got to the beach, the pit we really wanted had already been claimed, so we chose the next best one which was the closest to the pier. I dumped all the stuff out of the van and had Erin and her friends haul it over to their spot and set everything up while I rushed back to the field in time to finish out the first inning and rescue the somewhat clueless scorekeeping helpers ;).

After the game, we went home to load up everything else we would need - which was a LOT of stuff!! Then we picked Dee up and headed back to Oceanside. We found everything all set up and ready for the party and the kids had all been having a great time (minus the creepy men that had come around - ewwwwwwwww).

Beside the weather not being warm, everything about the party was great! Lots of Erin's friends made the trek to Oceanside. They played football, skim boarded, jumped waves, huddled behind make-shift wind shelters, roasted hot dogs and smores, and just had a good time hanging out. Erin had so much fun that she said it was her best birthday party - EVER! and that she wouldn't change a thing about it, except maybe the weather.

Erin and Brianne - best friends from 5th grade