Hollister Ranch

Last weekend we headed north to the Santa Barbara area to meetup with my family and my brother-in-laws family for some fun at the beach, also known as "The Ranch"! Mark's family owns some property within the Hollister Ranch cattle farm which boasts 8.5 miles of PRIVATE coastline!! 

It is SPECTACULAR and such a fun, fun trip for everyone!! We were last at the Ranch two whole years ago and it was so much fun to return once again. The treasures you can find combing the beach here CANNOT.BE.BEAT!!  More on that later.

As usual I took a lot of photos so prepare yourself for a photo overload...

You don't find beaches this empty everyday...

 My whole family.

 Mark's sister's kids came down as well with Mark's parents!

My sister and her adorable family.

Kaelyn made herself a little swimming pool and played in it all day. 

Brayden is impossibly cute!

And full on walking even though he's not yet one...

We roasted marshmellows and made beachside Smores.

 

Our beachcombing crew.

Just SOME of the treasures we found!

 There were giant sea slugs everywhere! The kids all enjoyed touching them and watching them very slowlyyyyyy move. This guy was probably 12 inches long.

To get to our preferred beach you have to drive about 20 minutes into the cattle ranch on winding roads. We had many encounters with critters like these along the way as they freely graze the cliff sides.

Day two started with photos of this cutie...she cracks me up!

 The beach was covered in seaweed so Bren and Savannah busied themselves cleaning it up. 

 

We stayed at a nearby hotel and finally discovered the secret to a successful bed sharing experience for these two. A pool noodle shoved under the sheet to divide up the space. No one rolled into each other, no kicked anyone, and everyone was happy! Including mommy and daddy!

Two years ago we discovered a "you pick" blueberry farm and the blueberries were divine! So we stopped in again this time to pick some more! Look how big these suckers are, the photo doesn't do it justice! We decided to have a contest to see who could pick the largest blueberry, there was some strict competition but I pulled out a WIN!!

Brayden was not a fan of picture time...

One of Brennan's giant finds!

Someone spilled her blueberries...

I'll leave you with some cuteness...on the left we have Kaelyn picking (or rather eating) blueberries two years ago at 1 1/2, on the right we have her this trip at 3 1/2.