Coronado Island

We were able to fly out to California for Mike's (Matt's little brother) bootcamp graduation from the Marines! It was so much fun! We stayed on Coronado Island and I forgot how much I love that little place. It is connected to San Diego by a long blue bridge and is such a fun little place. There's pretty much just on little strip called Orange street with a bunch of shops. But the beach here is awesome! Lots of room and beautiful. Unfortunately it was cloudy the day we went to the beach, but we still had fun!

View of the beach from our hotel

The first day we got to see Mike! It's pretty much a full day event, but we only get to hang out with Mike for a few hours. We walked all around the Depot and Matt told us "when I was here..." stories. Here, Mike is prepping to go on the "motivation run", where they run 4 miles before getting to talk to us!

Can you find him?


Congrats Mike!

Where we ate lunch on base

Alot of Mike's family got to come out, including brothers Stephen and Brian.

We have amazing friends who decided to come out and visit us from 29 Palms, where we used to live in California! It was so nice to talk and hang out with the Redfords, they are so good to us!

Enjoying the sunshine!

San Diego skyline from Coronado Island bridge, on the other side of the bridge you can see Mexico.

Sunset from our hotel

Matt's mom, Carolyn

Our awesome hotel! If anyone goes to Coronado Island, stay here! They have a hot tub on top of the roof with grill, a pool table room with tv and kitchen, and they rent out all kinds of beach equipment and fun!

Day 2 of graduation. After this ceremony, Mike was able to actually leave the base, which he was very eager to do :-)

Where's Mikey?

Matt was very proud of Mike and couldn't wait to see and talk to him. It was fun for Matt to be able to see a graduation from the "civilian" side...even though he is not a civilian...he will never be a "nasty civilian", but always a Marine.

Cameron! The cutest one on this trip! Our amazing friends from 29 Palms, Jeff and Heather Ann Johnson came out and stayed with us on Coronado Island! I actually kind of missed living in 29 Palms because of these people! It was great to finally meet Cameron, play our favorite card game (Bohnanza), and catch up!

Matt, Mike, and Lisa. After graduation, we ate at the same seafood restraunt we ate at after Matt's bootcamp graduation.

All of the Beard men, finally together for a picture! Brian, Matt, Marvin, Mike, and Stephen.

Playing football on the beach...

Brian and Sergio. Sergio is another friend from 29, he and his wife Christina came out and it was great to see them :-)

Dinner party at the hotel

Mike and Matt at breakfast

Brothers: Stephen, Brian, Matt, and Mike

The Johnsons, we miss you!

We have another picture like this, but Mike is 6 years younger than he is now...it was when Matt graduated and Matt made him carry his seabag, it seemed to be twice his size...now he's carrying his own and is much older!

About the 6th picture I took of the two goofs...couldn't get a normal one, silly boys!