Friday, July 19th, 2019.

I carpooled with Randy and the twins, with my “roommates” in another car not far behind. We left early afternoon so there was a bit of traffic on and off the whole ride. I took a picture of my “Uber” driver once we got to the scenic drive of PCH (Pacific Coast Highway).

Pacific Coast Highway- Santa Barbara, CA.

We got to the glampsite around 5:30p.m…As soon as we located our house, we said hello to everyone and started unpacking a few things in the house and wandered around the area to see what was around us. Behind our house was a bocce ball court, a cornhole set, firepit, and a few benches to lay out in the sun. There was WiFi connectivity wherever you walked, inside each house had a full kitchen and bathroom- all of which were spotless clean, too. My first perspective as I was settling in was how life would be living together in one complex- Each of our mini houses had the same setup, with a front porch in all of them so you can talk to one another when both outside. Shortly after, we started eating BBQ and drinking…

Uncle Edgar, Chris, Randy, Uncle Rolly BBQing.

Rocky learning how to prepare BBQ with Uncle Edgar.

Because we were all on the same street, we would all roam around each other’s house. We didn’t use our cellphones to contact each other, so we would go by word- of- mouth if we were looking for someone in particular, including the kids. This reminded me of how growing up as a kid in La Verne was- My family lived on the same street as my cousins and we all looked after one another. At our glampsite, the kids would run around our designated areas knowing that it was safe to play, no matter which house they were at. Another cool amenity in our area was an additional fire pit tucked in the corner next to one of our houses, so a group of us cousins used that at the end of the night while everyone else was asleep.

Saturday, July 20th, 2019.

In the morning, I walked to my front porch to do my morning stretches and rubbing my tired eyes awake. I would look to my left and see one of my aunties and uncles eating breakfast and them saying, “ JUSTIN, YOU EAT NOW!” I can smell bacon and eggs from where I was standing. I look over to my right and I see a small group of my cousins walking together, one of them asking if I wanted any coffee brought to me (perfect timing, Michelle). I also see my little niece, Penny, riding her little tricycle on our open and quiet road by herself as she waves hi to me- I look further down and I see Jon Jon and Auntie are just an eyesight away from her.

After eating a “warmup” breakfast next door, I hear that the cousins are all at the basketball court down the street. So I bring my niece, Rocky, with me and see that the family took over the entire half court, shooting hoops. I turn to my left and see Brian with Wade kicking a soccer ball. Rocky becomes interested and joins him. Minutes later, I see Joe arriving, pulling Taco in his little red dog wagon. Once Taco arrives, the kids go crazy and suddenly all of the kid’s attention gets drawn to Taco. Once I see that they were occupied and monitored, I start shooting hoops myself. We didn’t play a real basketball game, but it was nice to get my basketball legs back for that moment. Plus, I was a little hungover from the night before, so I wouldn’t have been able to hang with them anyways.

Once my cousin announces that the “ultimate Filipino breakfast” was ready, we all stop what we were doing and headed back to our area to eat. The layout was assorted fruit, bacon, eggs, bistek, white rice (of course), sausage, and in the other house Geleen made Crème brûlée French toast- BOMB!

The Tabije family also dedicated and presented a 45 minute video to my brothers and I. It was beautiful and meant a lot to us knowing that they spent over 80 hours collectively for this video. Our parents are dearly missed and sometimes I forget to sit back and reflect on how much of an impact they had with many people. After breakfast and the video, we talked amongst each other of how the video was created and what they did to make it all come together.

JP and family presenting video dedicated to my brothers and I.

Once we were done with that, my brother Joe brought a box of letters from his apartment to share with us. Inside the box was a bunch of old letters and cards from my parents and all 3 of us brothers, dating back as early as the early 1990’s. My parents, especially my dad, would make us write letters to each other on holidays and birthdays because he believed it was always good to practice to express and communicate with each other and that letters like these are priceless…It’s crazy to think that he saved all of these and made it so accessible for us to find and read. I personally wasn’t quite ready to dig in to this box…but I read a few letters and it put a smile on my face knowing that he had all of these discretely put away this whole time. Thank you, Mom and Dad.

An hour after this, half of the adults and basically all of the kids went to the swimming pool. I didn’t swim much and was mainly there just to hang out with everyone else. I had my speaker and music playing (as usual). My cousins would periodically lay some food and snacks on the table throughout our hours at the pool- thank you fam!

Brothers putting sunblock lotion on Wade.

After finishing that, I headed to our house and took a quick nap and shower……Next was the Pacquiao vs. Thurman fight!! But before all of that began- Randy wanted me to set up a group picture. It was our last chance to have a photo with everyone so we set it up during our BBQ/ dinner in one of the patios for all of us to meet at.

I’m sure that every one has already seen one of our posts on social media of our group picture… but let me just say that getting 45 people together (including Taco) to take 1 group picture is not easy... There are many factors that are considered when getting everyone together- Location, lighting, finding multiple levels of standing/sitting in one area so you can see everyone’s face when taking the picture, and most importantly-timing! We lied a little bit about the time to meet so everyone can make it “on time” for the picture.

After viewing a few pictures to work with and edit afterwards, we finished and sang Happy Birthday to Randy with his girls next to him and to help him blow out his birthday candles.

Randy with twins blowing out birthday candles.

Since Manny Pacquiao was fighting and not everyone could fit in one house, we had the fight showing in 3 different locations. It was a close call by the judges but Pacquiao won by split- decision, and his win set the positive tone for the rest of the night. Last thing on the list for the night was more eating, especially since there was so much food for dinner and I didn’t eat much because because I was so nervous about the fight.

We ended the night with more drinking at the same fire pit from the night before. There were a lot more of us cousins hanging this night and stayed a little longer. We were cracking jokes all night….mostly about nonsense to be honest. We hung out for a few more hours before heading to bed.

Sunday, July 21, 2019.

Surprisingly, I still slept decent, even with Taco taking up most of my sleeping space on the bed. Checkout time was 11a.m., so we didn’t get to do much aside from waking up, eating breakfast, packing our bags, and taking a few more pictures before heading home. Just like every vacation, time went by fast, but we had such a fun time that we were already talking about the next vacation that we can get everyone together to do it all over again. Thank you to Randy for setting this all up and to everyone that was able to make it out and celebrate!

Until we meet again!

Peace and Love,

JT

PS- Thank you cousins for letting me use a few pictures to complete my story!