![\"Adventures](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Pages-from-February-2018-South-of-the-Pier-CRA_Page_1-791x1024.jpg\")
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As published on South of the Pier Magazine, February 2018<\/em><\/p>\n For a family that loves to travel, it\u2019s fitting that Christopher and Maureen Aitken met while abroad. The couple, both attorneys, met while at a legal seminar in Puerto Vallarta in 1997 and married two years later. The family now includes four children: Tyler (18), Jack (15), Shane (12) and Annalise (10).<\/p>\n An active family, all the children either play sports or participate in theater and the arts. Tyler and Shane play club volleyball, and the whole family enjoys playing, especially at the beach. Tyler also plays volleyball for St. Margaret\u2019s and is busy applying to college. Jack enjoys basketball, as well as singing and musicals. In fact, he was Mufasa in the school\u2019s production of The Lion King. Shane loves to play all sports while Annalise loves horseback riding as well as exploring her artistic side.<\/p>\n The family also enjoys going on adventures together. \u201cWe love to travel and have taken many trips together over the years,\u201d says Maureen. \u201cWe love Turks and Caicos and Europe. Last year we traveled to Italy, Switzerland and Austria. This year we are going to the Canadian Rockies for an action-packed adventure.\u201d While the family loves the excitement of travel and adventure, they\u2019ve had to face personal challenges here at home. \u201cIn 2014, Jack broke both arms and his femur in a ski accident. It was difficult for him. He had both arms in a cast and he couldn\u2019t do anything by himself,\u201d remembers Maureen. \u201cSix weeks later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemo, radiation and had an operation.\u201d Helping each other through difficult times has helped in many ways. \u201cWe really pulled together as a family,\u201d Maureen says. \u201cJack used that as a pivotal moment in his life. It gave him perspective. He doesn\u2019t let things bother him as much anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Perspective is something Maureen learned early in life as well. \u201cI\u2019ve always been super hands-on with the kids. Family time is so important. We always travel with our kids and have taken some amazing trips. I don\u2019t look back and wish I did this or did that because we have spent so much time with the kids,\u201d explains Maureen. \u201cI think that has a lot to do with losing my mom [to ovarian cancer] when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my favorite trips was last year,\u201d Maureen continues. \u201cWe went to Europe and were in a different country every three days. We had that trip planned but then I got sick and we had to cancel. As soon as I got better, Chris rescheduled it.\u201d Little did Maureen know, her husband had planned a romantic surprise. While in Tuscany, they were staying at a beautiful house and Chris arranged for a photographer to come take family photos. Unbeknownst to Maureen, when the \u201cphotographer\u201d arrived, it wasn\u2019t to take photos, but instead was a minister there to renew their marriage vows. But in many ways, it\u2019s true for the Aitkens that there is no place like home. Maureen grew up in the Cyprus Shores neighborhood. Chris grew up in Placentia but spent time in his family\u2019s vacation home, located near Casa Romantica. Now, they\u2019re raising their family here as well, and even live on the same street of Maureen\u2019s childhood home. \u201cWe live in Cotton\u2019s Point, which was inside of the Western White House\u2019s gate when I was growing up,\u201d recalls Maureen. \u201cI remember when I was little, we\u2019d put our feet over the gate and then hide and watch as secret service would come out to look. We\u2019d watch the black limousines come and go with President Nixon.\u201d<\/p>\n It makes sense, then, that this family is one of the four San Clemente families behind local restaurant, H.H. Cotton\u2019s. \u201cI love the history of Cotton\u2019s Point. Henry Hamilton Cotton owned the house before President Nixon. He had huge parties that lasted all weekend and entertained people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt,\u201d Chris mentions. The families behind the making of the restaurant all know each other through their kids, who have attended the same schools. \u201cOne of the partners is the best friend of the operating partner, born in Mission Viejo, who owns many successful restaurants and bars. We wanted to open a restaurant here in San Clemente to be a local gathering place,\u201d says Chris.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all really interesting: the four husbands got involved and did the planning. One of the guys does the books, one did the interior. Chris helps with marketing and legal. It\u2019s kind of his baby. It\u2019s always been his dream to have an Irish pub like Muldoon\u2019s,\u201d adds Maureen. Chris also loves being involved in the community through the restaurant. The family is involved in Relay for Life Cancer Walk, and last year the restaurant helped donate food for a local team. They also serve local marines on Thanksgiving Day. \u201cLast year, the young men were leaving for Afghanistan a few days after the dinner. They\u2019re barely 19 years old and some have never been outside of their hometowns in the Midwest until now.\u201d<\/p>\n The family gives back to the community in other ways as well. As a breast cancer survivor, Maureen participates (placing second in the survivor\u2019s division in 2016) in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, while Chris\u2019s office, Aitken, Aitken and Cohn, sponsors the team. \u201cEvelyn Lee, from Chris\u2019s office, runs the team and sets up the booth,\u201d explains Maureen. \u201cShe\u2019s done it every year since I was sick.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides charities, the family participates in activities in their local neighborhood. \u201cI love the sense of community where we live,\u201d says Maureen. \u201cWe participate as a family in Cyprus Shore\u2019s annual volleyball tournament. The man that runs the tournament, Joe Ponder, grew up in Cyprus Shores as well. I love living where there are people that I have known since I was a small child.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe also have an annual neighborhood Halloween party and there is an annual Easter egg hunt in the Cyprus Shores Park,\u201d continues Maureen. \u201cThe volleyball tournament and egg hunt are very special as I have been participating since I was small and now we do these things with my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so great to live here with all the support. All our neighbors got together and brought us meals when I was sick. There\u2019s just a strong sense of community here,\u201d says Maureen. That sense of community, as well as the history that comes with living in Southwest San Clemente, is important part to the Aitken family. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know the history of Cotton\u2019s Point.<\/p>\n In the restaurant, we have lots of pictures and things that explain the history of the area and Cotton\u2019s involvement here. That\u2019s why we named the restaurant H.H. Cotton\u2019s. It\u2019s really fascinating to think that the property we\u2019re standing on has so much history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As published on South of the Pier Magazine, February 2018 For a family that loves to travel, it\u2019s fitting that Christopher and Maureen Aitken met while abroad. The couple, both attorneys, met while at a legal seminar in Puerto Vallarta in 1997 and married two years later. The family now includes four children: Tyler (18),… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,24],"tags":[70,71,95,243,355,484,686,711],"class_list":["post-4967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-news","tag-aitken-aitken-cohn","tag-aitken-family","tag-article","tag-chris-aitken","tag-feature","tag-maureen-aitken","tag-san-clemente","tag-south-of-the-pier"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Adventures](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Pages-from-February-2018-South-of-the-Pier-CRA-2-1024x663.jpg\")
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