Vacation

I didn’t entirely plan on dropping of the face of the earth, but there has been so much going on in our lives. M and I spent about a month in California visiting family and we just got home last week. Things only picked up since getting home, and we’ve had lots of stress and stuff on our plate. This past week has been among the most stressful of my life. Though hopefully things will get better from here.

That being said, I have lots of posts that I’d like to catch up on. I’ll try to chip away at updating the blog here and there (and there are a few new posts below). In the meantime, I leave you with a cute picture of my cool little dude with his seriously sun-bleached hair. I should really post pictures of M before and after our trip to Califo side by side so you can fully appreciate the difference. It’s Crazy. Hopefully I’ll be able to post again soon!

Oceanside

Still catching up here… I decided to try and hit some of the highlights of our trip by dividing the posts by beaches. Oceanside is the beach of my childhood. We went there all the time during the summer all through my growing up years so going back to visit is very nostalgic for me. We went to Oceanside a few times this trip. One day the weather was very sunny and nice and the others it was a bit overcast. But the water was warm, which is the really important thing. We didn’t let a few clouds spoil our fun.

M really enjoyed playing with the rocks along the shoreline. He had a rock in his hand during most of the day. Such treasures.  Chels will probably not love me posting this one, but M looks so dang happy to be in her arms, I couldn’t resist. He loves his Aunt “Elsie.” We tried digging a little wading pool for M. We probably should have dug a little closer to the shoreline, because we were waiting for forever for a big enough wave to reach the hole we had dug. M liked playing in the sand with Grandpa.  Dun DUN… Dun DUN… Dun DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN… There’s a monster at the beach! Run for your lives!

A sand eating monster at that! You have no idea how hard we had to work to keep this kid from eating sand.

Second trip to Oceanside:
This time the cousins got to play at the beach together!
We got asked a few times if these two are twins.

Third trip to Oceanside:

Spence had finally joined us for this one! Chels and I coached him on boogie boarding, and he finally got it down! The waves were pretty big for beginners that day. Eating a taco:Mind if I join you?:
I was just ever so slightly scared, slightly mind you, that a shark would mistake my sparkly toes for a delicious guppy. Luckily, I made it home with all ten toes.
This kid thinks he’s a surfer. Kid you not.

My mom even went boogie boarding for the first time in several years! This was a big moment, people.

This picture is one of my favorites: What a beautiful world God created. It takes my breath away.
I love these shots of my boys together. M had missed his daddy so much!
I can’t wait to go back…

Santa Monica

One of the things I really wanted to do while I was visiting my sister, Shari, in LA was go to the beach in Santa Monica. I was so excited to walk on the pier and enjoy the carnival-like atmosphere. A ferris wheel over the water! Are you kidding me! The whole atmosphere was just so fun! They were doing some major construction on the pier too. It was kind of freaky being up there with tons and tons of construction equipment, but it will be cool to see what they end up adding.
M is very into pointing these days, so we have more than a handful of pictures of him pointing out this that or the other out while we’re trying to take a snapshot. It’s pretty cute that he always wants me to notice the same things he is noticing. “Look Mom, a seagull! I bet you’ve never seen one of those before!”

All the little rides, shops, and stands were so enchanting to me. I love the bright, cheerful colors merrily clashing all over everything. I feel like the only time a house looks good in Pepto-Bismol pink is at the beach. Somehow it just works there.

If you ever happen to go to the Santa Monica pier, you should know that the bathrooms on the boardwalk are amazing. Some of the cleanest, best bathrooms I have ever been to at the beach. But the bathrooms below the boardwalk are some of the most disgusting I have ever seen. I don’t know why this is the case, but now you know.

Other adventures not pictured: we went to the farmers market, ate a corndog, saw a seal, M ate sand, we changed a poopy swim diaper (UGG poopy swim diapers are the WORST! Especially when your trying to change a wriggly baby on a towel in the sand), we tried pushing the strollers THROUGH the sand (let it be known this did not work well), we tried riding the carousel (but it was closed), and we tried some of the yummiest gelato I have had in the US.

Other adventures pictured: I accidentally knocked Shari’s sunglasses (while she was wearing them, I might add) popping the lens right off. She didn’t even notice that sucker was missing at first, I had to tell her she looked like a pirate. I guess I should have waited to see how long it would have taken her to notice. Haha.