Surf ‘N Turf

After spending a week at the beach as a family we are finding that our children have changed a good 5 or so shades darker.  Because the amount of time we spent at the beach, we found that we gave a lot of time to ocean as well as the sand and got a bit creative.

My dad, brothers and Will spent plenty of time in the water and I even joined them for a little bit.  We were lucky and had perfect beach going weather the entire time.

I think my brothers enjoyed exchanging their normal mountain scenery for that of the beach.

And…maybe I felt a little bad about not getting my little brother a rash guard…oops!

My brother Casey seemed to very much enjoy burying my youngest brother.

My brother didn’t want to be a Mermaid so we created this tenticled and clawed creature instead.

Annie and my mom just enjoyed the sand and the shade.

Annie did have a few first while we were there.  She found a new love for seaweed, pulling it up and down the beach.  She is also now no longer afraid of the water.  She splashed and played the last day we were there.  A fearless 2 year old and large amounts of water are enough for an anurism in my book.

Ebb and Flow

My brother and sister in law came into town for the last couple of weeks with their kids and we were able to meet up with them a couple of times.  We chose to spend our time together at the beach.  Is there really a better place than that?  Will and our niece, shown in the picture above spent  quite a bit of time in the water boogie boarding.  I was impressed with their dedication.  The water was FREEZING.  I’m a little embarrassed to say no more than a toe of mine ended up in the water.  Hudson spent a large amount of time being chased or chasing his cousin…6 hours worth.  Annie and I chatted, dug holes and relaxed in the sand.

Good Times are Even Better When They’re Shared

Our friends Carmen and Ryan came to visit us.  We were so excited that they carved time from their trip back to North Carolina to come see us.  They brought the kids this amazingly huge blow-up whale slide/pool with a blowspout and crazy sprinkler hose.  Let’s just say we spent quite a bit of time in the backyard watching the kids enjoy the water.  We did all of our usuals.  We went out to dinner, hit the beach, did some sight seeing, played games and chatted into the early morning, all week long!

Del Mar was the beach of choice.  With the overcast weather, we enjoyed having the beach to ourselves.

I don’t know who liked the beach more?  Carmen and I walked the beach.  Hudson seemed to enjoy his recent aquisition.  The muscles didn’t last long though.

The boys spent most of their time out in the waves.

We had to hit up Balboa Park.

We just wandered and enjoyed the sights.

This is what happens when I ask my kids to smile…note to self…don’t ask my kids to smile.  They did enjoy having Ryan read them stories.  All in all, I deem the week a success.  Thanks for the memories!

Everything’s Just Beachy!

My friend Sandi and her husband Dustin, brough their little family and sister down for the weekend.  The kids loved being and playing together and it was nice for the rest of us to be able to catch up.

We packed the weekend with a trip to Sea World to feed the bat rays; the mall to snag some sales(okay and maybe Sandi and I picked up some paintings too) and the beach to catch a few rays of sunshine.  The beach was actually the only place where I remembered to bring my camera so pictorially speaking, this is all I’ve got.  Now that I think about, we never even got a picture of all of us together.  I guess we were too busy have fun.Taking a brief bird walk, most days that I find myself at the beach seem to result in my digging of holes.  I’m wondering if selfconsciously, I’m hoping to build more character.  I dug 4 on Saturday.After everything was said and done, we had an eventful weekend that won’t soon be forgotten.  Will’s only regret was that I forgot the boogie boards.

Having a Sand-sational Time

We took a trip to the beach a week or so ago with some friends.  

It’s always nice to get away from it all…even if it is only for a day!