Beach

In September we took a family vacation to California.  We had so much fun seeing the sights and spending time together.  There's some good opportunity for bonding when your family of four spends six nights in the same hotel room!!  I'm so glad we took the trip and made so many fun memories.  Here's some highlights from the beach.  We decided to go in September in hopes that we could catch some off season Disneyland crowds and still have warm enough weather to enjoy the beach.  We succeeded and enjoyed some 70 degree weather at the beach.

We took them to Huntington Beach for their first ocean experience.  It was a beautiful day and not crowded at all.  A bonus was that they had a paddle boarding competition by the pier that we had some fun watching.

Ella enjoying some beach snacks.  She was super mad when a seagull finished off her goldfish crackers.

These two are cute little buddies.  They loved putting their feet in the water, but didn't want to get in too much further.  The waves were a little scary.  They were some pretty impressive waves.  This is Huntington Pier in the background.  We took a walk on it before leaving, but it didn't have kid safe guard rails, so it made me pretty nervous.  Oh yeah, and a seagull pooped on me.  Not a highlight!

Jack spotting the big waves and running away from them.  This was his favorite water game to play.

 Dad showing Ella the water.  She was mostly into the food and digging, but she did like getting her feet wet too.

Oh yeah, and lets not forget throwing sand.  That was high up on the list!

Jack thought it was a blast jumping over the waves with dad.  I have a memory of doing this very thing when I was pretty young.  There's something about the ocean that's just so fun!

Jack collected all of these sea shells himself.  He loved doing it and was very interested in what used to live in them.  He got his Aloha tattoo from a tent at the paddle boarding competition.  It stayed on for at least two weeks and was starting to get embarrassing, so I finally scrubbed it off in the bath.  It was obviously not the same kind you get from the coin machine at the grocery store.

No beach day is complete without burying someone.  Ella and Jack both took a turn getting buried.  Here's Ella trying to dig Jack out like the good sister she is.

A highlight of our trip was spending a day down in San Diego with my Uncle Al and Aunt Linda.  They showed us a great time and gave the kids some fun new experiences.  We went to an authentic Mexican Restaurant where Ella got serenaded to the point of tears.  I guess Malaguena de la Rosa is not her song, but the rest of us enjoyed it and got a good laugh.  We then went and spent a few hours at Ocean Beach.  We walked along the pier and watched the pelicans diving in the water for fish.  It was pretty amazing to watch!

Here we are, minus Linda who was taking the picture.  Jack is being his usual uncooperative picture taking self.  We tried Jack out on the boogie board to give him a little taste for the water, but his first try he put too much weight in front and took a nose dive to the bottom.  Steve had to pick him up off the ocean floor and after the scary experience mixed with the salt water in his eyes and nose, he did not want to try again.

Ella and I walking out on the rocks to see the tide pools.  She didn't really know what we were looking for, but was a good sport none the less.

You can't see Jack in this picture, but I wanted to document it since it was his favorite part of the ocean.  He loved looking in the tide pools.  He was able to spot quite a few crabs, and they were not easy to find.  We saw some pretty good sized ones hiding in the corners or up under ledges.  He was a little disappointed that we didn't see any "sea stars" (star fish), but there's always next time.  A big thanks to Al and Linda for showing us such a great time!

Baby Love

This is a common occurrence at our home as of late.  Ella is obsessed with babies.  I had to grab the camera and take a quick shot of her in action.  She takes very good care of her babies.  She swaddles them, talks to them, and gives them lots of kisses.  When we're getting ready to go somewhere in the car she usually comes to me and asks, "baby come?".  She then grabs an armful of dolls and carries them to the car.  I love watching her nurturing side. 

Jack saw me take the picture of Ella and wanted me to take one of him holding dolls too.  This is a glimpse into the world of raising two children who are very different from each other.  They are at opposite ends of the spectrum in most areas, but they love each other like crazy.  It definitely makes parenting them a work in progress!  Jack is behind me playing right now and I just heard him say, "I have a force field."  He is such a boy!  I love how he talks right now.  He puts together some complex sentences that make me laugh.  I have been writing some down so I don't forget.  Here are a couple of examples.  The other night I was putting Ella to bed and reading her a book when Jack walked in.  He said, "sorry for disturbing your book, but do you know where my comfy (his blanket) is?"  Then the next day out of the blue he said, "I'm going to start wearing my hat backward like on rescue bots" (his favorite show).  He is and always has been such a talker!