Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Life's a Beach

Would you believe me if I told you we drove all the way to California and back without the aid of a single motion picture? You heard me right. Thanks to the Wayside Stories series by Louis Sachar, my kids had 0 interest in movies for the entire duration of 4 days' worth of driving, instead violently demanding the clever audiobook that had us all captivated while being held captive in the car. Thank you, Louis for single-handedly saving our road trip!
I was nervous to embark on such a journey not quite sure how the littlest guy would take to being strapped in his seat for so long, but he was just as mellow as ever.
He fussed every now and then, but mostly he sat in his seat with alligator eyes trying his hardest to stay awake and experience the road trip with the rest of us.
There were only a few times I had to hop in the back between 2 boys to mediate.
And then, we made it (including Lincoln who joined the picture via a strategically angled mirror).
My parents finally got to meet their newest grand baby and all was right in the world. 


And then my mom cut up the meat from their traditional-we-ate-it-every-Sunday-growing-up-roast-beef-dinner, and all was even more right in the world.
We got there on Father's Day, so I had to get a shot with Jeff and the most recent contribution to his fatherhood.
The boys ran wild in grandma and grandpa's backyard.



Then on Monday morning my California dreams came true when I convinced the whole lot of us to board an 8-passenger bike.
I giggled the whole time. It was my highlight of the whole trip.
You can see here that I got really into it.
The rest of the bunch had less patience for the bike than I did (think Jeff), probably because they were actually pedaling and working hard hauling the whole load around the boardwalk instead of giggling and snapping pictures and forgetting to pedal like other passengers. Whatevs.

We took a walk on the pier to lick fish guts off the railings (think Carson), or enjoy the view for the rest of us.

Heart.
We got back in the afternoon just in time to wet our pants at the sight of the garbage truck (think Lincoln) and enjoy a doughnut snack for the rest of us.

After lunch and naps, we made our way back to the cement for a little boogie.


Once those skills were perfected, we took them to the ocean. 




Living the good life in shorts for the first time in a year.

















Days 1 and 2 were absolutely perfect!

2 comments:

Kim said...

You got some great photos of us with your children. So glad you were snapping pictures. I love the one of me cutting your meat since you were getting such a kick out of the fact I was cutting your meat. Great idea to take that photo.

Eli on the boogie board on the sidewalk waiting for the guys to move the vehicles still makes me smile. He was so absolutely adorable doing his surfboard moves on that thing without a drop of water nearby. Seems to have paid off since he made his debut with it in the water and had such a great time.

It was so fun to hear how much your boys enjoyed listening to a book on the drive down here. Books are better than movies or video games any day!

Rebecca said...

Whoa! Mom and Dad were on the sand! I don't think that ever happened while we were visiting them!

I'm finally once again getting caught up on my blog reading, so expect a slew of comments from me.