A Day At The Beach

-After going to the Aquarium, we spent the night in a hotel in Sea Side.

Conversation:

Jessica: Is this the hotel we are staying at?

Me: Yep. This is it.

Austin: It looks more like a motel to me.

Jessica: What's the difference between a hotel and a motel?

-

Austin: A motel is like a hotel only smaller.

We got 4 rooms right next to each other. I'm sure every other person in the hotel became very aware when we arrived! There was 12 kids between us. The kids thought it was the greatest thing. Most of them played in Jen and Jeff's room while we visited and tried to make plans for the next day.

Here is Lauren, Jessica and Drew.

I started reading Twilight, which I loved! I couldn't put it down! Ashlyn wanted to lay next to me and read her Baby Einstein book.

The next day we went to Rio Del Mar and had a fantastic time at the beach! Ashlyn was so interested in the sand. She loved to run her hands through it. I kept moving her back on to her beach towel under the umbrella, but she kept crawling back out onto the sand. It was so fun to watch her face as she explored what it felt like to have it run through her fingers.

She loved the ocean too. I walked down to where the tide could come up just over her feet. She squealed with delight when she saw it coming, then wrinkled her nose an grinned when she could feel the cold water touch her legs. It is so fun to watch babies as they experience something new. For some reason, it always reminds me to stop and enjoy the simple things in life too.

Jeff, Jason, and Peter spent some time catching the waves on boogie boards and throwing around the football. They seemed so happy to be together. That threesome is so funny watch! Their personalities go perfectly together and they are such a fun group. Watching them laugh reminded me of our time together in Italy a few years ago. They were hysterical! I think there is a picture on my slide show with a street vendor in Florence. They bought matching sunglasses and got Peter to dance and pretend he was a street performer! He actually had a crowd around him! How cool is it when you would choose your family as friends?

The kids played endlessly in the sand. They built little villages of sand castles and big walls around to protect them from the waves that kept getting closer.

Jessica decided she needed her own space so, Jason and Jessica dug a hole big enough for Jessica to fit inside! It was like her own little fort.

My dad played in the surf with Emily. It was so cute to watch them. They would walk toward the waves saying, "Nah, na, na , na , nah! You can't get me!" and then turn and run away as the waves raced after them.

Later, he took a walk down the beach with Jessica to look for shells. He is such a good Grandpa!

Maddy and Lauren- How cute are they?!

We got a call from Danale and Justin saying they were going to Monterey and wanted to know if we wanted to meet them there for dinner. We told them we were at the beach not far from there! What a fun coincidence! On our way home we met them for dinner. It was so nice to see them! We were really glad it worked out.