California Dreamin'

One of my family's very favorite places to visit is Little Corona.  It's this little hidden beach that you can't get to by car... you have to hike in a little ways.  But at the bottom of the road is this little oasis.  I have to admit- I've never actually spent the day at the beach here- but rather- we spend our evenings hiking around on the rocks.  The rocks are home to all kinds of sea critters... and it's SO much fun to poke around and see what we can see.  Most of the time bets are on Ty as to the one that falls in first... but he proved us wrong this year.  He's grown more fleet of foot this year!  

My parents rented us a beach house right on Newport Beach this year... amazing digs really.  It was a stone's throw away from the Crab Cooker (if you ever get a chance to go DO IT... the food is to die for).  In fact we got to eat there TWICE this week!  It was so much fun- we'd get the kids put in bed and we'd take turns as couples walking for a treat on the beach (hello Rita's) and then make it back in time to play cards or just talk.  We had a great rooftop balcony with a fireplace- perfect for roasting marshmallows and telling stories.

The beach was waiting for us though... There she is!  Beautiful!

We also took some time to explore a little bit this year- Shaun's butt can only handle the beach chair for so many days.  I think his butt is crazy.  But that's the butt.

So we went to the Top of the World in Lagoona Beach.  It was SO cool!  I wish that the fog had burned off earlier so that we could really have seen everything in the distance.  Shaun told us stories about his mission (he served down here) and showed us around Lagoona.

Too bad for Shaun's butt though... we headed back to the beach the next day.  Grandma spent the mornings looking for seashells with the kids.  She even found a sand dollar!  I've only ever seen them for sale at the little shops- never actually known someone to find one!

We discovered (actually... maybe re-discovered) that Ty was part fish.  He would NOT stay out of the water for longer than it took for me to re-apply sunscreen.  And sometimes not even then.  He LOVED it.  I think it's so fun having him love the same things that I loved when I was his age.  Dave and I spent hours out in the water- riding the waves and chasing our boards.

Of course grandpa didn't help with his obsession.  Grandpa might be worse if possible.

Little Kate was content to spend her days on the beach, combing for shells to add to her collection and building sandcastles with mom.  That's right.  I said mom.  I've personally had enough of watching my kids from the chair- I put on my stupid swimming suit and I played on the beach this year.  It was SO fun.

Riding the waves...

Not to be outdone by anyone, Ryan even climbed on the boogie board this year without any prompting.  I think you can tell his feelings by his face.

This is my favorite- both of my boys riding the same wave.  I might have to blow this up and put it on their wall in their room.  It's so great!

I feel like this picture is obligatory at this point.  Shaun LOVING the beach.  You have to hand it to him- he comes year after year and still sits in his chair.  You know he hates it.  You know he's hot and eventually going to get sunburned... but he still comes.  I love that man.

Hey look!  Ty came out of the water!  Sort of... I guess his butt is still in it.  They were catching sandcrabs- at one point I'm pretty sure that bucket was mostly full!  Ty even caught a clam!  It was so cool to see the shell still shut- he put it in my beach bag to take home.  (on a side note... that beach bag was never emptied and was just brought home and left in the mud room for a few days.  Any guesses as to what that smelled like???  I kept digging through other things trying to find THAT SMELL before I realized what it was.  I'm not proud of how long it took to find)

The babies were so fun to have on the beach with us!

Shaun was determined to make Logan his friend- so he kept sharing his Coke with him.  It totally worked... though I'm pretty sure his mom was less than impressed.

Yowza.  Check out those beach babes!

I'm pretty sure Kate thought she would get out of grandpa making her boogie board this year- she can sweet talk him into just about anything.  Too bad for her she can't sweet talk him OUT of this.  In the water she went...

Ride that wave baby girl!

She's smiling!  I guess that means all was well.  I can actually still remember my dad doing the same to me- I SCREAMED the whole time.  Seriously.  The whole time.  I can remember how cold the water was and my mom waving at me from the shore.  Apparently I didn't pass it on.  Yay.

Hey look!  Dave didn't break his face this time!  Hooray for small victories right?

This is Jackson.  And his Rhino.  I'm giggling even as I write this.  This stupid rhino was his FAVORITE of all the toys grandma brought for the kids to play with.  His favorite.  And he lost it in the ocean.  It went from an awesome day at the beach to the WORST DAY EVER.  Poor baby was beside himself.

We went to Target that night for some more sunscreen and wouldn't you know what they had on an endcap...?  A new plastic rhino.  BEST DAY EVER!

Ahh yes... the crazies.  All in one place too!

My family is crazy.  Seriously crazy- but I love looking back at the things that we have done and shared- and it's just... well... happy.

As part of our plan to not spend every waking minute on the beach, we took the boys to Universal Studios one day too.  I'd never been and it had been a lifetime since Shaun had.

Mostly... It was for me to see Harry Potter World.  Basically I'm 11.  Ty and I are a good match.

The boys do not lover roller coasters so I thought maybe this would be okay, since here, most of the rides are digital... you know you wear the 3D glasses and they move your chair around a little... I guess I underestimate them sometimes.  Because it turns out they are kind of pansies.  I mean that in the most loving way.  I'm their mother after all... but seriously.  It was a little pathetic.  I literally threw Ryan onto a chair at one point- he was screaming and crying and I buckled him in any way.  The little attendant for the ride looked at me and asked if my little boy was going to be okay... I rolled my eyes and took the glasses from him and said yes.  And you know what?  He was.  When we got home he was ALL talk about this ride and that ride and how awesome the rides were.

We also went on the studio tour... this may be as close to a star in Hollywood as I get.

It was way fun though!  Crazy to see how they put things together for movies.  And we almost died.  Of laughter.  Ryan failed to see the giant shark coming out of the water until it was right beside him.  As the shark came up- so did Ryan come out of his seat.  I thought he was going to climb up and over Shaun and out the other side of the bus.  I maybe am a terrible mother for laughing.  He's probably scarred.  But oh... so funny.

I concluded that THIS was the kind of ride my littles can handle.  It just went around in circles.  Kate may be my only hope at this point!  Ty tried really hard to like them... but I think they just upset his stomach to the point that he's not sure he likes it.  Myself- I can think of two rides ever that I got off and had to stop and sit down for a minute- the Gravitron and Superman.  So I get it- I really do... but I have to admit I get a little impatient.  So here's my apologies boys... I'm sorry I keep making you go on these things... I just keep hoping that you'll decide you like what your stomach is doing and you'll want to go again!!

We ended up back in Harry Potter World a few times for more frozen butterbeers... I may have to find a copy-cat recipe for this.

Until next time Hogwarts.  In the meantime- I'll be waiting for my letter!!

It was an action packed/ relaxing week.  Just right for a summer vacation.  And oh the loads of laundry that were waiting for me when we got home.  I'm pretty sure we brought most of the beach back with us by the amount of sand that I found at the bottom of the bags.