California- Part 2

*the second day of our trip we decided that we needed a day of relaxation...and what better place than the beach?! We loaded up the car and began driving. We stopped at a Subway and brought yummy subs, chips & drinks and headed down to Huntington Beach. It was a beautiful midday full of sand, smiles, cold water, laughter, a watching my brown children run to their hearts content kind of day.
*after the beach, we went back to our hotel and rested a bit, and got ready. the original plan was to meander down to Santee Alley (sp?) before heading over to Curtis Morgan's house in Arcadia (one of Jesse's mission friends). The traffic once again was quite the shocker! It has been awhile since we have been to California and traffic is as awful as it used to be. We ended up bypassing the shopping and barely made it to the Morgan's house instead. It took us 2.5 to 3 hours to get there. Wow, I have never been happier not to live there. The crazy thing was on the way back it was only 30 minutes.
*we ended up staying an extra night and then headed out bright and early the next morning. Even though we had a blast, I have to admit that it is always heartwarming to pull into your own garage and know that you are HOME.

Eli was full of smiles...as long as he was on the blanket or in his car seat. The moment I set him down on the sand he threw a fit. Apparently he has not yet learned to appreciate sand; perhaps next time. Until then, I am perfectly content to let him stay clean and dry.

this picture of the waves makes me want to visit the beach again soon

Miss M buried in the sand

like I said...E was perfectly content chilling in the car seat; at least at this point. by the time we made it home from the trip not so much. for a few days after the vacation he would tear up at the first sight of his seat. not much fun to be stuck in a seat for pretty much 7 hours nonstop

it makes my heart happy to see my two "big" kids building a friendship with each other...it reminds me that there is life outside of constant fights

this is proof that I indeed made my appearance at the beach. sometimes it's so nice to be the camera-woman :) you avoid embarassing swimsuit pictures

*

on the way to the Morgan's home, Eli and Maddie totally crashed in the car. We were laughing so hard when we saw that Maddie had fallen asleep with a pushpop in her mouth and couldn't help snapping a picture of it.

yummy.

after my photo shoot of the other two, Robby insisted I take a picture of him. he grabbed the pushpop from Maddie's mouth and told me "take a pi-ture of me seeping mommy." Do you believe him?! He is rapidly turning into such a ham!

a random cactus that the kids excitedly told me had "mickey ears." Just a little obvious that we had returned from Disneyland