I was going to wait to get home and do one big recap of our family vacation, but now that I’m here I’m thinking: “Why?”
I am on vacation. Almost a year ago we decided to go on a beach vacation. We rented a beach house with our friends, the Engh’s. We’ve planned, we’ve saved, and we’re finally here.
And we’re so excited!
We got here yesterday afternoon. After unpacking, Kellie and I went to the grocery stores for a couple hours, leaving the kids with the guys. During that time, Kellie wants me to record that we had 1 child rescued by the life guard and 1 kid get lost for a time. I just want to say: see guys, it’s not as easy as we make it look 😉
This morning we took the kids out to the pier (which is only 100 yards from our beach house!) Everett was so SO excited to see the fishermen and their catch in the buckets. He ran from one bucket to the next, squealing with delight at the floundering, flopping fish.
After we walked above the pier we went below to hunt for crabs and star fish. Olivia was so excited as we caught baby crabs on the pillars of the pier. Our goal is to catch some starfish at some point this week. So much fun!
We spent the day on the beach. Roo was thrilled to play and eat the sand. We tried at first to keep him sand free. Pfff! Ha ha! We (I) gave up on that idea pretty quick. He was so happy to eat the sand and play with all the things you can find on the beach.
Olivia was such a water baby, happy to splash in the surf all afternoon. At one point I went out to teach her how to boogie board. She did really, really well, caught the first three waves no problem and rode them all the way in. But on the fourth wave she got dumped and dragged by the wave. I thought for sure she would quit, but she popped up and wanted to go again. So we kept boarding for a while longer. I’m so proud of my little fish.
Calvin was happy to dig in the sand and catch craw-dads. He built sand castles, waded into the surf, and had a great time running from one activity to the next. The strangest thing to him was that he could -ahem- pee in the ocean. A major no-no at the pool was suddenly just fine (and encouraged by the mamma who didn’t want to trek it back to the beach house).
Everett had fun playing, but had a bit of a hard time sharing his sand toys. He did have fun chasing the waves and then running away from them. By the end of the day he was wiped out though, and we had to come home and help him chill out. Poor kid.
This evening Olivia and I went out for some alone time. We walked up and down in front of the board walk, looking in the shops. She told me about the hole she found on the beach that had crabs in it, and her friend Sophia that she met on the beach today. We ate gelato and walked in the twilight along the sand. We came to a man that was “singing for his supper.” We stopped to listen for a while. “Is he poor?” Olivia asked, when I explained that he was singing to earn money. I told her he probably wasn’t. After all, when I lived in Russia we pan-handled once to earn money for a trip, but not because we were poor, just because we thought it would be fun. In any case it was so sweet to stand there with my girl, waffle cone of gelato in hand, listening to the music and smelling the cold salty air while the stars began to appear in the ever darkening sky.
Tomorrow is Sunday and we’re going to take a slow easy day of staying inside mostly and resting.
Things that I think would be fun this week:
renting a bicycle built for four (or five)
going to Balboa island
fishing on the pier
catch a star fish
eat frozen bananas
take each kid out for a special evening
surf lessons? I’m not sure I’m up to it, but then again, if Olivia can learn to boogie board . . .