::beach baby::

This is baby, all ready to go to the beach--or maybe we had just come back from the beach? I can't remember. Anyway, he was an adorable beach baby. These were the only photos I took on our whole trip with my real camera. That's too bad but at least it means I was busy having fun with my hands full. Understandable with this wiggly thing around, right?

::the last bit::

Sunday was essentially our last full day since we were flying out the next morning. We got up and went to see the San Diego temple. If you haven't seen it in person, you should. It's truly amazing. So striking and attractive.
Sand enjoyed touching all the foliage and we just tried to keep Max's ebullience from being too inappropriate.

The only slight downside to the location we could come up with is that it's by the freeway, so there's a lot of traffic noise. But the benefit of that is high visibility. It's pretty amazing to come around the corner and see those crazy rocket ship spires right there!


Awww, cute brothers. I know Max looks like a beach bum here, by the way. You don't have to tell me.

After the temple we went and met up with Blake and Brooke again so we could go to Blake's home ward. It was fun and Kris got to see one of his old roomates that we haven't seen in ten years. That was pretty great.
Here's a photo of the three roomies together--just missing one!


After church was over we went home and lazed around and said our farewells to the beach. If only we could've stayed a bit longer--but then we'd have wanted to stay another bit longer. When would we ever have come home? Max and I could bum around on the beach for an awfully long time.

It was a great trip, so glad we did it!

::even more san diego::

(this flower was growing on a bush downstairs from our little condo--so pretty!!)

The next day we spent time hanging out in the morning while it was misty and grey (it was misty and grey and a bit chilly every morning until about noon, it was nice.) Kris and I went for runs--separately. Max watched a movie and Sand took a nap. Then we walked to Rubio's and had fish tacos for lunch.

Max threw a big fit about something at lunch--I don't really remember what it was about now, just that it was ridiculous. That's why he's not in the picture.
After we got back it was all beach for the rest of the day!
Kris stayed home with Sandy while Sand napped. Poor Kris has a board exam coming up in Sept, so he was glad to have some study time.
Max and I went boogie boarding. The waves were pretty huge.

(this is the wrong day but the right beach)

I haven't been boogie boarding in AGES. It was really fun and I think Max was having a blast with me out there. We rode a few waves in together and it was rather thrilling. Rather thrilling that is until my nice nice sunglasses that Kris got me for Christmas were ripped off my head and dragged off into the deep blue sea.
I was pretty bummed about that and Max and I spent a while looking for them. It was a lost cause. Max was sad and tried to make me feel better with more boogie boarding, but the savor had gone out of it. (I still boogie boarded more with him of course, but it just wasn't the same.)
Later Kris came out with the Sand and I tried to get Sand to enjoy sitting in the sand. He did NOT like it. I sat him down with just his feet in the sand and he was so disturbed. SO mad. Then later I tried to stand him in the sand and he refused. I would lower him down towards the ground and the lower he would get the higher he would tuck his feet up. He just would not touch it.

But of course, he would eat it. I sat him on a towel so he could look around safely. He like that pretty well, and of course decided to start eating the sand. Such a dork.

BLAH.

A sandy Sandy eating sand.

It was such a fun afternoon. Everybody had a good time (maybe even my sunglasses escaping their drudgery on my head.) Nobody got sunburned, though I had a close call. I wish we could do it again tomorrow.

::farewell cape::

This last weekend we took a farewell jaunt up to the cape. It takes about two and a half hours to get all the way to the tip (which is my favorite part), so we've only been out there one other time.
It is such a pretty and interesting place. When you get out to the end it's basically like just a big beach. All the dirt appears to be sand. There are these big sand dunes with grasses growing on them on either side of the road. The dunes are big enough that Max suddenly yelled, "HEY LOOK MOUNTAINS!!!!!" We always like that.

We brought a picnic. The day wasn't super warm, but when the sun was out it was toasty enough. What it really was though was windy. So windy that my little kite couldn't take it. It would zoom way way up in the air, and then come crashing down at odd times, almost hitting people. So I didn't do that for too long.

The picnic was yummy.


By the time we got out there we were all pretty serious about our sandwiches.

Since the boys stripped down a bit, they both got sunscreen. Since I just stayed in my clothes I didn't bother. That was stupid. I came home with not a terrible sunburn, but a red one--complete with sunglasses lines. Yuck.

Max loves the sand, and the sand there at Race Point Beach is really interesting. It's not that super fine silty kind of sand that you find more often on the RI beaches, but like tiny teeny pebbles. It can feel really smooth to your feet.
Unless you're walking to the car and back like 4 times (a longer hike than it seems like it would be), then the little pebbles start to feel a bit like little knives and your feet really suffer. Poor Kris was that guy. All it took was two times for me and my feet were killing!



The water was pretty cold (or so I heard) but that didn't stop my Max. He was in there having a good time. And his favorite thing was that he found a ton of cool rocks. "I never knew there were purple rocks before, mom!"

He'd come with his rocks and every time we'd have to quickly say, "Don't step on the blanket!!!!!" It happened every time.

We stayed and relaxed for a couple of hours while Max enjoyed the water and I worked on my sunburn.
Then Kris dipped his toe in and confirmed our earlier assumption that Max is basically crazy.

Isn't the water a gorgeous color?

I have to say though, I miss the waves. There were way less there today than when we were there last time. There are always way less and way smaller waves out east (up here anyway) than I've seen on the pacific coast. I like those waves. They've got some character.
But who cares. The beach is the beach and it's beautiful and it (usually) smells good.
I'm glad we made it out there one last time. It gave us a break in a long weekend of working cleaning and stressing.

::first beach visit::

On Saturday, after Kris got done studying for his board exam we grabbed some fast food and headed down to the beach. The weather was nice and the sun was bright. We got down there around 5PM or so. There were people there swimming which was truly nuts, but we just set up our lawn chairs to enjoy the view.

Max sort of ate, but really was just too excited to be at the beach. He had to run to and from the water constantly. Over and over. And luckily the water was too cold for Max even to get into it. I think this was maybe the first time ever that he's admitted the water was too cold. Otherwise he'd have been in up to his neck after the first 5 minutes.
There he goes:


And he comes:

He's so cute.


Can you read the sand?

We had a great time. It was a little chilly when the sun started to go down, but the beach is just so awesome, you can't go wrong. We're hoping for some serious beachy time before it's time to move. We'll see how it goes.

On the way home we were impulsive and stopped at one of the many roadside ice cream places. Kris and I shared a banana split and Max got his own serious cone. He was way serious about it too.


And he made a very serious mess.

We had so much fun. And by the way Kris's board exam is over with now, for better or for worse. I'm thinking for better. Hooray for a big thing over with!

::sun!!!!!!::

The sun came out today! It's been about 50 degrees too, so we've been very happy. Max and I went to our local park earlier this afternoon. I like this park because it's on the bay and there's a little beach there. I think it's really pretty. Plus the breezes smell like the ocean, and that's (usually) a very good thing.










I love the view from the swings.



Please stick around Sun, we sure do like you.

::beach!!!::

We finally made it to the beach last week with some friends from church as well as some friends from Kris's work. It was really fun.
Max and little Natalie (one of the new resident's daughters) hit it off quite well. They spent about an hour in a muddy pit in the sand, throwing sand at each other and generally having a blast.




Natalie is so adorable!
It was great. They were occupied, and as long as they were throwing sand at each other they weren't throwing it at anybody else!

The beach we went to was one I hadn't been to before. It was good for little kids because the waves were really small. That made Max think he could go way far out though, since things were relatively calm, so it made me nervous. I finally got him to just float on his boogie board not too far out and that was fun.
It was nice to go and get a break from the heat. The ocean breezes feel lovely, and the water is just cool enough to feel great!
We're heading out again tomorrow. It may be our last visit since school starts next week, and hopefully the weather will start cooling off a bit soon. But it could be crazy crowded tomorrow considering that everybody's going to be trying to get the last bit of summer fun in. I guess we'll see. It'll be fun either way. We're used to the crowds at the beach out here.
It's so fun to go to the beach with friends. We sure do miss Melissa, Grant and Angie though!