Life's A Beach!

I'm finally getting around to posting our vacation pictures, this week has been a little crazy! Last weekend we took off for California and headed to Dana Point which is south of LA. When we asked the kids what they wanted to do this year is was unanimous to go to the beach. It's been about 3 years since our last beach trip so we were all excited to play in the sand and the waves. The kids had so much fun running from the waves, a few actually braved the freezing water and boogie boarded and got wet, not me! The first beach we went to was called Salt Creek beach, it is a huge wide beautiful beach but we had to trek down a steep hill which wasn't bad until we had to go back up! We had the stroller, the playpen, our shade canopy, sand toys, boogie boards, a little cooler and more! It was quite the hike but really worth it. Lyndi loved the sand, I'm glad she wasn't into eating it but she loved playing in it and was constantly running for the water. Trevor hated the waves, I think it was too loud for him so he was just as happy playing on the beach. We ended up spending about 6 hours out there that day. We headed up the coast to Ruby's diner for yummy hamburgers and milkshakes for everyone, that was a fun treat. I tried not to cringe at the bill every time we ate out knowing I could buy a weeks worth of groceries with that but I figured I was on vacation too and that's just something you have to plan for! It's quite funny though taking our family out to eat, we get a lot of curious looks! Randy and I have gotten smart though, we learned when we go to an unfamiliar restaurant one of us goes in to scope it out to see if they have a table big enough for all of us, this saves alot of time getting everyone in and out of the car! While we were there we also ate at this quirky little Mexican place. The ceiling had all kinds of interesting ornamental things hanging from it, we had fun playing "I Spy" while we waited for our food. That's another thing-it takes forever for our food to come out no matter where we go. I'm convinced that if we did 2 separate orders we'd get our food faster than waiting for all 9 plates to come out at once. We may have to try that next time. While in CA we also took a trip up to Knott's Berry Farm, I was a little nervous that it would be crowded because of the holiday weekend but we got super lucky, there were no lines for anything! We had so much fun riding all the crazy roller coasters, I was proud of myself for not chickening out! I have some brave kids, they all rode everything. I had to talk Ryan into a few of them but once he did it he loved it. I was really impressed with the park, they have made alot of improvements and really cleaned it up, we will definitely be going back (after I get my Disney fix!) We also enjoyed a great dinner at the famous chicken restaurant, funny story about that. I was standing in line with the 2 younger boys and they were getting rowdy when an older lady behind me said "aren't you glad you don't have like 6 or 7!" I had to laugh! We were able to spend the 4th of July at the beach, along with half the population of CA but we finally found a spot and still had fun. The beach right across from our hotel was having fireworks so we went back down that night and ended up being front and center for the show out over the ocean, it was really neat! Randy even said it was almost romantic, um yeah, minus the 7 kids! Before heading home we drove up to the Long Beach Aquarium. We loved watching the jellyfish, sea lions, sharks and especially the sea turtle. It was fun to watch the kids get excited over seeing everything. It turned out to be a really great trip, I hope that my kids will remember these fun times with their family. It was so nice to be away from TV and computers and just have each other. I am definitely missing the 75 degree weather!

A few of our beach and Knott's pics.

Aquarium of the Pacific