beach

This weekend the boys and I went with a good friend of mine and her girls to Newport Beach!  We had SO much fun!!  One of my friends daughters had a school project on mapping and had to figure out landmarks along the way, gas mileage, time and how to get somewhere in the world.  She chose the beach and we thought it would be fun to see if it works out the same in real life as it does on paper!   

We had fun walking along the beach. The boys had fun finding shells along the way & they all walked pretty well.  David gave Nathan a piggyback ride a few times.   The best part, as we were walking along the shore we saw dolphins in the ocean!!  It was really neat!  If you look in the picture under Thomas, above David giving Nathan a piggyback ride, you can see a fin in the water.  It was great weather!  We were hesitant going down, the weather report said it was supposed to be rainy.  When we were getting ready Saturday to go to the beach it was sprinkling, but when we got there it was overcast but nice!  Perfect beach weather!  Since it is winter, we thought it would be to cold to go in the water so we dressed everyone in sweatshirts and shorts that way we could get our feet wet.

Luckily we were able to find sand toys in the store before we left for our beach trip, so the kids were able to have fun digging in the sand and trying to make sand castles. 

We rode the ferry across the bay, and on the other side bought a pizza for lunch.  We got back to the beach and laid our towels out and sat down to eat.  The seagulls were crazy!!  They had no fear at all!  One of them swooped down and took Tommy's pizza right out of his hand!   They kept dive bombing us so we had David run interference!  He was running in circles around the towels while we ate scaring the birds away.  

 After lunch the kids played in the sand more and ventured a little closer to the water.  Lesson learned...regardless how cold it might be, the kids will still go play in the ocean!

 Nathan didn't like how the sand felt between his toes, so he played on the beach in his socks.  Thomas was SO afraid of the water and didn't want to get close to it.  He was afraid that the waves would get him and take him away to the ocean where a shark would eat him.  No matter what I or anyone else said to him he was not going to go in the water.  

Finally he got brave enough and tried it....he LOVED it!!  This is him running up the beach to tell me how brave he was (and get praises) that he went in the water.  Once he went in there was no stopping him. 

 The kids, except Nathan, as we were packing up to leave.   We had such a good time and are looking forward to going again soon!