California: Day 5 - Huntington Beach

Wow...this day was amazing. A perfect sampling of what life was like when we lived in HB. It almost felt like we lived there again. 

Our first priority was renting a surfboard.  We all gave it a shot (except Logan - but he did enjoy the board on the sand). It was so much harder than I remembered! Mikayla was the only one who caught a good ride, but we all had fun attempting.

The rest of the day included solid beach time, walking Main Street, browsing surf shops, stopping at our old apartment, happy hour / late lunch at Dukes, flying a kite on the beach, and malts at Ruby's on the pier. Such a perfect day - I loved every second of it!! Totally made me miss living there. But Shawn and I agreed that we took advantage of our couple years in Cali.

Back at the hotel, the kids crashed without a peep and Mikayla and I enjoyed another evening swim before bed.  

It was our last day of vacation and, in my opinion, the best day of the vacation :)

A few notes about our hotel. The kids went to bed without a sound every single night. Same for naps for Logan. Everyone slept soundly through the night...all 5 of us in one room. We had a separate livingroom, which was key. We could see nightly Disneyland fireworks and Angles game fireworks from our room. We walked to the Angels game from our hotel. Thanks Shawn :)

   So sad I missed the shot of Mikayla catching her wave!! 

   Sand training...

    Ryder's first wave!!

    Our old apartment on Main Street!

    Aloha Hour at Dukes!

    Logan - my HB beach baby :)

    Some tackle football at the beach.

    Flying our kite :)

    Mom and Ryder

    Mom and Logan

   Ahhh! Is Mikayla taller than me?!

    Focused on their malts at Ruby's diner at the end of Huntington's pier :)

    Logi in his red vinyl highchair repeatedly signing "more" (above) and "please" for another taste of milkshake!!

    So tired at the end of each day!!

California: Day 4

Today we had a slow morning at the hotel, then spent the afternoon in Newport and Laguna.  We met my former boss from Bickel Underwood for lunch (huge thank you to Mikayla for taking Logan on a really long walk!!).  Then we took a few photos at the beach (another thank you to Mikayla!) - saving them for our Christmas card :) 

Then we continued on to Laguna to hang out in the water and sand at Main Beach and do dinner at Ocean Avenue Brewery.  The little ones are a bit challenging to travel with when they're so off schedule and haven't had enough sleep, so I was appreciative when the older man next to us at dinner said I have terrific kids and did a terrific job with them out at a restaurant. It's definitely not without effort!  We topped off our yummy dinner with a yummy (and pretty!) dessert. Mikayla and I ended the evening with a [quiet!] night swim in the hotel's hot tub and pool :)

California: Day 3

Yesterday had three main events: the Angels game, swimming, and The Block at Orange.  

The game was great - we were in the shade, we had the lead most of the game, and I got Logan to fall asleep in the Ergo so I could sit with the family and watch the game! I just couldn't talk ;) So Logi slept through all the noise, but Ryder was freaked out by the fireworks and loud speakers, so he watched the game with his fingers in his ears!

Afterwards, we spent some time in the hotel pool.

The last fun event for the day was heading to The Block to watch the kids in the Vans Off the Wall skate park...partially to make up for selling our X Games tickets.  I was surprised, but Logan was actually really interested!

Good day :)

   Shawn, Logan, Mikayla and Ryder on the left.

California: Day 2 - San Diego

This morning, our party of five ventured down to San Diego for the day.  It was only about 1 1/2 hours, but the boys welcomed a pit stop at the closed outlet mall to burn some energy.  They had fun climbing on the kiddie rides and didn't know to ask us for quarters :) We then continued on to the Torrey Pines Glider Port in La Jolla to watch the paragliders launch along the cliffs.  They were so close to us!!  Next on the agenda was Mission Beach's Wave House for lunch in the sand and watching the surfers ride the mechanical waves.  Eating out with kids is always tough, but it helped a little that they could play next to the table in the sand (when Logan wasn't eating it...)

Our next adventure was finding a mellow beach.  We ended up back at the beach below the gliderport.  It was a tough hike down (so much so that I didn't even take pictures of the kids or the "danger, closed, don't go this way" signs!) But once down there, the beach was beautiful and not crowded!  Though after a mere few seconds, we realized this was not a beach for kids!  I think we all noticed it at the same time..."oh - that guy's not wearing a swimsuit! Or that guy...or....wait a second...."  It was a nude beach!! I asked a lifeguard for the part of the beach where people wear clothes...thankfully, it wasn't too much further down.

Everyone went in the water and jumped in the waves :)

We capped off the day with a visit to Stone Brewing & Bistro for dinner and a walk through their gardens.  Lots of sun and sand today :)

California: Day 1

We made it to Cali yesterday! Flight went pretty good with Logi.  Some moments were exactly as bad as I feared and almost 2 hours were exactly as I had hoped (Logi sleeping).  Was great to see Shawn and the beach!!! I have missed them both!

   Lunch at Wahoos!!

    Santa Monica pier

    MissKayla, Ryder and I rode the ferris wheel :) Super cool!!

    Headed to the Promenade

    Pretty tuckered out by 6pm since that means its 8pm at home! 

Keepin Busy

Logan, Logan, Logan....this is one for the family journal...

Here I am, without Shawn for the week, packing to leave for a flight with both boys (and Mikayla) in an hour!  Making breakfast for everyone, Logan saw me open the freezer for frozen fruit.  Curious, as always, he ran over to explore.  I thought he was just peeking in the drawer, but he actually had stuck his tongue to the drawer and it froze!!  I ran to the sink and cupped warm water in my hands to pour on it.  In that time, he had pulled it off...blood coming from his mouth and a frozen white tongue (thankfully that was just frost from the freezer and rinsed off)...

Logan, Logan, Logan...You sure keep me on my toes!!  Back to packing!!

Walker Photo

The Walker picture I had been meaning to post:

    Just love this!! 

And a great Shingobee Bay sunset: