Awww…..life at the beach! My favorite place in the world has to be plopped on a chair in the sand looking out at the waves crashing on the shore and soaking up that warm salty ocean breeze! This year, we were fortunate enough to take almost two weeks off to visit Cloud 9 and do exactly that! You know you’ve had a good time too when you are packing up your things to go back home and it feels like you just got there! But all good trips must come to an end and as much as we are dreading the 110 degree days back home, we are semi-looking forward to getting back into our work routines and of course we are dying to see our first born again….Mr. Chase, Numero Uno, the one and only…the Goon!
With that said, we had a fabulous time on our trip. I will try to make this short, as I have tons of pictures to share. We took another trip down to Sea World, took the kids on a couple bike rides and had picnics in the park, went fishing and had lunch along the San Clemente pier, enjoyed great meals at Cloud 9 and at our usual favorites in the area, and logged several more hours and great memories at the beach! My parents also joined us early in in the trip, which was fun for all of us to visit and a nice treat for Blaine and I, as it allowed us to sneak away a few times for a movie or dinner out! Blaine also went on his annual deep sea fishing trip out of San Diego with a group of guys from home and caught some delicious rockfish, which we had for dinner one evening while we were there. So on to the pictures…
We really felt like the Griswolds on family vacation with the amount of stuff we had jam-packed in our car and the bikes barely hanging on with duct tape and bungies on the top of our car!
The next two were taken on the San Clemente Pier.
And the girls at the beach…three generations at Salt Creek.
Colbie is not only crawling these days, but showing a BIG interest in walking. While she isn’t that stable on her legs yet, she is really strong and pulls herself up onto furniture now and does these little push-ups, standing on her toes and hands!
Park time! These were taken at one of our picnics and bike rides at the park….just a couple miles down the road from the condo. We got a little bike seat & helmet for Colbie too, although this particular day, she didn’t want anything to do with the bike….. and especially her helmet. So as you see in the picture, we tried switching the kids, where I had Grayson and Blaine had Colbie to see if she liked that any better….ya, that would be a NO! This is why Grayson looks like a giant on my bike!
Bath time with Grammy and another trip to Sea World….we were having “a moment” at the time and being shy with Shamu!
Found a gorgious little cove down by Laguna Beach after a yummy brunch at Coyote Grill.
Don’t ask me why they have Papa’s tighty-whities on their heads! Silly Papa!
Love this picture of Colbie with Daddy!
My parents got the kids these little matching sets at one of their favorite children’s stores in Catalina Island and had asked me to take a picture of them wearing them. This was one of my favorites.
Just two funny stories before I forget. One of Grayson’s favorite things to do after dinner was to go for walks up by the condo and explore, make forts and look for rabbits and squirrels. One evening, my mom and I took him and my mom picked a flower and showed him how to pick the petals….saying “she loves me, she loves me not…” Grayson is usually going a 100 miles a minute and acts like he’s not listening, and yet you show him or tell him something once and he usually remembers. Last night was our last night out for a walk and sure enough, he picks up a flower and starts picking the petals, saying “I like you, I like you not, I like you nice, I like you not….” It was pretty cute!
Yesterday, we spent the morning down in Dana Point, took a tour through the Ocean Institute and spent time walking down by the boats. We took some string and hotdogs and had fun trying to catch crabs right off of the guard railing. Well, I guess Grayson got a little too excited and somehow managed to squeeze his head through the railing. Thank God my mom caught him when she did because once his head got through, the rest of his body could fit very easily and it could have been a huge disaster! Unfortunately, the excitement wasn’t over here! While he was able to get his head through, we were unable to squeeze his head back through the other side. Yes, he was stuck! And yes, we all started to panic, although we tried our best to keep calm for his sake! After Blaine ran off and managed to find a crow bar at a local wood shop and what felt like an eternity for my mom and I, we were finally able to get his head back though the railing safe and sound! Phewww! That boy definitely knows how to keep us on our toes!
Now that’s a big Pelican!
So thank you again Mom & Dad and Cloud 9 for an awesome beach vacation! We look forward to making many more wonderful memories there down the road!
