Drive and Play

It is common knowledge that it doesn't take much of an arm twist to talk me into going to the beach.  So when we discovered that both Ryan's fam and ours were itching to go somewhere over spring break, Seal Beach was the logical choice!  (It didn't take very long to talk my mom and dad into coming along either!  We had quite the group!)

Simply Put:  We Love to Drive and Play.  Actually, the drive part we tolerate with enough snacks and entertainment.  It is a means to an end.  The play part is what we really love!  And we did plenty of that last week!  I love vacations...

The kids were bursting at their seams waiting to get to the beach.  With a bag full of sand toys, a trunk full of boards, and a cooler full of snacks, who could blame them?  The weather was lovely.  Just warm enough to want to be out, but the sand didn't burn our feet as we skipped along looking for shells.  Luke and Sheldon mastered the art of the skim board.  Ryan and Cord spent the morning boogie boarding on the water.  It was fun to watch them enjoy the waves!

 

  

  

 

Libby got to borrow cousin Aleigha's wet suit, so she could stay warm in the water!

 Our schedule every day basically consisted of doing something touristy, and then swimming at the condos.  It worked out perfectly.  The kids got to log plenty of water time in their books and we also tucked plenty of sight seeing under our belts.

We took the gang over to Long Beach and rode the surreys.  It was harder than I expected to keep the four wheeled bikes moving at a reasonable pace.  I lucked out and had Cord as my partner.  I kept looking down to notice that my legs were hardly spinning, as opposed to his, moving like crazy keeping us soaring along.  That is a benefit to being married to an athlete I suppose!

The kids had fun racing.  I kept telling Cord it isn't really fair for us to win, considering we were adults.  But, we still got a kick out of passing them and teasing them about keeping up the pace.  It was really rather fun.

 

 

 

We saw some SHARKS! 

 

Luckily, they were in captivity at the aquarium.  Whew.  No lost limbs for us!  They were really cool to watch.  The kids got to show off their bravery touching weird stuff in the tide pools.  There were crabs and manna ray's and other ocean-ish creatures to discover and feel. 

Libby hated the smell.  Of course.  :)

 

That blackish blob in the water is a giant manna ray! It was seriously huge!

 

This is how I feel about sharks in general.

After playing at the Shark Exhibit, we walked around the docks for a bit and checked out the boats. 

I have been itching to get my hands on a Paddle Board for awhile now.  They have them at Costco and if I happened to find $800 in my coat pocket I would buy me one.  I was lucky to get the chance to try it out this week at Bellmont Shores.  This is one of our favorite places.  The houses are built along these cool canals so people can park their boat in their front yard.  Pretty snazzy.  We meandered through on our paddle boards, getting a little exercise and enjoying the feeling of standing on water!

Cute Cord and Eva watched the kids on the shore while we played on the boards.  It was one of my favorite things we did on our vacation.  And I didn't ever fall in once!  Sweet.

 

 

 Our little group.

We took a drive down to Newport Beach to do some Whale Watching.  My goodness.  I think everybody and their dog was at Newport this weekend.  It was insane!  Get this:  My parents didn't get to come on the boat ride because THEY COULD NOT FIND A PARKING SPOT IN THE ENTIRE CITY.  Seriously.  I felt so bad.  Cord dropped us off at the boat and then parked in booney land and RAN back and barely made it before we launched.  Ryan and Eva lucked out and happened upon one in the nick of time.  It was crazy.

So, some of us took an ocean tour and the others went out to dinner at a yummy Tai Restaurant.  :) 

It was fun to be out on the open water.  Libby was terrified at first of the waves and the rocking, but she developed her sea legs after a bit and began to enjoy the adventure.  I think she finally perked up when we started seeing dolphins!  They were beautiful and cute and impossible to catch on film!  I have about ten photos of the ocean, but NO dolphins.  Oh well.  :)

Gage made me nervous running around the boat.  

Cord and I took turns keeping him safe and out of the water!

 

 

 

We saw sea otters and seals and dolphins, but no whales.  It was okay though.  

The kids liked playing down below in the cabin area.  They had a little snack bar with extremely over priced goodies that they enjoyed thoroughly.

 

 

We were there on Easter, so we visited the local ward on Sunday.

I had to snap some traditional Easter morning pics of the kiddoes.  

As you can see they were going for the fakest-smiles-of-all-time look in the pictures.

 I was laughing out loud at their cheezers.

I love these kids!

 

 

My parents hid some chocolate eggs around their condo for the kids to find. 

They were from Trader Joe's and were delicious. 

My cute brother Jake came down from L.A. for the day.  We all walked down to the beach to fly kites.  The girls flew some little butterfly kites and we busted out the big ones for the adults.  

It was nice to be out on the beach for sunset.  Simply beautiful.

My mom baked a delicious salmon for Easter dinner.  It was yum!

(My mom cooked for us the entire trip.  It was so nice.  She makes delicious food!  I didn't have to worry about spending one minute in the kitchen.  What a good sport that mommy of mine is!)

 

 

 

Walking is usually a big part of beach vacations.  

I think it has to do with the nice weather and the beautiful scenery.  

We always do plenty of walking!

One afternoon, we walked out on the pier and then did some browsing 

in the little shops on Main Street.

 

 

 Sammy the Seal.

I love this little Natty.  

 

 

  

 

 So we drove and played.  And played and played.  And it was just wonderful.

Can't wait to do it again!