The beach!

You can't drive all the way to Santa Barbara and not go to the beach! We all woke up Saturday morning, caught a warm breakfast at the hotel and headed for the beach. Josh has been to the beach in Hawaii, but he was too little to enjoy it. This time he loved it. We have been talking about the beach for a year now and I think it was everything he expected. Parker was a trooper too. It was perfect temperature at first, but then got a little windy. We slipped Parker into Josh's sweatshirt and he just dosed off in the backpack. He is such a good boy. I appreciate his willingness to sleep just about anywhere.

Dorene loves the beach and like a pro went to the sand looking for neat shells. Which there were a ton, the biggest I'd ever seen at a beach. Gramma and Teri joined her. Josh got to work on a sand castle with Dad and Jord, but soon the water was the most interesting. Him and I had a great time letting the waves try to catch us. We stood with Aunt Teri in the water and enjoyed the sand in our toes. (Speaking of, Teri went for a pedicure the other day and was so relaxed she told the girl to paint her toes any color. The gal painted them blue, surprise! I would think she would have chosen pink or red. Oh well, Teri was cool with it.)

I think one of the best parts besides watching Josh's face, was watching Gramma feed the birds. At first there was only one, but before we knew it they started coming from every direction. I couldn't help but think of Mary Poppin's "feed the birds..." song. She was so proud that she ended up with probably 30 birds around us. No one got pooped on though. One did almost land right on Josh's head.

The time at the beach made me really appreciate this time of my life. It is so fun to share new things with my children. I love to see how they react and to get to listen to the stories after. I also love spending time with my husband. Even if it is a seven hour car ride or time on the beach, it's just nice to be with him.