no swimsuits: the beach, part two

Our first day at The Beach happened to be a Sunday, so we didn't mind that it was also pretty chilly and not ideal for swimming and sun bathing anyway. We had fun going down to the ocean in our sweats and just hanging out, listening to the waves and walking in the sand.

But first, we drove there. We drove through the night so the kids could sleep, and it worked out really well. (I say that because John pretty much drove the entire way while I slept off and on.)

Here's a view of our backseat that next morning as we neared The Beach.

And here is a view of a typical diaper change en route. Front seat of the car, Pearl doing her best maneuvers to escape so she can do something more fun than have her diaper changed. It is pretty funny.

Coming down through the canyon toward the ocean that morning there was some pretty fog on the mountains.

Have I mentioned that this whole Beach thing is a camping trip? No? Well, it is. We stay at a lovely campground right near the ocean-- it takes about 2 minutes to walk down to the water. Upon leaving the campground you have to cross under the highway (by way of this highly scenic underpass) and then there you are, at the beach (not The Beach, because the spot that we go to is a few minutes further).

This is what it looks like right when you get there:

And then if you walk up a bit higher you see the area that we hang out at. Just a little past the lifeguard tower and then down (obviously) is The Beach.

Ah, blessed double jogger, one of the best investments we have ever made. It has been with us on many adventures and it was so nice to have it to haul all our stuff to and from The Beach in every day. It also was where Pearl could take naps so we didn't have to go back to the tent. Here we are with our happy stroller, testing it out on the sand that first day.

Georgie got out and threw his first rock out into the water. I still don't quite understand the appeal of chucking rocks into the ocean, but it could entertain him for hours.

This little buddy of mine is the best. I just love him. He is at an age where I am constantly thinking about what his memories are going to be of these moments in his life and am so aware that it is my job to create experiences for him that he can look back on with gratitude and happiness. I hope The Beach will be like that for him.

After throwing rocks for a bit we headed up over to our section of Beach by way of this little dirt trail. Doesn't it look dreamy?

That sandy patch of beach on the right is our spot.

And the trail got a little muddy, and the sun decided to hide, and my girl wanted some cuddles. If there is one thing that has The Beach beat for "dreamy" it is getting loves from my squishy baby. Obsessed might actually be a better word.

While I cuddled (and nursed) our Peach (this girl is going to have an identity crisis with all of the variations of "Pea__" that we call her), the boys went off to explore.

And when they got back, there I was, still nursing the babe at the top of the stairs. George came up to say hello.

And then I found that I didn't like sitting there so close to a bunch of garbage cans, so I moved down a few steps. And Pea still nursed.

Pearl fell asleep and some more of the family was arriving, so we headed back to the campground. Grandma and Grandpa arrived (with Lisa and Logan), and Grandma spent some time reading stories to the boys.

I am positive that one day (probably soon) George and his cousin Logan will be best buddies. They are only four months apart, and Logan is George's only cousin so far, so they are destined to be tight. But it is somewhat comical to referee their tenuous relationship at this stage. Logan likes to eagerly drag (literally, sometimes) George along with him to "play," and George is not always super receptive to these "invitations." Lisa can often be heard reminding Logan to "invite George," but then let him make his own decision. It is funny. These pictures make me laugh because they totally show what it is like. Here is Logan, all best buddy and in George's space and George is like, "Dude, I just want to walk somewhere by myself, not be dragged there." Hysterical.

Ah, there we go. Some smiles. George and Logan actually often have lots of fun together and I am glad they have each other.

Here are a couple more campground shots from that first day. Baby Pea playing in Grandma and Grandpa's tent trailer, and my three amigos roasting marshmallows.

Next up there will be swimsuits! Any you will be happy because the best shots include a 10 month old chub :).

unruly waves: the beach, part one

So there is this weird thing that happens on blogs where people feel like they have to be all apologetic for posting lots of pictures of whatever it is that they are blogging about. You know what I mean, right? I don't really get it. I mean, isn't that kind of the point of blogging (for many of us, anyway)? To document your life in words and photos? I totally get that all of my photos from a vacation may not be all that exciting for most of you to look at, but really, I am mostly just blogging about that vacation so that I can have a record of it for me and my children. The interaction with family, friends, and other bloggers on the blog is a total bonus, but not my main motivation in blogging. So why not post as many as I want, and not even be sorry about it one single bit?! Okay, then, I will!

Except...

I am a little bit sorry about it, not because you have to look at so many photos (you don't if you don't want to, I promise I won't mind:)), but because I have to post them all. Holy cow, I have a really crazy amount of pictures from The Beach that I want to write about and share in this space, but finding the time and motivation to do so has been pretty hard. (Perhaps this was evident from the two week absence?) I'm gonna start small, with a couple of series of photos that document two of the funnier memories from our days on The Beach.

George loved the ocean this year. The last time we were at The Beach he wasn't so sure about how cold it was and mostly preferred to play in the sand. This year he really enjoyed the water, and was not timid about it at all. Our first day there I was surprised when he immediately wanted to wade into the water all by himself.

So off he went, with Logan, and their cute make-shift fishing poles fashioned out of sticks and seaweed.

And when a wave would come, the boys would run back in a bit to avoid getting soaked, and then run back out a ways, following the wave as it retreated. So they were doing that. And then this series of events took place.

You can see where this is going, right?

Oh my brave little boy, here he was all excited about the ocean and then this happens?!

I love Logan looking at him like, "Ha ha, Sucker!"

He got up quicker than I could think to stop taking pictures and go rescue him (thankfully, because that enabled me to get these next couple of photos).

Aside from being sort of frightening to suddenly find yourself face down in freezing water, I am sure the salt was burning his eyes and tasted yucky. Poor little sad boy. And Logan is all smiles.

I am pleased to say that after a change of shirt and a quick hug George was ready to hit the water again. But he wanted to hold his daddy's hand :).

See, he is even laughing again :).

And, since we are talking about unfortunate events, we are going to make this a series (get it?) and showcase one of Pearl's finest Beach moments.

So there she was, minding her own business, just doing downward facing dog on a boogie board.

When, unbeknownst to her, her daddy's hands enter the frame to swoop in and rescue her before an unruly wave comes and knocks her down.

And the only way he could grab her quickly enough was to do just that: grab her. And this is what that looked like:

This all happened very fast, and apparently there wasn't time to turn the little Pea right-side up.

And there still wasn't time to turn her before John realized that the boogie board was being swept out into the ocean and he would need to go rescue that, too. And of course it did not occur to me to put the camera down and help out at all.

Oh, I just love those. So funny to see that chubby little body helplessly hanging upside down, wondering what on earth was going on.

Okay, that wasn't so bad. Maybe another post is in the very near future. I'll chip away at these photos one by one!

and to all a good night

Still sifting and sorting through Beach photos, but I wanted to post about all of our Christmas festivities first, before they are too much a thing of the past.

The Christmas season went too fast for me this year. I love everything about the month of December-- I love the snow, the infusions of red in my wardrobe (and those of my children), the opportunities to think of the Savior so constantly, the merry music wherever I go, that driving around neighborhoods to look at lights is so full of wonder and magic, that there are so many excuses to bake up something delicious. And, I may be the only person that feels this way, but I also really love the hustle and bustle of it all. I know so many people who lament the crowded malls and feverish shoppers at this time of year (my husband is one of them), but I love all of that. I honestly delight in the mall parking lot being so full and busy because it means there will be many people inside buying gifts and the crowds really do just add to my jolliness. My husband does not understand this, but it is true. I just love every little detail about this season and I love taking it all in and rolling with it rather than fighting against it. It is fun for me to be pushing my way down the aisles of Toys-R-Us along with 107 other people because it feels like we are all united in this special little club of craziness and mayhem to find the right gift to give someone you love. I know, it's a little weird.

All of that just to say that I love December and Christmas and, while not all-inclusive, this post will hopefully give me a little taste of that happiness to look back on and remember how glorious this season was and how happy Christmas is when you have a 3 year old boy named George and a 9 month old girl named Pearl.

One of the traditions that I have come to love is the annual party we have with some of our dearest friends from high school. I feel so grateful to still know and love these people that I share so many memories with. Getting together doesn't happen often enough, but when it does we have so much fun. I love that John is friends with all of these people, too. This year Matt and Sadie hosted and it was such a perfect night. Here is a picture of us all crowded together in the corner of Matt's living room :).

While we were at Matt's house some of the boys started talking about playing basketball (they all used to play Jr. Jazz together in junior high and high school), and I had the thought to have whoever could make it come up to my parents' house the next day (which happened to be Christmas Eve) and play. I am thinking this should also become a tradition. It was so much fun to sit and watch all these boys play together again. Fond memories for me, for sure.

Pearl and I watching Daddy and the others play from the window above the sport court.

Excuse the blur. The subjects did not really hold still and the light was pretty bad.

After the basketball players left (except for my husband, he stayed) we began making preparations for our annual Christmas Eve party with my mom's side of the family. This is definitely one of my most favorite things about Christmas. I am never disappointed by this party :). So much laughing that our tummies hurt and our eyes water. Also, delectable food.

And just because this is what I can pretty much be found doing at some point during each and every event that we attend:

I believe this was just after a leg lamp (a la A Christmas Story) was opened.

And my favorite photo from the party is this one of George and Parke with what they opened during our gift exchange. Mustaches and a blow up tongue, respectively.

After all the guests left we had our Christmas Eve traditions with my family. We opened our jammies and the present we got from the person who had our name this year. These blurry pictures of George opening his Superman shirt may be my favorites from the whole season. He was SO excited he could barely stand it. This is something that he had seen and wanted months ago, and when he saw what it was he could not contain himself. He squinted his eyes shut, clutched the shirt to his chest and squealed, "This is what I wanted for my WHOLE LIFE!" It was pretty much to die for. Thank you Madeline, for this very happy surprise.

Pearl wasn't quite as entertaining to watch, but she was pretty darn sweet. She was so sleepy (it was late) that she was kind of in slow motion and not totally herself. Little cutie. Her face in this first photo makes me smile, and I love the ones of her daddy giving his tired girl some lovin'.

She did manage a few smiles.

Adam had Pearl's name and I love so much that he went to Gymboree all by himself and picked her out a pair of baby jeans and a shirt. Melts my heart, I tell you. He also got her some Jazz and BYU gear, of course. Here she is opening them up.

We took our exhausted littles home to bed and woke up to our baby girl chirping happily from her crib, announcing her readiness to experience her very first Christmas. Ohhh, how I love being a mama. So much delight on days like Christmas that I can hardly stand it. We brought our little Penguin into our room with us for a bit. Daddy changed her diaper and she just smiled and smiled. She is joy, this little girl of ours.

After a few minutes of playing with Pearl, John and I decided to wake George up to go get started-- we had a busy day ahead of us. Poor little sleepy boy was not quite ready to get up (notice how he slept in his Superman shirt).

Pearl was most happy to help us wake her brother. She is very good at climbing all over people who are trying to sleep.

Once we roused him enough that he understood that it was Christmas morning he perked right up and was all smiles, ready to go see if Santa had come.

We went into Pearl's room for a few quick pictures of the babes in their Christmas jammies.

And then they were off. In fashion very typical of my children, busybody Pearl led the way while her sweet big brother followed.

His reaction when he saw presents under the tree and realized that Santa had indeed been to our home.

George was in charge of "reading" the names on the tags and passing out the presents. He was so careful to examine all of the letters on the tags and was pretty delighted to find his name on the majority of the presents. Pearl just wanted to eat the garland.

A close second to the Superman shirt for Delightful Reactions to Gifts was his "flying, orange, furry, dinosaur Pillow Pet." He had asked Santa for that exact thing (very specific, this little boy-- no mistaking what he wanted :)), and he was thrilled to find that Santa had totally delivered.

These two boys are best friends. Really, they love each other so much and their relationship brings me such deep joy. I don't even mind that I am a distant second place in the quest to be the favorite parent :). It is funny because when people see just me with George they comment on how he must be a mama's boy (he really does love me and is constantly cuddling up to me and telling me he loves me for no reason), but I just tell them that is because they haven't seen him with his daddy. Oh how I adore my boys,

Opening stockings. Pearl was pretty happy about the clementines that Santa put inside.

Pearl crawled all around, content to watch her brother open presents and happy to get a spare piece of wrapping paper here or there to chew on.

Aside from a little teething rattle that George picked out for her, we didn't buy Pearl a single present. I was feeling a little bad about it so I decided to wrap up some of the little baby food pouches that I had bought to bring along to The Beach with us. We don't really do baby food at our house (she gets bits of whatever we are eating if it is appropriate, but she still mostly just nurses), so this really was a treat for her. Even though her face in this photo would lead you to believe that she wasn't happy about this present, trust me, she was :). Holy cow, this picture cracks me up.

See, she liked them, I promise.

And this "life saver" was a hit, as well.

John and I had pretty much decided not to get each other anything real impressive. It was a pretty low key Christmas all around, and we thought it would be wise to save our pennies for other things down the road. I followed this plan, John did not. I was shocked to open up a pretty little wide angle lens for my camera. It was love at first sight. Here is a shot of our messy, Christmas-morning living room with our new lens.

A happy Christmas morning was had by all :).

We left our house in a hurricane of crinkled wrapping paper and strewn-about boxes and rushed up to my parents' house for Christmas Morning Take Two. I love having a big family and younger siblings who are still so excited about Christmas. Here is a wide angle shot of the living room before we got started on stockings.

George was so excited about his new chair and some Playmobile toys (among other things).

And although she didn't say so, I am positive Pearl was pleased as punch to be among the family members with Jazz jerseys. (We are big Jazz fans, what can I say?) How freakishly cute is the little onesie style of this jersey?

Just for kicks and giggles, check out the fantastic frog lamp that my pretty mom got from my dad. My mom and I had seen these a few months ago at a furniture store and thought they were so cool. I secretly passed this information on to my dad and he delivered (like he always does-- he is the King Gift Giver. Just ask John what my dad got him).

Christmas afternoon was spent at John's sister's house with his family and we sadly totally forgot the camera. I was bummed not to have pictures of Logan and George playing "Don't Break the Ice" together and of all of us eating a lovely lunch. Luckily we left for The Beach with all of them that night and I have plenty of pictures of that :).

Here is one:

Are you a fan of the wide angle? Mmm, I am. More to come.