Rest between Disney days

We purposely built in two rest days during our time at Disneyland.  Both spent at the beach.

Thursday morning we went to visit Mike's family who lives in SoCal.  His grandpa is 97, the last time we were down here visiting him was for his 90th birthday.  Hannah was a baby!

   After our visit, we went to Newport Beach.  Let me tell you about how the beach is a cure-all for whining.  One of the littles was having a ROUGH morning after our long day at Disneyland the day before and this place seemed to perk him right up.  It was mid 80s and the water was cold, but not freezing.

  My cousin Ryan came to visit!  He goes to Occidental in LA.  He spent the whole day with us, the kids were so thrilled!!

  She was getting a little too daring for me venturing into the water on her own.  Don't get me wrong, I love how much they love the water, but a healthy fear is good too.

Because curls. 

   To top everything off, Uncle Mike had some friends bring boards to teach the kids how to surf!!

   They both loved it so much they stayed in the water much longer than I thought they would. They also had some success, both of them stood up and rode waves in.  Sadly, I didn't get a good one of Calvy standing.

   Mike and I also got to give it a try.  Mike stood up a couple times, I was kneeling a couple of times.

  That afternoon the kids had some good naps and we hung out in the backyard til dinner.

I tried to get a pic of all of them, but you know...

     Saturday after California Adventure, we went to Huntington Beach.  The weather turned and it was foggy and pushing 70 when the sun was out.  Still didn't stop these kids from getting wet.

Such a treat to get to spend some time at the beach in February!!  I forgot how much we love the beach until we took them.  No fighting, no whining, lots of playing together, working together, smiles and giggles.  All the stuff I signed up for when I wanted to be a parent.  :)