Beautiful beach day!

I had Monday, January 16th off from school. Brian, luckily, also had it off from his work. It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and to celebrate my dream, we headed off to the beach. (We originally planned to go visit Brenda and the boys, but they didn't have the day off from school.) We drove to Seaside and got to have an amazing day in the sun, with little wind, and 65 degree weather. You really can't beat that, middle of January and all. We got there around 11:30 a.m., had lunch at Doogers (can't beat their clam chowder, even I will eat some), then headed off to the beach. It was just superb! The water was very cold, but overall, sunny and beautiful outside. The dogs absolutely LOVE going to the beach. It saddens me to have them get back into the car for the long haul back to boring old home.

Here's a few pictures of Cody enjoying the beach. Soon, he will be as bad as Caitlin asking to go to the "ocean water" all the time. heh, heh

Yep, he's showing off his wet sand finger. He didn't seem very interested in "tasting" sand, which made me happy. But, I've wondered how much he's tried before to draw that conclusion???
This kid loves to climb. If you build it, he will want to scale it. I'm not sure why. It's like he took every ounce of daring that Caitlin snubbed. It's a bit scary at times, but he seems to do pretty well with his balance and such.

At this beach, we can drive on and park. It's pretty nice. There have been times when the waves have seriously chased us all the way back to our car. Luckily, this day was just perfect and we got to go play in the water and rest by the car when we were done.

Here's the gang enjoying a moment of peace on a random log. We all enjoy taking our shoes and socks off and freezing our feet in the water! (All Casey wants to do is have us throw her a branch that she can chase endlessly!)

Here's Caitlin and I resting after climbing up this small dune. There are these VERY pokey weeds that we tried to avoid, but man alive, they were all over and so painful! Caitlin wanted me to carry her on my back on the way down. Nothing like adding another 40 pounds to my back to step on a pokey weed even harder! Yikes! We made it with only a few mishaps.

Brian swears that there are lots of pictures of me with the kiddos, but not him. I beg to differ! He gets lots of face time on the camera. He loves to drag those kiddos out to the thrill of the crashing waves, or of waves that sneak up on us and we have to run like the wind to get out of its way!

Overall, we had a great time and as always, can't wait to go back. Someday I might get to live right on the ocean (houseboat? heh, heh).

I just want to add, two posts in one week. I'm on a roll!

Proof...

I think I have explained my blog title before, right? I have no talent artistically so I didn't want anyone thinking this blog was going to be SO GREAT and/or SUCH AN AMAZING READ! I just wanted to be able to post what I wanted, when I wanted, and tell a story for others who are far away (and I can't call everytime something is funny or amazing or just what it is). So, this entry is going to be about Caitlin's ability to tell a story with her pictures. I'm always amazed at what she is able to convey on a piece of paper, or a Magna Doodle, or whatever she is using to paint/draw/color us a picture of what is in her head. Here is her latest creation:

She loves the beach! (We ALL do in this family.) It's especially great when you can have the water chase you back to the car, or make sand castles in the sun, or just take your shoes and socks off and feel the STING of that cold ocean water on your feet. We just love it. Caitlin talks about it quite a bit. So, recently, she was sitting down drawing a picture and I casually glanced over and asked what she was drawing. She told me that this picture is at the beach. "But, it's a new beach with diamonds on it." She and Cody are playing on the "diamond" beach. She then showed me the BIG waves and explained to me that Daddy and I were "skateboarding" on the waves. (I was pretty impressed with her idea of what skateboarding was and how someone could do it on the waves.) I told her that it's called Surfing, and she said, "Yeah, that's you and Daddy surfing on the waves." Wow. We must be pretty good too, or else we wouldn't be able to survive in waves two-three times our size. =) I know she didn't get her creativity or artistic ability from me, sadly. But, I'm happy to see how well her imagination works and love to look at her creations. I hope she only gets better and better. Maybe her blog name can be "All that was denied to my mother - artistically." heh, heh