In a nutshell

In case you couldn't tell from all of my posts this week, we had a blast in Santa Cruz. There are just a few more things I feel the need to share with you all.

No trip with our family would be complete without at least one minor setback. In her excitement to get the sand toys out of the car, Frejya accidentally locked the keys in the car. So we had a visit from a local tow truck driver. We told Frejya to save the receipt since that would be her only souvenir from the trip. $70 seems like a pretty generous amount to spend on a souvenir, right?

We also went mini golfing at the boardwalk. And really it wasn't as fun as you might think. Gabriel is definitely not at a good age for mini golf. Too young to actually play, but old enough to know he wants to play. A lot of balls were thrown and swings were taken. It was almost dangerous. There was also a good amount of screaming and crying. By all of us I think.

And hey, guess what? I was on the trip too.

Different day, different beach

You didn't think I was done posting beach pictures, did you? Because I'm most definitely not. Here we are in Capitola last weekend. We pretty much didn't see Frejya at all because she was playing with some new friends she made. Gabriel spent his time throwing sand everywhere and chasing birds around. A family that was vacationing from China thought he was the cutest thing ever and took lots of pictures of him. Because really he is just too cute to not share with the world, right? Here are a ton (seriously!) of pictures to prove my point (and one that I was able to sneak of Frejya and her friend):

My fourth grader

How is she so old already? Silly me to think that taking her to school today would mean I got to sleep in. She was up way earlier than normal and totally ready for school before I'd even gotten out of bed. But she was happy to start school and I am glad to get back to a normal routine.

Beach bums

Our kids sure do love the beach. Gabriel wasn't so sure about the sand at first. He liked to play in it but really didn't like walking or sitting in it. I don't think he liked the way it felt on his feet. So he started out sitting on the blanket.

But after having sand dumped all over us and the blanket (because throwing sand is way more fun than anything else), we finally kicked him off and put him further away from us. He eventually got used to the feel of the sand and I don't think he hated us too much for it.

Frejya loves the water. She can play in the waves all day. So we really don't see much of her while on the beach (except of course we're watching her because the ocean is a scary place - my parents did a great job of putting the fear of the water in us and I still don't go into the water past my knees because of it).

Rides are fun

We let Gabriel go on his very first carnival rides at Santa Cruz last week. He seriously LOVED them. And he seriously HATED getting off of them. I had thought my sister Mary was so mean for taking Iris to the boardwalk a couple weeks ago and not letting her go on any rides. But now I completely understand. He looked really cute on the rides, though. We made Frejya ride along with him because we weren't sure how he'd react. She didn't love the little kid rides as much as he did.

He could not stop talking about his "ride boat" all weekend. He is such his father's son. We also took him in the haunted house. He wasn't loving it though. Two rides were enough for him I guess. He had pretty much reached his limit.

And he was tall enough to go on all sorts of other rides like the log ride, but there was no way we were taking him on the big rides. How is it that a 19 month old can ride something like that? I just don't get it.

Catch of the day

We went fishing off the pier while in Santa Cruz over the weekend. Well, Gabe and Frejya fished while I chased Gabriel around making sure he didn't throw himself off the pier into the water below. He really liked chasing all the birds around.

This was our big catch. It is quite possibly the smallest halibut ever.

Lots more pictures of our trip to come.

A day without Frejya

I was going to call this "A day without Frejy" so that it would rhyme, but it just looked like I left off a letter accidentally so now the title is really not very exciting. Oh well. And maybe that was trying too hard anyways. Making it rhyme. Who do I think I am? A poet I am not.

Anyways, the minute I walked in the door from work yesterday Frejya started to hound me about playing with her cousin Maisy who is finally back after spending the summer with her grandparents. So she called my mom and arranged herself a playdate. Actually she just tagged along while they went to Costco and then somehow talked Nana into letting her stay the night. So Gabe and I just had Gabriel yesterday. Naptime was amazing because it meant that there was no one else there and I actually got to take a nap also. And read a book. And do everything that I shouldn't have been doing instead of cleaning the house. Then Gabe got home and Gabriel played in the sprinklers for awhile.

For some reason, his favorite thing to do is put his head in puddles. It's fine when it's just the walkway at our house but it is really disgusting when he does it in the girls bathroom at the pool (which I am ashamed to say has happened more than a couple times) or anywhere else for that matter. Seriously gross. But really funny at the same time. Just look at him. What a weirdo. He does it in the dog bowl too.

After dinner Gabe decided it was time for another haircut. I was only allowed to participate by taking pictures (maybe you remember this incident?). Gabe doesn't trust me with the clippers yet. I tried telling him that I have plenty of experience using clippers on my pigs and my old poodle, but apparently that doesn't translate into me being able to cut Gabriel's hair. Man, you mess a kid's hair up once and no one ever lets you forget it. Anyways, Gabriel wasn't so sure about the clippers. He did a great job of sitting very still. He was almost a little too still. Like maybe he was terrified?