August 21

Kailua Beach. What a fun day of sand castles and playing in the water! (James doesn't like posing for pictures, too bad.)

August 17

Turtle Beach!

August 16

Sandy Beach in Oahu.

El Lago (the Lake)

I haven't blogged for a while, besides my short posts from my iphone (which is very cool that I can do it "on the go"). I didn't describe my trip to the Lake with James late last month. It was a pretty hot day so we drove over to the new beach. I was prepared with his sand toys, his golf clubs, his towel and change of clothes, a snack and water, everything I could think of. I slathered him in sunscreen and watched as the crowds arrived. That beach gets BUSY. We were there pretty early, like at 10:30am, and it was already really hot.

We drove but it is still quite a distance from the parking lot to the beach so I loaded James up in the wagon.

At first James only wanted to golf on the sand. The sand was really super hot so he did give up and ask to go in the water.

Here's an early shot of the beach at like 10:45. It got way busier as the morning turned to afternoon.



I ended up putting my camera down and enjoying the day with James. We played and played. We waded in the water, he watched the older kids "swim", and we did end up golfing somore more.

There is always a public bathroom poop and James didn't disappoint me this day. It was a little more trouble than usual juggling the wet clothing and the excited boy. He loves the poops lately!

June 20

Happy Father's Day! James and his Daddy had fun at the Lakes beach.

April 1st

April Fool's Day but also Happy Birthday to Uncle Joe!

James and I hit the "beach". Our community has a new beach, splash pad, and playground. It officially opens on June 5th but the sand area is available for play. James and I went over with our sand toys and had a great time scooping, burying, and playing.





Oh, and throwing. I did ask him to stop. The wind carried the sand right back to our faces and that was NOT nice.

It will be so much fun to walk or bike over to the beach this summer!

Saturday in SB

So what's the first thing you do when you hit the beach? If you are James you golf!



Throwing sand is fun!



Look at that! The ocean!





Tia ChaCha and Tio Donkey arrive. They only stayed for a few minutes but they got to see James in action. Donkey helped James make a hole for golf.











The water was freezing! We did convince James to step in the water, but he quickly ran away.

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Burying seashells is also fun!



Later on we met up with Grandma Rosie, Grandpa Larry, Tia ChaCha, and Tio Donkey on State Street, the impressive main street of shopping in SB. I guess this could count as a milestone for James- his first bar. I mean, sitting at the bar.



And still later on, we met Uncle Juan, Aunt Marina, and their kids (my cousins) Juan Carlos and Marissa for dinner. I'm sad that I didn't take any pictures but this one of James' meal in a boat.

SD Day #5- Coronado Beach & Goodbye!

We are home safe! We had an uneventful flight home and a great baby to travel with. James had a full day at the beach, and I suppose that helped :) We were really pleased with the way he traveled on the plane, this time he wanted to be a bit more active- standing up and crawling around on top of us. We kept him happy and eventually he fell asleep in our arms.

We started the morning with "the Best Breakfast ever", according to Jim. It was a restaurant called the Hash House a Go-Go and it was really close to our hotel. We were bummed that we discovered it on our last day. We ordered our food and our eyes bulged out when we saw the plates- HUGE and covered with food. My blackberry granola flapjack was about the size of SIX normal pancakes, and it was awesome. Jim had Banana cream & pecan french toast. Wow, his was good too! James was happy with his bowl of strawberries but wouldn't try our food. (He's become a picky eater, though I hope this changes now that we're home.)

And then we headed back to to hotel to hang out, watch golf, pack, and get ready for the beach. We made it to Coronado via the long long long bridge over the bay. I was excited to go over the bridge but then realized how high, how long it was, and how vulnerable you really are (thinking about the I-35 bridge collapse, how morbid!) We made it (phew!) and headed to lunch (pizza) to energize for the day.

I realized that we were pretty unprepared for the beach. We only had one beach towel and should have brought more or a big blanket to sit on. We made it work and James had a blast! I don't think he knew what to do with the sand, so we headed to the water. The first wave that hit his feet (safe in water shoes) was really cold and he demanded, "Up!" He got used to the water and would RUN towards it. Jim had a hard time keeping him safe and not too deep :) We let him play in the water and I tried to find some seashells and sand dollars. I found two but one broke and the other I left in the rental car :(

It was just a really great way to end our vacation, soaking in the sun and playing in the water. James was so happy and that made us happy :) It was a really pretty beach and the Hotel nearby was beautiful. When we make our millions, we'll maybe stay there for a vacation next time!

We left with sand in our shoes, in our diaper bag, and the stroller. I'm sure we brought some back to MN too!

I woke James up at 8am (when I woke up) wanting to get him back into our usual routine. He's done so well with the time change, but we're using today to get back to normal. Dada Jim is home too- he took the day off to unpack and regroup before he needs to get back to the grind. We're lucky to have such a great Dada to help us today :)

Please see our pictures and video below! We are happy to be home but we'll miss our SD family and the fun we had.

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