Quick trip...

John surprised me with a day at the beach for my b-day. On Sunday afternoon we drove down to Edie and Luke's house (John's sister who lives in Hesperia, CA) and spent the night. We had fun playing Phase 10 and catching up... I believe I was in 2nd place when a few poor losers quit the game... I won't mention names... M & E are their initials... anyway, they live a little over an hour to the beach, so we got up Monday morning and drive down to Newport. We went to Carona Del Mar Beach. I love it there.

I LOVE the Ocean... it's so calming and it makes me so happy. I LOVE playing in the water... it doesn't matter the time of year or the temperature of the water... I have to get in! I love riding the waves, floating on the waves before they break and diving through the waves! It all makes me happy. I love sitting on the beach watching my kids and husband play in the water... and I love sitting on the beach reading a good book, listening to the waves crash in the background! This was a perfect birthday present!

Sometime after lunch John heads to the restrooms and comes back a few minutes later with our dear friends the Browns from Liberty Lake, WA! They were only 20 yards away up the beach! They were in California visiting family and just went to the beach for the day.. how random is that! there are hundreds of beaches in Southern California and we ended up at the same one! Crazy! It was so fun to spend the rest of the day with them and catch up on their lives. They have twins that are Ashley's age, Kendra and Kyle... Unfortunately Kendra didn't come with them... Ashley went to school with them from kindergarten to 7th grade... and then they have a son Mitchell's age. They played soccer together, did Joy school together and lots of play dates. Tanner didn't remember Trevor too much... he was a little older than him. We moved to Liberty Lake the same month that the Browns did and everyone used to get John and Nathan mixed up... The whole gang...

Waiting for the perfect wave...

John caught a good one!

Mitchell riding one in...

Mitchell and Drew

After the beach we drove to the Balboa pier and had dinner at Ruby's Diner... Our fist time eating at Ruby's... Mitchell LOVED his burger... he said it was worth the trip.

the kids chowing down the fries...

After dinner we walked around some shops... Tanner was tired and ready to go... Mitchell was mad that we didn't buy him a shirt at a surf shop and John is just happy to be together...

So my kids have some issues with sunscreen... for some reason they don't think it's cool or something to have someone help them put it on... so each of them got burned at the beach. I can't tell you how many times I asked Tanner if I could help him get his, face, back and chest... he got mad at me each time and said he was fine... Mitch just sat there and watched everyone put theirs on and ended up putting a little on but not enough and Ashley insisted that she wouldn't burn... They forget that the sun is different at the beach... anyway... I won't ramble on about my kids not listening to their parents... but I will say that I had a hard time sympathizing with them the next day when they were all crying about their burns... tanner couldn't even get dressed all day because his chest hurt so bad... if you look close at this picture below you can see blisters on his chin...

I had a great day Tuesday on my actual birthday... a great friend took me to lunch and to a movie... and then the family took me to Bajio for dinner. and to top the night off, I had my favorite ice cream for dessert! Too bad I had to share it... i could eat the whole quart myself!