an impromptu trip!

Hello!

When I said in my last post that I'd see you Monday…betcha didn't know I meant the Monday a week later...plus a day. :)
We headed on an impromptu, very unplanned trip to Southern California last week.

I grew up in Southern California and am always excited to go back.  Since my parents moved away, it doesn't happen nearly often enough.

My grandma used to rent a little house on Corona del Mar and it was so fun to go back.  We spent the first day exploring tide pools and collecting sea shells.  The girls happily filled their buckets for hours.  There's always too much seaweed in the cove beaches and that always creeps everyone out, so it was more of an exploring day than a play in waves kind of day.

That night we took the ferry to Balboa Island and ate at Ruby's on the pier.  A complete must, in my opinion.  Have you had their shakes?!

Balboa bars are also a must.  I love them dipped in "everything".

The second day we headed to Disneyland and I'm not even going to say much about that other than I've discovered I'm truly not an amusement park person… (silence).  We did love the parades, though!

The next day we went to Aliso Beach by Laguna.  All day I asked if we could pleeeease stay one more day, but it was a no-go.  Darn.

The rip current here was really strong.  In hindsight I think we should've packed up and headed to a more kid friendly beach like Huntington. 

I had one of those hysterical 'my child could have died' experiences.  Every ten minutes or so, a few giant waves would come in - I guess this beach is known for it's strong rip.  It sucked Colby's boogie board out into the water and he chased after it, but the pull the wave was creating kept making him fall and pulling the board out of his hand.  The wave looked huuuge behind him and he wouldn't run and leave that dang boogie board!  I yelled frantically and ran after him.  I grabbed it and his arm and we ran like crazy.  

I cried like only a blubbering mom would as I was telling Zac about it later.  I was maybe over exaggerating a wee bit, but to put it in perspective, the waves the day before were so large they were in the parking lot.  Literally.  So I felt somewhat justified and layed in bed that night playing the "what ifs" in my mind.  "What if I hadn't been right there?"  "What if I wouldn't have been fast enough?"  "What if he drowned?"  

Please tell me you do that too??

Zac was teaching Maddie to body surf, but she wasn't quite grasping the idea and sucked up a bunch of water instead.

I shed a few tears as we drove away that night.  If the traffic wasn't so horrendous, I would move back in a heartbeat… and if I didn't love Arizona so much.

Until next year….