beach vacation

Last week we got a wild hair and decided to head down to Carlsbad, CA for a family adventure. We had actually been toying with the idea for a couple of weeks but we didn't think we had the guts to actually do it. The eleven hour (one way) drive and multiple hotel stays had us worried that we were making a big mistake (we are afraid of our kids when they are sleep deprived).

I am so glad that we decided to make the trip. We learned that if we deprive Charlie of his nap he will not only sleep through the night but will sleep in until 11am. In fact after spending the entire day at the beach on Saturday we all slept in until 11am on Sunday morning. It was glorious. I even woke everyone up at 5am with a loud scream (I have a crazy history of nightmare induced screaming) but everyone was so tired they went right back to sleep.

The boys absolutely adored the beach. They loved everything about it. The sand. The water. The waves. Everything.

Paul's oldest sister and her family were in Carlsbad for their annual summer beach vacation and we were able to spend our days on the beach with them. Here's part of the crew getting ready for a friendly game of flag football. BTW, there is no convincing Charlie (who now prefers to be called Charles) that a football is indeed a football and not a headball.

Cousin Julie showed George how to catch sand crabs. Unfortunately, they weren't talking crabs like George thought they would be.

We left our house around 8pm Thursday night and stayed in a hotel outside Las Vegas. Friday morning we headed to CA and drove straight to the beach. We arrived about 1pm and spent the afternoon and then checked into our Carlsbad hotel. We cleaned ourselves up (here are the boys all cleaned up) and then headed out to a nice dinner with family. At dinner George kept saying naughty words (poop head and stupid head) so I told him I was going to ask the waiter for some hot sauce (it was an empty threat) so when I left to go to the bathroom George asked the waiter if they had hot sauce and when the waiter said no he was visibly relieved.

George spent hours running back and forth between the water and his line up of buckets. Charlie spent hours tormenting anyone close to him with his big yellow shovel.

Charlie also enjoyed drawing in the sand...

and running away from the waves.

Paul took George out to experience the waves.

This was an important part of the day because about two hours earlier I had taken George out and we got knocked over by a wave which resulted in a horrible experience for George. They had an amazing time and George now knows (and will tell you) that it's better to be with dad than mom when in the ocean.

On the way out of town we bought the boys portable dvd players for the trip (which I am going to try to take back because they are crappy) and Charlie got his taken away at one point because he wouldn't stop banging his sippy cup on it. This is the conversation that followed:
Charlie: I want my dvd.
Me: No, I said no banging.
Charlie: I want my dvd.
Me: Find something else to do.
George: Mom, mom. I got to tell you something.
Me: What?
George: There is nothing else to do.
I couldn't help but laugh, he was right, it was midnight and we were driving through Las Vegas.

This is the view from the condo that Paul's sister and her family rented. They spent three weeks there. How awesome is that?

And this is our four family. That's what George calls us and I like it.