Throughout this summer we explored a variety of options for taking a vacation , but due to bad timing, nothing really panned out. So when my friend Liz brought up a last minute opportunity to hit the beach while the kids were still off tack, we jumped on it. They had connections and were able to get a great little Sea Scape condo in Aptos, by Santa Cruz. Liz and I had been talking for a while about getting family pictures on the beach, so we knew we had to take advantage of this opportunity, which we most definitely did. After getting there Sunday night, we spent a good part of Monday taking pictures. We got up and ready and took pictures in the morning and then after playing on the beach and in the pool and hot tub, we go ready again and took pictures again at sunset. We were using the Evan’s new digital SLR camera and just took pictures of each other. Maybe not the most professional pictures, but not bad for the price! FREE! We probably took over 200 pictures of each family trying to get a decent shot. Gotta love digital!!! Ryan even sacrificed himself to get some fun pictures of the kids playing in the water in their picture clothes. It was way cute to see how much fun the kids had. They thought it was so cool to be able to get wet in their clothes.
In the afternoon we went back to the beach, in our swim suits, and really played in the ocean. One of the kids’ favorite parts of the vacation was riding in the golf carts down to the beach. The community were we stayed had a golf cart service that would take you down to the beach. It doesn’t get much better than that!! Colby was hilarious as he was very timid of the water. He did do really good though, just hanging out and playing on the beach. He loved having the freedom of just running around. We tried a few times to put him by the water, but as soon as the waves came he would run up to the sand. It was like the waves were chasing him! The Evan’s had brought a couple of boogie boards, so we had a great time riding and trying to catch the waves. Brian was able to get each of the girls to at least try boogie boarding, and they liked it a little, but none of them were sold on the idea. They didn’t like being hit by the salt water when the wave went over the top of them. I don’t blame them though, salt water doesn’t taste very good! Brian on the other hand loved the boogie boards. He was persistent in finding the good waves! I got quite a chuckle at watching him get smacked around by the waves a few times, but I was also excited for him when he was able to catch it just right! After being beat up in salt water and covered in sand, we headed up to the Sea Scape pool and hot tub. What a great way to warm up and wash off after being in the ocean. We washed most of the sand off in the outdoor shower, and then jumped into the hot tub. I’m sure we scared off a few people when they saw us coming with 4 adults and 8 kids. We were quite a site. People kept asking if they all belonged to us. Absolutely! We later headed back to the condo, washed up, ate dinner and then we got ready for pictures again. This time we walked down to the beach. We tried taking sunset pictures, but the professionals that we are not, we couldn’t quite get the look we were going for. We did however get a couple of great shots of Hailey and Tyler for their future wedding video. (ha/ha) After seeing the pictures, Ryan started razing Hailey about marrying Tyler. I believe it started out with him offering her candy and some money for her to marry Tyler. She persistently would giggle and say no. Before the trip was over the offer was up to a million dollars to marry Tyler. She still just giggled and said no. Brian and I on the other hand offered to work something out with him. Arranged marriages have worked in the past right?
The next day was just a continuation of the fun. They started out the morning with Liz setting them up doing seascape paintings. She had brought real water colors, brushes and everything. It was cute to see their creativity and ideas. Earlier in the day when it was still overcast we played in the pool and hot tub and when it burned off we went down to the beach. I think the theme for this day was sand play. Just about everyone got buried, including Ryan. There was lots of digging and burying and making sand castles. I loved watching the kids all work and play together. I even caught some precious moments of my boys making sand castles together. It amazes me how entertaining large piles of sand can be. Later we headed back to put Colby down for a nap, and the adults played some Settler’s on the back patio while the kids played some golf on the mini hole that was just outside our condo. It was perfect. I think we figured that over the course of 2 ½ days we took over 1,000 pictures. What can we say; we had great food, great friends, a great time and the pictures to prove it!
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