Freezing at the beach is still better than not going to the beach

On Saturday we had grand plans to take the kids to the beach in Capitola.  Brett and I love going probably as much as Hank does so we have missed not going very often this summer.  It was going to be Ruby and Charlotte's first time at the beach.  It was also going to be a risky adventure seeing as we didn't have another adult to help us.  But we are trying to embrace the fact that being outnumbered is our fate and we have to figure it out and not let it keep us from getting out there!  (Easier said than done ha!)  This had huge potential to be the worst idea ever.  We were kinda late getting on the road after the girls' morning nap so by the time we got onto 17 to head south it was already packed with beach-going traffic.  We had to make the decision to abort our plan and go north to Half Moon Bay to ensure we would get to the beach by lunch time.  We were bummed because it meant we were headed to the cold beach instead of the sunny one.

Once we got into HMB we stopped to pick up a pizza for our picnic and once I stepped out of the car I realized just how cold it was.  It was 59 degrees.  Oops.  I went into a Mexican hole-in-the-wall clothing store next to the pizza joint that looked like it was full of cast-offs that weren't even good enough to send to Goodwill and everything was just dumped out everywhere.  The craziest store I have ever been in.  I bought Hank a hoodie and the girls some socks all for a negotiated price of $8 and all of which were buried under piles of other clothes only to be found by the lone cashier.  We were going to keep our kids warm!  And I guess we know where to go next time we go to HMB and forget our sweaters.

In the end, we had an amazing time and loved it!  We were chilly but it felt quite warm on the beach.  The girls loved getting their hands in the sand.  Logistically it just didn't work out to let them get their toes in the water so we'll have to let them experience the water another time.  (Two crawling babies plus Hank near the water was too adventurous for us, plus the girls wanted to eat the sand so very badly.)

It was not easy getting all of our gear down the stairs to the beach and luckily a nice lady carried the pizza for us on the way down.  Hank offered to carry it but that was not a good idea.  We had so much fun and Brett and I were patting ourselves on the back for conquering our little fear of taking them to the beach by ourselves and we plan to go back soon.  But hopefully to Capitola! 

 

Charlotte and Ruby enjoying the sand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They found the pizza box.

 

 

 

They ate pizza and ate their new socks.  Not sure which one was worse.

 

 

 

 

The view of HMB on the drive in...the fog rolling in.

The sun coming out as we were leaving...the fog burning off.

 We live in such a beautiful part of the country!  You gotta love summer - it can be in the 50's on the coast and 80's back inland where we live just less than 30 miles apart.
-a

Worst idea ever

Brett and I have a phrase we like to use whenever we do something out of the ordinary with our kids and that something ends up being a big mistake.  We like to call it "the worst idea ever".  This phrase entered our vocab a week or two after the girls were born.  I suppose we never needed it before the girls came simply because when one baby is crying or one baby's schedule gets messed up it's not such a big deal.  But with three little ones, when we embark on a bad idea, our failures seem like the worst idea ever.  The worst idea ever is kinda like a bad momma moment but in our case we are usually doing it together.

So, to give you an example of one of our worst ideas ever, about a month ago we decided to take the plasma car out in the neighborhood and all of us went out on the journey.  Nothing unordinary about that, right?  You see, the problems started when  Brett thought it would be a good idea to attach a jump rope to the plasma car so he could pull Hank around if needed.  That was problem #1.  Problem # 2 was that we also had our minds set on going to Starbucks which is not a short walk from our house, but it's no problem for us when all of our kids are cooperating or in a stroller.

Now that I have set the scene, I will just cut to the chase.  Basically, once we got really far away from our house, Hank decided he didn't want to ride the plasma car like normal anymore.

Ruby and Charlotte watch the events unfold.

Hank wanted Brett to pull him around and do all the work.  Hank refused to ride it on his bottom and would only ride on his tummy.  At the time, it was very awesome and hilarious to watch him cruise around like this but it got real lame when he wanted to do it permanently.

So, we had to go 1 MPH on our walk since Hank wouldn't go fast on the plasma car like he normally does.  It was such a long walk and took us forever.  The whole way back from Starbucks (which we still went to since we were committed to it) we kept mumbling about how this was the worst idea ever.  I might have declared several times that we were not allowed to tie a jump rope to the plasma car ever again.  Brett might have declared several times that he really didn't think I needed to state the obvious.

We have the "worst ideas ever" more often than we'd like but at least each time we are learning from our mistakes!!

-a