Give us 60 minutes and a beach…

…and I’ll show you one happy Mommy and baby girl.

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Em and Daddy made one last pass at the Comic-Con floor on Sunday morning, so Ad and I ditched over to Coronado Island for a little beach time.

We uncovered perfect seashells…

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Hunted for some tide pool discoveries…

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And dipped our toes in the cold, clear ocean…

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There is something so incredibly rejuvenating about the beach. It just makes me happy. Especially when I get to share it with my Nature girl, Rosey Toes.

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Okay, I just searched for pics from the last time we were on this very beach…check out the tiny little Tiny in the photo in this post and Em is Addie-sized. Oh, it happens so fast!

Now we can officially call it summer.

The girls, Em’s friend Audrey, and I all headed to the beach yesterday and we had a great time. I was so thankful for the really big waves because the girls were a little afraid to venture too far into the surf. The waves forced them to stick close to the shore, which ultimately made my job of watching three little monkeys in the water, much easier!

They did do a lot of tempting fate. Sitting on the edge of the water and waiting for the waves to come in.

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It was great fun when they did roll in.

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And a couple waves even made them move to higher ground a few times.

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And, today happens to be Audrey’s 6th birthday! So happy wishes to our sweet Audrey!
We hope 6 is a terrific year for you.

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Meanwhile, back on the towel…
I can’t decide which I love more in this picture her curly tendrils or her lovely eyelashes.
She is delicious.

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And my one “artsy” photo of the day. She refused to let me get a sunhat shot, but I caught this one.
I love the angle, and her slight little peek of a smile.

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We might have to head back to the beach this weekend.
I think our day reminded us that summer is fleeting, and we need to take advantage of it while we can.
Have a sunny, happy weekend!

How we spent the “last weekend of summer”

Note: This will not really be in essay form, so sorry to all you teachers out there, but I do have lots of visual aids (photos!) so maybe it will still make the grade?

The “last weekend of the summer” is such a misnomer around here, since we are going on at least a week straight of 100+ (usually 105) degree days here in the valley. Yes, it’s true we don’t have humidity, but dang, it is H-O-T!

So our gracious neighbors left for the weekend to go to the desert (where it is actually cooler, believe it or not!), and we had to poolsit catsit for their kitties, which of course meant we had to test out the pool, too. Emma completed her level of swim lessons last week, so she got to show-off a little for Daddy.

Little side note for a second – she is AWESOME in the pool. I was in serious amazement on Friday when they took the kids over to the “big” pool for their last swim lesson. Em jumped off the diving board by herself, no life jacket, no swimmies, nothing! And then she proceeded to swim, over to the lifeguard and side of the pool. Face in the water, stroking, kicking, by herself! It was really something to watch. I think another 2 weeks and she would be full-on swimming laps. It is crazy, but those swim lessons were the best $30 ever spent. (So cheap, too!!)

So anyhow, Daddy got to hang out and see her swim. We ran some errands and just tried to stay cool on Saturday.

Sunday, Uncle Jeff and Wendy invited us down to her Uncle’s beachhouse…soooo nice! So we spent the day at the nice, cool beach. Well, it was still warm, but the water was perfect, big waves, nice breeze. It was heavenly.

Addie pretty much kept it on the sand -

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But she was very excited and wished Daddy, Mommy and Emma “Good Luck” when we all tried our hand at boogie-boarding.

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Daddy is an “old pro” at this. He got all of the rest of us on boards and helped us get the hang of it.

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And guess who is great at it? Yep, our little “fishy.”

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I think she even got “rolled” a couple of times and maybe drank a few cups of ocean water – but she really loved it. I am guessing next year she will be out on her own board by herself.

It was so much fun, a lot of hard work, and by the end of the day we all trooped home…exhausted.

Monday was spent mostly taking it easy and recovering. Just soaking up all the Daddy we can get.

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I hate it when a holiday falls on a Monday. It messes up our flow and I feel “off” for the rest of the week. And I’m sure the girls will be going through serious “daddy withdrawals” tomorrow.

*Sigh.*

But it was all so worth it.

How we spent the “last weekend of summer”

Note: This will not really be in essay form, so sorry to all you teachers out there, but I do have lots of visual aids (photos!) so maybe it will still make the grade?

The “last weekend of the summer” is such a misnomer around here, since we are going on at least a week straight of 100+ (usually 105) degree days here in the valley. Yes, it’s true we don’t have humidity, but dang, it is H-O-T!

So our gracious neighbors left for the weekend to go to the desert (where it is actually cooler, believe it or not!), and we had to poolsit catsit for their kitties, which of course meant we had to test out the pool, too. Emma completed her level of swim lessons last week, so she got to show-off a little for Daddy.

Little side note for a second – she is AWESOME in the pool. I was in serious amazement on Friday when they took the kids over to the “big” pool for their last swim lesson. Em jumped off the diving board by herself, no life jacket, no swimmies, nothing! And then she proceeded to swim, over to the lifeguard and side of the pool. Face in the water, stroking, kicking, by herself! It was really something to watch. I think another 2 weeks and she would be full-on swimming laps. It is crazy, but those swim lessons were the best $30 ever spent. (So cheap, too!!)

So anyhow, Daddy got to hang out and see her swim. We ran some errands and just tried to stay cool on Saturday.

Sunday, Uncle Jeff and Wendy invited us down to her Uncle’s beachhouse…soooo nice! So we spent the day at the nice, cool beach. Well, it was still warm, but the water was perfect, big waves, nice breeze. It was heavenly.

Addie pretty much kept it on the sand -

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But she was very excited and wished Daddy, Mommy and Emma “Good Luck” when we all tried our hand at boogie-boarding.

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Daddy is an “old pro” at this. He got all of the rest of us on boards and helped us get the hang of it.

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And guess who is great at it? Yep, our little “fishy.”

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I think she even got “rolled” a couple of times and maybe drank a few cups of ocean water – but she really loved it. I am guessing next year she will be out on her own board by herself.

It was so much fun, a lot of hard work, and by the end of the day we all trooped home…exhausted.

Monday was spent mostly taking it easy and recovering. Just soaking up all the Daddy we can get.

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I hate it when a holiday falls on a Monday. It messes up our flow and I feel “off” for the rest of the week. And I’m sure the girls will be going through serious “daddy withdrawals” tomorrow.

*Sigh.*

But it was all so worth it.

Surfer Girls

We spent the morning at the beach. J. and a bunch of guys from work decided they would *try* to learn how to surf. Not really sure that was accomplished, but we had a lot of fun.

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Surveying the ocean…”Do you think it is cold?”

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“Oh, yeah. It is still chilly!”

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Little surfer, little girl…

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And…what is better than one sandy, surfer girl? Two!

I think going to the beach is one of my all-time favorite ways to spend a day. I just wish it didn’t take so much effort and work. We have THIS in our backyard…we need to take advantage of it more often!

Hope you are having a great weekend. Hang ten!