The girls were so excited to fly on an airplane, though Leah did reveal that she thinks it is scary when the plane lands. We flew Southwest, and I've got to admit that while I love the free bags and low fares, I despise their boarding procedure. Luckily Leah is small enough that we qualify for family boarding, but in less than a year we'd have been forced to sit separately with our kids beside strangers. Anyway, enough of my rant.
Once we arrived and took our rental cars to get settled in the hotel, we headed over to Kevin's for pizza and fun. They'd bought this amazing deep dish pizza with the toppings on the bottom and the tomato sauce on the top or something like that. It was awesome.
The Johnson boys devised a real life version of Angry Birds with giant cardboard blocks and stuffed animals. Andrew and the girls were in heaven.
We were very lucky that the hotel was able to get us into a connecting room with the girls in 2 queens and us in a king. (another rant, why do they not have these things already arranged and set aside for you when that's what you've reserved? The Johnsons had two rooms that were near each other but not connected -- that would have been a problem for us. The car place was the same--kept trying to talk us into paying for upgrades because they didn't have the cars reserved on the lot. grr)
Saturday morning started out awesome with breakfast at Katie's Korner in San Ramon. They were super accommodating to our big group and the food was awesome.
Everyone agreed that Sarah's Sweedish Pancakes looked the most fabulous.
After that we headed over the mountains to Santa Cruz, because although the weather decided to laugh at us, we were ready for some beach time.
We told Leah she should try to sleep in the car.
But look at the weather as we drove over the summit on Highway 17
Sufficeth to say, the beach was really chilly. It's that kind of wet cold that just cuts right through you and makes your ears throb.
We hoped that some of the carnival rides on the boardwalk would be open, but they were closed because of the bad weather. We got some hot cocoa which went a long way toward restoring everyone's good spirits. Randy passed on wisdom on making the perfect cup of cocoa at 7-11 -- a gift I'm sure will keep on giving.
Fortified with warmth and sugar, we were ready to go to the tidepools. Except that that tide was too high and you couldn't reach them, so we just played in the surf instead. (click the collage to enlarge)
After such brisk exercise (and once we stopped the kids from sobbing from the cold -- they actually really enjoyed themselves for most of the time: they were begging me to let them put their swimsuits on, but right at the end it started pouring and things became less fun) we headed to Marianne's for ice cream -- what better way to get warm and happy?
That evening, after a delicious dip in the hot tub, we met Bryant & Candice at the Chevy's near our hotel for some dinner.
Leah and Livvy were so happy to see each other
what a fun looking time :) sad about the snowy trek to the beach. we went with friends last august (our 3rd time in 7 years to the beach in CA), and i went in my swimsuit expecting fun in the sun...um, no. within 5 minutes i was in my "going home" outfit and had a towel around me to keep warm. the kids still played in the sand though lol.
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