Monday, July 6, 2009

beach beach and more beach

Though I love UT the best because that is where my family and friends are, but there are many reasons why I love CA:
1) There are more people like me.  I am more OK with it now, but growing up, it would have been nice to have a few more people like me.
2)  The food.  More people like me means more people that eat like me.  
3)  The beaches...


We started off the morning by going to the very beautiful San Diego temple.  I ran into a college friend there.  Small world.  
Then (me being me) I researched for the best dumplings in town.  I have been searching for ones as good as the ones as the soup dumplings I had in NYC but still haven't found them.  But in my search I have found some pretty great ones.  Nothing like biting into a freshly steamed dumpling and having the savory juice run into your spoon.

 
After the fabulous morning and delicious lunch, we hit the beach.  
Okay, so I could have cropped out the tiny little plumber butt deal that Samuel had going there on the left but then I wouldn't be able to giggle every time I look at this otherwise perfect picture of these three beach babes.
   
Karl was helping Eva on the boogie board thing.  Until she crashed.  Look closely at her head under water and her foot way up high.  It's okay, you can laugh.  She was shaken up, but not hurt.  Karl rescued her (well, since he was the one that sent her off in the wave)...
...and held her til she felt better (and maybe until the salt water drained out of her nose).
As soon as we hit the beach Samuel got busy doing about a hundred different things, hauling water, making sand castles, chasing birds, digging holes...
His castles kept falling so Grandma went to help.
  
Eva recovered nicely and was back in the water in no time.
Sand crabs are gross.  But the boys and Eva didn't seem to think so.  They came up with quite the system to get them out of the sand.  If I didn't think they were so gross I would have felt bad for them. 
Grandma buried Samuel and Samuel loved it.  
So much so that he got someone to bury him again.  This time face down.
All the while cute Kitty slept.  Turns out she wasn't feeling so hot (well, actually she was hot.  She was running a little fever.  Poor thing).
Okay, and let me get this off my chest... 
If a cute little girl is play in her sand pit among the sand castles that HER family made and YOUR not-as-cute little girls jump into the pit and start smashing the castles and causing the cute girl off crying, STOP THEM.  Poor CUTE niece Ashley.  Poor bitter and annoyed me.  
Okay, it's off my chest.  Moving on...

We finished the night off with a tradition that has been in Karl's family since I have been around them....
Barbecue.  No, not A barbecue.  But, barbecue.  If you are a part of the family, you know the difference.  Somehow, we managed to polish off six pounds of it.  Thanks, Grandma Gutke for making it!  

We hit the beach a couple more days...
...and each day the sand pits got bigger and bigger.  This one had a canal down towards the water.  
This picture makes me smile.
Samuel kept filling this bucket.  Either he knew and he liked the way it emptied out or he had no idea.

Being around older cousins meant that Eva got the filled in on the Jonas Brothers and all things Disney for teeny boppers.  I had no idea they were such a big deal among many of the young ones these days.  To add to our Jonas Brothers education, the resort showed Camp Rock pool side one night so Eva got to swim and enjoy the Disney pop stars at one time.  

Day three.  Really.  Day three at the beach.  We really liked it there.  
Ashley and I made a garden out the of the cool sea weed.
Eva getting sand poured on her back.  Eva realizing it.
So, like I was saying, each day the pit got bigger and better.  This one was huge AND it as reinforced with tons of seaweed.  Here is Daniel dragging a huge piece.  People we didn't know were bringing it to us.  


Samuel chasing the birds.  I don't know why I think it is so funny when my kids chase small animals.  Should I not be laughing and stopping them instead?  Does that mother of the sand castle smashers ask herself the same question?

All this fun and it is so easy to understand why the first thing out of Samuel's mouth in the morning was that he didn't want to go home.

7 comments:

Amy said...

Once again -- beautiful children, gorgeous pictures, wonderful memories for your family (and, a great story for me to vicariously live your life!). Seriously, small children chasing small animals = cute. Small children wrecking other children's sand castles = where are the parents of that child!? You so had the right to be annoyed. I'm amazed that your children loved being in that cold ocean so much. I showed Ian (who is 6 1/2) the pictures of your kids body surfing and asked him if he would like to try that. His answer? A definite "no way!" Kudos to their bravery.

Lindsay said...

Seriously, there is nothing more fun in the world (to me) then spending a day at the beach, and you guys got 3! Your pictures are so great...I love the boogie boarding, and the sandcastles, and Samuel getting buried both directions in the sand, and the trenches and the cute cousins having so much fun together, and even the gross sand crabs...everything looked just perfect. :) Yay for the beach!

Malea said...

I used to live in Huntington Beach. My sister and I used to collect all of the seaweed we could find as well. Those picture made me laugh and made me think of all of the things we would do with the seaweed, homes, pyramids, whatever silly thing we could think of.I also collected sandcrabs all of the time. Brought them home, made little islands for them. I never thought they were gross. Maybe I would now, who knows?

Angela said...

What a fun trip! Beach time is always the best! I love living close enough to the beach that we can go often. What a brave little girl Eva is to try boogie boarding. And I love that Gordon was burying Samuel. So fun!

Abbigail said...

FUN! I am sad to have missed most of the beach days. Looks like you all made some exceptional sand structures. Poor Kitty missed out. XXX

Michelle said...

we need to go to the beach sometime.... not that I don't like going to the rec center or playing in the sprinklers in your back yard.... we would have a good time :)

Jamie said...

I LOVE San Diego. That's fun for your kids to go on vacation with their cousins, I bet they loved that. I laughed at your "my kind of people" remark :) When my parents lived in the Bay area I think my Mom thought she was living back in Japan :) It is definitely her kind of place.

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