Beach FUN!

Okay, so you would not know this from reading my blog, but we just got back from CA visiting my parents. My sisters and I have been planning a surprise trip for my Mom's birthday (I know, we are the best daughters EVER!). It has been killing us as we reply on blogs and stuff to not mention it! Anyway, we pulled it off! She had a horrible day at work and when she got home we were called (we were waiting at my Sister's in-laws) and we headed over. She opened the door, and after an (abnormally) long pause she screamed and burst into tears! Which made most of the grandkids do the same! It was so much fun! We had SUCH a great visit. We planned the whole trip around what my Mom has always wanted to do with the grandkids/kids all together. I need to mention my Mom has this magic bag and whenever she comes to visit, every morning the kids look into the magic bag and "magically" something fun is always in there! So we turned the tables and had something in there for her every morning to give her clues about what we were going to be doing for the day! She said she could not sleep the whole weekend because she would wake up wondering what we were going to be doing! So the first day we went out to breakfast (we couldn't do the place we normally go to because they don't serve breakfast during the weekdays - we did not know that) so whenever we go there my Mom wants to go for a walk on the beach (some usually poo poo the idea because they don't want to get sandy or whatever - but this time we all went). It turned into playing on the playground by the beach, but hey (I will post pics of that later). Then we took a train ride up to Santa Barbara (we did this with MY Grandma and Grandpa when we were little) and then we rented some surry bikes and rode all along the beach there. We stopped at a playground (of course) and a carosel as well. It was a blast! We caught the train home (without the help from the rude train conductors!). Then the next day we went to this huge pumpkin patch! The kids road ponies, drove tractors, fed animals, went on hay rides, had TONS of grilled corn on the cob and made it through the maze...yes you heard me, we made it through this one! We had our doubts but we did make it through! Grandpa graciously volunteered to watch all the kids so Mom and girls could go out to our FAVORITE resteraunt (the Aloha - on the pramenade). We had such a fun time. In between all of this we did crafts, shopped, took TONS of PICTURES, played games (with the best miamaid/nursery teacher ever!), roasted hot dogs and made smores out back and just about everything you could think of! We had the best weekend ever! I will be posting more pictures but wanted to start with these!

Absolutely hilarious! This is how it is when we are trying to take pictures. This is the only one with Allie in it so it has to work! They were all having so much fun running around, it was hard to get any pictures.

Sorry, I couldn't pass up these cute little bottoms!

She had so much fun! She loved how the wave came up and she squated a little to keep her balance and then when the wave went back the wave won and she fell. Ü

She loved hearing her feet patter on the wet sand!

Our little LifeGuards!

I love the backlighting in this pic! A little pug came up and was jumping up on her while her feet were stuck in the sand and it scratched her legs a little and from then on she was done because the salt water was making the scratches sting! Poor thing. So we got cozy in her clothes.