susprise visit.......

My sister was very brave and hauled all four kids ages 6, 4, 2 and 3 months to my house for a few days. Grandma came along and believe me, the extra hands were....handy!! (ha ha)

It was nutty crazy fun trying to entertain the girls. I've been bragging to her about the gorgeous California weather we have been having all summer. She has been jealous but unable to travel thanks to Chubby- McChubbikins who is still nursing often.

Once she committed to the trip.....the heat wave struck. 110 in the shade.

We tripped it to Corona del Mar for a day of fun in the sun. Totally worth it.

Lucy wanted a companion out in the water to help her get neck deep in the waves. It wasn't too bad after all. Your body goes numb really fast so it wasn't too shocking for too long.



We walked over to some tidal pools and found a really big blue crab on the rocks. Abby nearly cracked her head open after slipping....Water shoes would have been nice.....but they saw plenty of barnacles, pelicans rotting seaweed and extremely fit beach people.

If you dig in the sand by the shore....sand crabs come out and swim around in the puddles. If you dig enough you find really big ones that are several inches long. And your shovel will chop them in half while you try and make the hole bigger. The guts inside are bright orange.

The funniest moment was when I was distracting the two year old while mommy left to walk the older girls over to see the harbor. We came upon a large shallow pool someone had made. A little girl was sitting in the puddle with a toy boat with plenty of room around her. I asked Phoebe if she wanted to step down into the dip. She obviously said yes but the little girl quickly said..."no, she can't.....this isn't for people, it is for boats".

I was a little taken aback until the little girl quickly said....."would you like a boat?" very matter-of-factly. It was adorable. I said, "yes" and she jumped up, ran over to her family's spot on the sand and grabbed another boat and handed it to my niece.

NOW it was o.k. for Phoebe to get into the puddle with her. They sat and played together for probably 15 minutes.

That is what I call a great day at the beach.

It was a treat to see everyone. Everyone went to bed exhausted every night from having too much fun.

We tried to figure out how to squeeze a visit with the boys into the trip but it just didn't feel right. I wanted to take Tyler to the beach with us. He would have had a lot of fun but we were nervous about the kids. I was disappointed that it wasn't an automatic "YES" in my mind when I thought about getting him. But then a quiet and important idea found me.

We can prepare the kids. There will be more time. This is not the only year for contact. There will be more time. After thinking that I could feel my body relaxing and settling in to a new decision.

I'm glad we were able to make some new great memories together. Pink-Glitter-Kittycat-lunchboxes, glitter pencils and headbands, SNACKS, movies, swimming, new swimsuits, manicures, burping babies, children sleeping in, burned feet at the pool. God is Good.

(Three Years ago)