Long weekend away

We came back from our vacation yesterday. The boys had sooooooo much fun. We rented a house across the street from Rio Del Mar beach in Aptos, just south of Santa Cruz. (A word of advice: don't rent from Cheshire Rio. Horrible company. Just ask Russ.) Our friends came down for the weekend with their daughter. The kids played, and we tried to relax and hang out after the kids all went to bed in the evenings. We were a little worried that they wouldn't get much time on the beach since there was rain in the forecast. It did rain, but not enough to ruin the vacation. The boys got several days on the beach looking for sea shells, building "sand castles," and chasing waves. The chasing fun was short lived for Deets, though, when Brandon ran him over trying to run away from the waves. In the end, D ended up soaked and miserable. He refused to go near the water again after that fiasco. Not a big deal, since he had a wonderful time playing in the sand and kicking his beach ball.

Saturday afternoon, Russ took Brandon and Dylan to The Boardwalk to play games and walk around. He really wanted them to do more than just play at the beach. Russ said they had so much fun playing games and picking out prizes with their tickets. Unfortunately, I missed that outing because the baby was sleeping, and I didn't want to disturb him. That was ok, I got to play with the boys at the beach when they came back.

Sunday evening we took the boys down to the wharf, mostly because we wanted to have a crab cocktail. We had our little snack, and the boys tried to see the seals barking under the wharf through the viewing holes at the far end. As dark as it was, the boys were very lucky to see the few that they did. We ended the evening with ice creams at Marini's.

Monday, after a bit of shopping, we drove into the hills to visit some friends we haven't seen for a couple of years. They have a beautiful 4 year old girl, and Brandon loved playing with her. Poor Mia was bossed around by Brandon, but luckily she didn't seem to mind. They spent the whole afternoon and evening playing. Dylan spent most of his time going up and down the stairs. He would pop in on Brandon and Mia to see what they were doing, but before long he would be back on the stairs. The look on face when he discovered that he could roll a ball down them was priceless. He looked at me like, "did you just see that?????"

Finally on Tuesday we loaded up the car and drove to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The boys thought the huge tanks of fish were so cool. Brandon asked to see the jellyfish. I have to say the jellyfish exhibits are my favorite, too. Brandon's favorite were the transparent jellies you could only see if the light was turned on. He kept pushing the button to turn the light off, so they would disappear. He was still talking about those jellyfish today. They were fascinated by the kelp forest, the sharks and the gigantic fish. We were thankful that we visited midweek, because the boys were able to experience the touch pools and the kids play areas without a problem. I think Dylan's favorite part was being outside. There wasn't much to see outside, but he loved being out there. And poor Russ, he was wishing we'd unloaded the stroller, because he ended up carrying Dylan around the entire aquarium all day.

All in all, it was a busy vacation because we did so much, but it was fun experiencing it all as a family. We loved watching our kids play and explore these last few days. Can't wait for our next adventure.