Clarification

In my last post, I said that I may have a new favorite beach.  Let me just clarify,  this will always be my favorite beach, or maybe this beach, or maybe even this beach.  I will not deny that I was tempted by a little laid back place called Carpenteria just an hour and a half north of my sister's new home in California.  

I get this overwhelming calm when I go to the beach.  Something inside tells me "Car, you are suppose to live right here by the sea."  I lose all sense of time, and abandon all sensible parent skills like nap time and healthy lunch.  Somehow the sea breeze whispers to me  that even though we only thought we would stay a couple hours, all day sounds much better.  And that is exactly what we did on this day.

Since my sister moved to California all I have heard about is the traffic, and all the people, and the dessert and how everything is artificial.  After being there myself for a week I have come to the conclusion that they were just saying those things so that we wouldn't think that they like it there better than here on the east coast. 

  I found it amazingly beautiful with the Pacific Ocean to my left and dessert mountains to my right.  Not to mention the drive to get to the beach, which made me want to speak Spanish and watch an old cowboy movie.  Only after I stopped and picked oranges and avocados at every orchard we past.  It was so different than what I'm used to. Muy Bien.

 The problem I'm having with this post is that I have little to say and oh so many pictures that I want to include.  I'm being conservative in the amount of pictures I'm sharing of Maggie.  I can't help but take a million pictures of her at the beach because of what the beach does to her hair..it is one of my favorite things in life right now.  Little strawberry blond ringlets frame her head and if they ever go away I think I'm going to be really sad.

Here is my sister and her beautiful little girls that are not so little anymore.  In my mind they are Libby and Maggie's size, so I'm always shocked when I see them now turning into lovely young ladies.

 Here is my girl, who ignored me for a whole week because she was so enamored to be around her cousins. Literally, I think the only time she talked to me was on the plane ride home.

 These are the sea gulls that stalked our blanket.  As soon as we would leave our blanket the would swoop in and unpack our bags.  Seriously.  I have never seen anything like it.  Before the day was over I took to throwing rocks at them to keep them away from our snacks.

 Here is Amy and her little clone.  Looking at Sidney is like looking at a brown haired version of the girl who grew up in the room next door to mine.  Seeing Sidney makes me remember games we played and clothes we wore and all the fun we had together.

 Here is our one boy.  He was such a trooper dealing with all the girls around him.  He looks like my dad.  

 If you remember last year Libs and Christian had a love hate relationship.  This really hasn't changed much.  One minute they were best friends, the next minute they were wrestling and crying.  At one point Libby told me that Christian was bad.  I told her that he was not bad, he was just being a boy.  Through disproving tears she said, "well, boys are very rough and wild." Ha...I would say the same about her sometimes.

My little shadow learned a couple new words last week.  One was "ouch" or "out" and the other was "uh-uh."  I especially enjoyed hearing her use these words on the plane in loud voice while the "fasten your seat belt sign" was on.  By loud I mean screaming.  

Bless all parents who have to fly with small children.  Amen.

 Sweet Allison.  Amy told my mom that after we left she found her in her room crying b/c we were gone.  Such a sweet girl.

 Love this girl too.  My Little is so much like her.  So creative and imaginative.  Always going to fun places that the rest of us don't even know about.

This post is done.  I hope that what it lacked in creative writing was made up for in pictures of our fun day.  I loved this day.  It was one of those days that I didn't want to end...

 Kind of felt that way about the whole trip.

Love my sister and her family a whole lot.

Miss them so much it hurts sometimes.

Muchas gracious...just practicing in case we ever move there

Grace and Peace

xoxo