Another day at the beach.

This is the last beach post from this trip - I promise! :) When Saturday rolled around we decided to all head to the beach again.

But this time I think 1/2 of California had the same idea! The amount of people there was insane! I guess that is what you get with a holiday weekend though!

Elena relaxed for a little bit.

Then played in the sand as usual. I could get used to this view!

I even got in the water with Elena a little. One of my favorite memories was sitting right on the edge of where the waves were splashing up with her and playing in the sand (she liked to call the wet sand gooey!) We sat there for a long time, drawing picture after picture in the sand as the water would erase them. :)

Robert dug a ginormous hole for Elena to play in~

Which turned into us burying her in the sand~

Which turned into us shaping her a mermaid tail ~ (she was ecstatic about this by the way - she has officially discovered The Little Mermaid - but it was always my favorite movie when I was little, so I'm ok with that!)

which eventually turned into a chair for Robert~

One last picture of my beach baby on the sand. This is one of my favorite pics of Elena from our trip~

Only one more day of vacation was left after this wonderful day on the beach - where did the time go?!

Adventures with Mommy.

Ok, back to finishing up all of our vacation posts. During the week while Robert was working Elena and I did some exploring in and around the LA area. I was very proud of myself for driving and getting around without any problems! I even used the carpool lane! :) Of course we hit the beach~

We found some nice parks~

I even made the drive up to Pasadena for Kidspace Children's Museum one day!!

Elena really loved this place! We started off in the little kid are where she did puzzles, read books, met some new friends and even had music time.

Then we ventured outside and found a construction site, tricycle race track, and water tables.

We took a little hike around the perimeter of the museum and found a drum set that you play by shooting water at - of course Elena loved this and didn't want to leave! The only way I was able to drag her away was to promise there was more water to play in down the path!

And boy oh boy was there ever water to play in! A life-size example of the water cycle to be exact. Starting with rain ~

which then drains down creeks and steams~

and ends up in some sort of body of water where it evaporates and condenses up into the clouds and starts all over again. Which is exactly what Elena did here - over and over and over again!

When I finally convinced her to leave this nifty little area we ventured indoors.

She dug for fossils,

got to touch a turtle~

and explored the world of bugs. Let me tell you - not my favorite subject! But I acted very interested for Elena's sake - ewww gross!

 

Her favorite area was "Bugsy's Diner" where you could build your own insects, serve up some interesting grub, and pretend to wait on the customers in the to-go window. It really was a pretty creative idea, a bug comes to the window and asks for something to eat - then you have to figure out which of the nasty dishes they prefer. The funny thing is if you mess up and give them the wrong dish they pretend to spit it our and act like it was disgusting.

Then we found the mother of all climbing towers. This was very cool - and soooo tall. But Elena made it to the very top, all by herself!

She even got to do an 'earthy' art project from dirt, grass, etc...

I finally convinced her to eat lunch and then she hit up the interactive fountains before we left. Fun times!

Good thing I read the reviews and brought some extra clothes and a towel along (with all that water I'm not sure why I didn't just bring her swimsuit though!) She was worn out and crashed as soon as she hit the car seat.

The last really interesting place we went was Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach - it is the biggest, nicest, most awesome park I have ever seen!

Not only did it have a huge play area,

but it also had a great picnic area (and I just happened to pack our lunch that day).

There was also a pretty pond where we fed ducks, and lots of seagulls.

As you can see by E's reaction - those seagulls are loud when they want another piece of bread!

Then we kept walking around the pond and realized there is a whole other side with play equipment too! And even nicer than where she had already played! She was a happy little girl and even found a couple kiddos to play with her so she could do this cool teeter-totter!

Finally she cooled off in the mist by this neat light house.

What a great week of Mommy-Daughter bonding! :)

The 4th.

I am going to interrupt all the vacation posts with a little 4th of July fun! The day we returned form California just happened to be the 4th of July. It was sooo hot so I turned on the sprinkler for Elena to play in. Check out my baby in her little red, white and blue swimsuit! :) Love it.



We were pretty worn out from the vacation and flight so we relaxed at home with some close friends. Of course we had to hit up the fireworks stand on our way home from the airport! ;)


We had fun chasing down the parachutes!

and playing with sparklers,

and poppers.

Elena did a lot of this...

and Kya's mommy gave her a hand too!

We cooled off inside for a little bit and had some yummy cupcakes.


Then we went back out for the finale. Which where we live just happens to last for like 4 hours! It was definitely still going on as we went to sleep that night. Our neighborhood goes insane I tell ya, but it is a pretty awesome sight!

Happy 4th of July!