cardiff state beach trip

this morning we made the most of a trip to the coast on a perfectly blue, sunny, cool but not cold morning.  we went for a 45 minute run at 9 and then changed to our beach attire and met our wonderful friends for some frolicking on the beach. apparently little boys frolick on the beach by driving trucks around in a very serious manner. it was a conga line of boys and their trucks. the biggest boy was the leader, petey would follow and little j would sometimes follow, sometimes do his very own thing.  its wonderful to see these three play together, each adding their own little personality to the mix. sometimes emulating each other or egging each other on, sometimes just giggling with delight about who knows what.  big brother d is so sweet, always pointing things out to the littler boys.  a helo flew right over us, headed for pendleton. the coaster train went by religiously every 30 minutes which petey immediately pointed out with delight each time!  they were all quite brave, washing their toes and then their shins in the surf, doing some underwater driving with those ever important trucks.  eventually, as always seems to happen, mr. petey go a little too brave and was up to his thighs....the right height for a tiny little wave to give him just enough buoyancy to plop him down on his bottom - putting him in the freezing water up to his neck. that got his attention, poor thing shrieking with terror and his betsy-wearing-momma came sprinting to his rescue.  he wasn't in danger, we were right there to help, but boy was he scared (and probably cold!) for a couple seconds there.  after the scare we declared it lunchtime. so the wet, sandy boys eagerly plopped themselves down on emily's awesome take-everywhere-quilt which i covet and always promise myself i'll make one for our family in the near future.  of course the food ended up soggy and sandy and they only managed to swallow a little bit of it but they sure did have a great morning.  we really do have the very best backyard here in san diego.

poor betsy getting a diaper change in the chilly coastal breeze. she didn't seem to mind. she did mind the fact that mommy brought the bigger of our two denim hats and it kept falling over her face.

emily and betsy - the hood of her sweatshirt also kept falling over her eyes. she is not happy when anything interferes with her watching the action.  during the entire run she was straining to sit up as straight as could be to see out the "window" at the world passing by. she's really getting strong!