this place is covered in dirt!!!

we got home from our vacation to California two weeks ago. 

like i've said, i have a few festive quotes and stories from our time there. 

but, i wanted to save them, and the photos, until my mom had her hands on the photo book i was making for her. 

this is because my mom loves to print photos. 

and if i put them here, she would have downloaded them and been at Target in about 5 minutes. 

or, she would be trying to figure out how to download them. 

either way, i wanted to save her some time. 

the trip started out at my parent's place, and then we made our way down to San Clemente. 

we have been going here as a family for over 20 years so i have many positive memories of  the place. 

with bern taking summer classes, we haven't been there since anth was little. 

as in, here is anth on one of our last visits. 
taking in the scenery. 

literally.

this is the part of the walk down to the beach where i get excited. 

the bend where i can actually see the water. 

(not so much the pay to park part.)

we wandered down to the beach just as the sun set on our first night there. 

the rare shot o' bern and i sans kids. 

ben felt that this was unnatural and quickly remedied the situation. 

because it was a new environment for ben, he miraculously sat still for a bit to take it in. 

but not for long. :)

our brave little man was more than ready to run straight into the surf. 

grandma showed the boys how to find sand crabs. 

benny, of course, was fascinated. 

anth was politely grossed out. 

my boys. 

the rest of my boys. 

we flew our kids to the other side of the country. 
showed them the beauty of the beach at sunset. 
let them play in the sand and get their feet in the water. 


ben's favorite part of his first day at the beach? 

the big boy bed that pulled out of the wall in the timeshare. 
impressive stuff.