Bubbles, bubbles everywhere...

One of Claire's favorite books (that she can actually recite) is "Bubbles Bubbles." I think it has about 10 words in the whole thing, but she knows each of them by heart. Knowing that fact, you will be able to appreciate her pure joy when we were able to find an evening that was nice enough to sit in the driveway and blow bubbles.

Gymnastics camp...

My surgery happened to fall during Oregon's spring break week. There are always a lot of extracurricular things going on during spring break, but I sort of dismissed everything this year knowing that I would be unable to do anything with the kiddos. That was until Shannon and Kim discovered that our little gymnastics gym was doing a day camp for kids and our girls were old enough! We all thought about it a bit, but eventually decided the girls would love it, so we signed them up. It ended up being great. They were so excited to go to a "big girl camp without mommies" and get to do something by themselves. Grandma helped Grace get ready every day, Merrick took her to camp, and grandpa picked her up. It was the first time we have ever dropped her off somewhere like that where we didn't stay on site or close by. It worked out perfectly though and she loved every minute of it.

*I borrowed these last two from Shannon since I wasn't able to be there snapping pictures. Thanks friend!

Vacation day nine (Home with friends)...

From Saturday, March 12:

I wrote a little about this day here, but this is just a few of the details I left out of that first post. Our morning at the Farmer's Market really started with very lazy breakfast, another crossword puzzle, and a walk to the park. The girls had a blast swinging, climbing, sliding and running. It is amazing how good it feels to have had so many straight days outside in the warm sun.

After loading up on our produce for dinner, and stuffing ourselves with way more than our share of fresh citrus, we headed back home for naps - very long naps. While the kids slept, we talked, blogged, and worked on more crosswords. It might sound lame, but it was really the perfect afternoon. We don't get a lot of time to just hang out with Alex and Kelsie, and I really appreciated having time to do just that. No pressure. No agenda. Nothing that had to be done. 

When the girls got up they watered the infamous onion and then played in the front yard. Kelsie and I watched from the windows loving how well our girls played together. We made pizzas for dinner - very delicious gourmet pizzas - and then broke out our chocolate goodies. Even after their long naps, the girls all crashed pretty early. Grace stayed up a bit later, but she was in an exceptionally good mood, and it was nice to spend some time with just her. After we put her in bed, we tried to start a movie, but I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep on the couch very quickly. 

Vacation day eight (The Aquarium of the Pacific)...

From Friday, March 11:

Today was our last day in Newport - meaning we had to check out of our hotel. Things like this were so much easier when we were traveling with just one child. I was glad that I had gotten almost all of the packing done before bed last night... though I did realize that we were missing Grace's "Little Moose." We looked and looked and finally came to the conclusion that he must have gotten taken with our sheets the day before. I was surprised that she wasn't devastated, but still thought we should do what we could to get him back. 

After breakfast, and packing the car, we went to the front desk to see if there was a lost-and-found. It took 20 minutes, and about 45 phone calls, but eventually a very nice lady from housekeeping came to the lobby with Little Moose in hand. He's one lucky guy... and Grace was one happy little girl. 

Our other adventure of the day was the tsunami. It was all over the news, the beaches were closed, the harbors were empty, and all of southern California waited with baited breath. Nothing major happened, but a 3-foot tsunami did hit the coast.

We didn't come up with definite plans very early, and I was totally wishy-washy about everything, but since Kelsie had the day off, we decided to head to the aquarium in Long Beach with them. I took Grace a few years ago and was very impressed. Kels had coupons that made it much more reasonable for us, and it ended up being the perfect way to spend a few hours with the girls. 

I love watching the Jelly Fish - they are so memorizing. 

 Grace waiting for the harbor seals and sea lions to swim by again.

 Oooh, the shark and ray tank is a favorite. This is a touch-tank, so you can reach in and rub their backs as the various fish swim beneath you.

 Silly girls.

 More sharks - big ones - no petting in this tank.

 Sweet friends.

 Lots of birds. I was sad that they weren't as friendly as they were last time. They just ate, pooped and dive bombed our heads, so we got out while we could.

 Checking out the "puffets" aka puffins.

 This school of sardines was really neat - swimming in a very regular pattern.

 Do you see the size of this spider crab behind Claire? These guys were a little creepy.

 The "Nemo and Dori" tank. Eliana was so enthralled she couldn't even pull her eyes away for one picture. =)

 A big sea "durdle." This was Claire's favorite guy of the day.

 

This exhibit was of the morning's tsunami. It was really interesting to hear the aquarium employee explain the pictures. Basically the tsunami didn't do anything more than high tide, but it happened in two minutes - not the usual six hours. I guess a giant wave traveling across the ocean at 500 miles per hour isn't something to mess with... yet people still think it's a good idea to stand on the beach taking pictures. Baffling.

 I love these two pictures... happily posing in front of the giant sea bass...

 Holy cow - those are some really big fish!

 Once again I neglected my children until hours after lunch time. They do so well when we are out that I often forget about eating. We were in a great little area of LBC, so we just popped over to Bostons and had pizza and lasagna. I didn't really think about Grace's allergies until ten minutes into our meal when she said, "well, I haven't vomited... it must have been cooked long enough!" Good thing she is keeping track of her food.

After lunch we decided to head up to Torrance for naps. We didn't have anything to do in Newport other than sit around and wait for Merrick - and I'd rather wait with Kelsie than by myself in a parking lot. (I know that must mean a lot to Kels when I rank her just slightly above a parking lot. Love ya!) Anyway, the girls crashed in the car and Kels helped me get them transferred. All three girlies slept really well - for the first time all week. It was a very nice and quiet afternoon for us.

After naps we ran some errands around town. We were down to our last binky for Claire - no idea how we lost the other three, but one on the drive home wasn't going to cut it. Target and Trader Joe's served us well as we loaded up on binkies and gourmet chocolate goodies.

After dinner we threw the girls in the bath. This is just one more example of how hard it is to get a picture of these three girls together. This is literally the best one I have. It is blurry and not one of them is looking towards my camera. Oh well.

Once they were ready for bed, I loaded my girls in the car and headed back to Merrick's office. It was just before 8 pm and so the roads were relatively empty. Even though the driving part went quickly, the whole ordeal ended up taking nearly 2 1/2 hours... getting to Newport, Merrick packing up his work stuff, getting gas, driving back to Torrance, finding food, etc, etc, etc. We got back to the house just after 10:30 - in time to say goodnight to our friends and crash. 

I guess we'll save the chocolate goodies for tomorrow night.

Vacation day seven (Balboa)...

From Thursday, March 10:

I had three people recommend Balboa Island as a fun place to take the kiddos. I had never heard of it, but they were right on. I'm not sure my words will do it justice. It was quaint, but busy. European, but beachy. Luxurious, but old. I followed the road, over the bridge and onto Balboa Island. From there we waited in line and took the little three-car ferry over to the peninsula. It was worth the wait. The girls loved that the car was on a boat.

Not a bad place to have a house... or a yacht.

We found great parking and felt pretty safe leaving my little Honda Civic in a lot where it was the only non-luxury car... literally. The girls were extra happy. Funny how a few days in the sun can do that for you. It was warm. Another perfect day for the beach. Merrick had a lunch meeting, so didn't need us to rush back to bring food, so we were all set to enjoy a leisurely day.

Our first stop was the carousel. Of course. I handed Grace her two dollars and was going to let her ride alone, until Claire's chubby little hand extended up from her stroller and she was saying "bee, bee" (please, please) asking for her own money. She knew that she wanted to ride and didn't hesitate to climb on and pick the horse right next to her sister.

After our ride, and a quick walking tour of the downtown area, we headed back to the beach were we found a park in the and. Claire was thrilled and played for a long time going up the stairs and zooming down the slide. She then got distracted by an abandoned bucket and shovel and spent a long time happily scooping and dumping sand.

Grace loved the swings and this cool climbing structure. The only problem is that she is fearless. At one point I had Claire on the top of the playground, and Grace was unsupervised on this spiderweb thing. She slipped a little and ended up hanging by one arm and one leg. I couldn't leave Claire to help Grace (and I knew that if she fell, she would land in sand and be okay), so I didn't panic, but was very relieved when another dad at the park ran over and lifted her down. When I thanked him he told me that his daughter was the little girl in pink that Grace had been playing with, and his son was the crazy one on the playground with Claire, so he could sympathize with me. Only difference is that he was there with his wife and his parents. =)

After a while of playing, we headed towards the ocean to dig and play and soak up the sun.

While we were sitting in the sand, I glanced up and noticed a large family of dolphins playing just off the beach in the surf. They were close enough that Grace could see "the black triangles" (aka dorsal fins) poking up out of the water.

I love all the different birds you see along the coast in California - lots of gulls, pelicans, stork-like things, etc.

Before I knew it, it was almost 2 and I hadn't fed my kids anything since breakfast. Oops. We packed up and headed onto the pier where we dined with the pigeons at Ruby's.

There was a little sea lion just off the pier begging for scraps of fish from the men who were catching them. Why the lazy animal wouldn't just snack on the thousands of fish that were swimming right below him, I'm not sure, but he happily accepted anything that was thrown his direction.

After lunch, Claire was pretty sleepy, so we packed up and headed back to Newport. Grace asked for another boat ride and since the ferry is actually the most direct route back to our hotel, I obliged.

Claire zonked out in the car, and I though she would stay asleep in the stroller, so I told Grace she could swim for a bit when we got back to the hotel. The water was a little too cold for me, but she seemed happy enough. Claire didn't stay asleep though, so rather than reading my book in the sun, I chased a chubby little baby all around the pool-side while her big sister bobbed up and down int he frigid water. When Grace's lips turned purple and she was shaking all over, I made her get out and tossed her in the much warmer hot tub for a few minutes to warm up before heading back to our room.

Claire, though not thrilled about being strapped in her stroller again, had fun playing silly games with me while we waited for Grace's core temperature to raise again.

This is a view I would never tire of.

Since Claire had a nap - albeit a ten minute nap - in the car, she had no interest in sleeping in the room. Luckily, Grace fell asleep for a while, but I didn't want her to sleep too long risking her not sleeping at night. I let Claire climb in her bed and wake up her sister... a favorite activity for sure!

With no nap for Claire, and a very short nap for Grace, I knew the rest of our night would be rough (to say the least). I was hoping to have a quick dinner around the hotel, but Merrick found a place in Huntington Beach that he wanted to try. After driving all around and not finding it, we settled on a fun little Peruvian restaurant instead. Unfortunately, we were only there for a few minutes before it became very obvious that we were on the verge of a major melt-down. It was pretty embarrassing to leave after having drinks and a basket of breads brought to our table, but we thought that was better than fighting two very tired girls through dinner. So we left and drove around looking for a little Cuban place to get take-out, but never found that one either. Eventually we ended up back in Tustin and eating at Whole Foods again. Thankfully the kids pulled it together and were able to sit and eat pizza quite happily. We even enjoyed some vegan pumpkin bread for dessert.

Both girls fell asleep on our way back to the hotel and transferred perfectly into their beds. Thank goodness. I knew the morning was going to end up feeling rushed, so I thought I would get a jump on packing before I went to sleep. Merrick went straight back to his office, and the last thing he said to me was "I'll come pick you up if there is a tsunami." Sadly, that statement was a little prophetic. Neither of us had any idea what was happening on the other side of the Pacific, but when I flipped on the television before crawling into bed I was met with the news of the devastating earth quake in Japan and the tsunami that had leveled part of that nation and was headed our direction. I was not worried about a tsunami in Newport, but I was relieved that my folks were not cruising in the Pacific.