beach video

A little background-

One of Brandon's coworkers gave him a gift as kind of a 'thank you' for all his work this past conference. The gift was a flip camera. Which I quickly confiscated and started taking tons of videos. This thing is awesome because it's so... clear. And the colors are so bright. Needless to say, I took lots of videos at the beach. I thought I'd pick one that I thought was cutest. Here is Lanie playing frisbee with her dad...

Cali part 7

Brandon has a thing for digging holes. I asked him why on earth he likes digging big holes at the beach, and he just said, "It's what I do, babe. You like to read, and I like digging holes."

Okay then. So anyway, The first day, he dug this super deep hole, and a tunnel connecting it to another hole. The kids had a blast playing in that thing. Unfortunately, the lifeguards came right as we were leaving and told us that it was too unsafe, and we had to tear it down. They said some kid died when a tunnel collapsed, and they don't let people do it anymore.

Then most of the other days he would build a sort of pool near the water that all the little kids could play in. The kids loved it.

We forgot our football, and I think he would've enjoyed that more than digging holes. Oh well. Maybe next year... :)

Cali part 6

Lexi's cousin Maranda was always really good about playing with with Lex and Lane.

This is always a fun trick that little kids like to play- put the boogie board in a little bit of water, stand on it, and see if the next wave will unstick it from the sand and glide a little bit. It's like surfing for toddlers.

I know- you're wondering about the goggles, right? At home in the pool, Lanie wears her goggles whenever she's in the pool. so, in her 2-year-old logic, she also needed her goggles when she went down to the water at the beach. It was pretty funny to see her playing in 2 or 3 inches of water wearing goggles. So cute.

Cali part 5

I thought these pictures were so cute. These are the 4 girls that were born the same year. Lexi would usually alternate between playing with one of them or with her older cousins. But this day, all 4 played together in the water and sand.

I didn't get a picture of her boy cousins her age also including her. They would come and ask her if she wanted to look at sand crabs. And although I have a sneaky suspicion that she couldn't care less about the sand crabs, she would go every time and look because I think she thought it was cool to be included.

Cali part 4

Lexi

Lexi had a total blast with all her cousins. I wouldn't see her all day. She'd come back when she was hungry, and then she would go back and play with her cousins.

She also loved to go on walks to the pier. If anyone was going to walk to the pier, she would ask me if she could go with them. Don't get me wrong- she played in the sand and water all day too, but she also loved the walks.

One of the great things about the walks to the pier is that there was an ice cream shop that she would get little treats at.

But funny enough, she was just as happy going and NOT getting a treat. She just loved acting like a big kid and going with her older cousins. She is getting to be such a big girl. I love her to death.

Cali part 3

I am a spoiled, spoiled mommy. Every day at home, Lanie takes a 3 hour nap. Every day. She's happy about it, too. She loves her nap. It's like her safe haven. She gladly goes to bed every day.

At the beach, it's extremely difficult to get her to nap. She's used to a crib. Not a sandy soft pad. The first day, I tried walking with her, laying down with her... nothing. But, as soon as she sat down with Daddy, she fell right to sleep.

It became a daily routine. After that first day, she would find me to get her clean and in clothes, and then she'd walk up to daddy with her paci/silky, say, "Cuddle Daddy," and fall right to sleep.

So cute. Not so fun for Brandon, I'm sure, but it was nice to have her sleep.

Cali part 2

Lanie.

Lanie had so much fun this year. She was a little punk and wouldn't let most of her cousins play with her, but she still had a blast. She had a little routine- We'd get to the beach around 10, she'd play and have a ball in the sand/water til around 12:30, then she'd want to get in her real clothes and a real diaper. She'd walk up to her dad all clean, take a nap for about an hour, then wake up and want to play some more. She'd play for an hour til about 2 or 3, want to get back in her swimsuit so she could play in the water, and she'd play and play til we left around 4:30. And she ate a lot of snacks along the way.

She's making a goofy face here, but still so cute. Behind her is my beautiful niece Dani.