Is there anything better than our yearly week long vacation to Santa Cruz?
All 3 of us are beach people, there really is nothing like spending a week in the sand.
Mikenna picked out a ton of beach toys and we spent most of the week playing in the sand and the water.
On Thursday and Friday we woke up, waited for the fog to clear, and headed to the beach to spend the rest of the day (well, until Mikenna couldn't keep her eyes open, then we headed back for a nap.)
The house we stayed in is right across from the beach and the boardwalk, it's so nice being able to walk everywhere!
We built about 100 sand castles (and by we, I mean Ryan and me... Mikenna just liked knocking them down)
I think I enjoy this vacation so much because we get to spend so much distraction free time together.
Just us and the ocean...
...and about a billion beach toys.
I have not been feeling so hot, (hellooooo first trimester!) so I was so, SO thankful for Ryan taking Mikenna to play in the water and letting me lay on the beach and attempt to forget my nausea.
And I did a lot of that.
Mikenna ran, and ran, and ran.
Have I mentioned how much this kid runs? Seriously... track star in the making.
(With an occasional pause for a model pose.)
She also chased every seagull she could find (more running.)
And I spent time just watching and photographing her.
Perfect days.
I swear we did other things besides lay on the beach...
We went to see the sea lions a few times (my favorite)
And we took Kenna to the Boardwalk to ride the rides and play games on Saturday when everything opened.
She loved the rides this year and rode every single one she was able to.
I think we rode the carousel about 10 times.
And Ryan had fun in the arcade teaching her all about video games...
Pete and repeat.
Heather, Randy and the boys came up on Saturday morning and spent some time with us on the Boardwalk.
On Sunday (Mother's Day) we all got some yummy burgers and headed to a more private beach to lay in the sand.
Heather and I have decided this will be our Mother's Day tradition....
Nothing in the world I would rather do than lay on the beach!
Even better, the kids completely entertained themselves.
Jackson dug Mikenna a hole to sit in and she spent about an hour in there with her toys.
Jackson made himself a beach chair out of sand...
...and Domi and Mikenna dug some more holes.
Yes please.
Grammy and Aitachi met us back at the house that afternoon and we put Mikenna in her "big sister" shirt and waited for them to notice.
It took Grammy a minute to figure it out but once she caught on she started crying, we are all so excited!
We celebrated with a yummy dinner on the water with all of us watching the sunset, a great way to end the day!
The next day we headed back to the beach one last time to play.
We didn't last long with an exhausted 2 year old, but after a long nap we dragged Grammy and Aitachi back with us for a walk on the beach before dinner.
There's those holes again.
Kenna LOVES her Grammy and Aitachi and it's nice to get some time with them each year when we're here.
I even convinced Grammy to take a few family pictures of us before we headed to dinner that evening.
I'm trying to get a few more pictures of us as a family of 3 before our newest addition arrives.
(It's harder than you think... I'm always behind the camera!)
Goodbye my favorite beach, until next year!
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