James - This morning my mom and I decided to visit the Spanish Village Art Center. It is in the Balboa garden area near the zoo and the many of San Diego's museums. Today they had a biannual art sale and I have to say it is a very beautiful place to look at art.
Christian and Jon decided they wanted to come, and Will wanted to have a morning off with Mom, so off we went. The art center is broken up into little shops, courtyards and outdoor display spaces. Each courtyard is devoted to a different medium, there was one for painting, one for pottery, one for sculpture and one for glass blowing. Most of these courtyards had people working on art and the boys found it interesting to see wood carvers and potters working. They were especially interested in one man who was carving a huge mermaid out of wood by hand on his lap.
Finally Jon as always, at a place with no food at all walked into a small shop and was offered candy, I don't know how he does it but he could find candy in the middle of the Sahara, a camel caravan would come out of nowhere and shower him with Turkish Delight.
After lunch we went to the beach to do some more body boarding and spend some time at ocean beach. Last time we went Will would not get out of the water so this time we wanted to get there early and give him some more time.
Our time at the beach was great, Will spent two hours in the water, in fact he wore me out then wore Bethany out and was still rearing to go. Will is doing so well at body boarding this was only the second time he has body boarded and the waves were really big and he loved it.
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| Will and I body boarding |
Bethany - I love our busy days, they are filled with new places to explore and exciting things to do. But I think that it is our quiet days that I love best. The time I spent at home (Will has named it "Home Diego" to differentiate it from our actual home) alone or with a kid or two, is so peaceful and relaxing. Will and I spent our time this morning reading and cleaning happily.
The beach was perfect. The water felt cold at first but we quickly got used to it. Jon got too cold first and retired to the beach to build a sand castle. I held Christian for a while and together we watched Daddy and Will ride the waves on their boogie boards. Every time a wave came by Christian would call out "This is fun!" Eventually Christian too became cold and we both went back to the sand to help Jon.
I have always been a lake girl myself but James loves the ocean. When we are at the lake James is usually the one to stay on the sand with the younger boys so it was really wonderful here to watch him out in the water with Will. As I was sitting on the beach I realized how thankful I am for all the times he has taken care of the kids so I can stay and play in the water. It is such a gift to me and he does it so cheerfully.
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| James, Will and Jon head out into the water |
Jon and Christian had a great time playing in the sand. Christian made "sand rocks" out of wet sand that he loved to throw down so he could see them smash apart. One that he threw splattered my arm with sand and when I protested he said "Oh no!" and rushed to wipe off my arm with his sand covered hands. Christian became worried when his efforts only spread more sand on me. "Oh, I know, you need water!", he said as he ran to get some from the little pool the boys had been building. Cupping it in his hands he carried it over and threw the water on my arm. He was dismayed to see that now I had large clumps of wet sand all over my arm. By this time I was laughing and it took some work but I finally convinced him to stop helping!
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| Christian and Jon digging in the sand |
Our vacations always bring us closer together and this trip is no exception. Will and James have been bonding over their shared love of body boarding and I love watching them together. James has been sharing some of his tips and Will has improved a lot from his first time out. Together they would ride waves all the way into the shore. The waves were bigger than the ones at home and would lift Will of his feet if they went out too far. But Will is fearless and he kept wanting to go deeper and deeper.
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| Will and Daddy enjoy the waves |
About an hour later James came in so that I could have a turn playing in the water with Will. After so much time in the sun the water felt really cold! There were a lot of surfers out there so we had to be careful about where we were and I was always on the lookout. At one point a group of new surfers came out and Will and I had to move farther down the beach to avoid getting hit.
Will and I had a wonderful time in the water. He was flying in front of the waves although a couple of times a faster wave would come up from behind and knock him over. He was pretty cheerful about it though and nothing would deter him from going again and again.
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| Will on top of the waves |
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| wipeout! |
After two hours of boogie boarding Will started to turn blue and had to get out of the water. But just as I was coming out, Jon wanted to get back in! So the two of us left the boogie boards on the sand and went to play in the waves. After a little while Jon climbed on my back and we went out deeper. I had to be careful that the waves wouldn't break on us, because it was over Jon's head and I don't think I could swim with him on my back. But I would let the big waves lift me off my feet and carry us back a bit. I would jump around in the small ones while Jon yelled "This is so fun! It could be an amusement park!"
Finally, just before sunset we left the beach and headed home. We made it back to our house in time to watch the sun sink into the Pacific. That is an appointment I am always happy to make! I love too that so many people gather on our little beach to watch the show.
We all showered after the beach but Christian was so tired that after he got out he lay down on the floor, still wrapped in his blanket, and fell fast asleep. We had to work so hard to wake him up for dinner!
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| Christian passed out on the floor. He would not wake up! |
For dinner we all walked down the street to eat at Hodad's, a local burger place of some fame. It was very popular and every time we've passed it there has been a long line out the door. We had pleasant music while we waited from a man on the street. We talked to him afterwards and he told us a story of a man who took his parrot surfing with him. A wave broke over them and the parrot almost drowned. As they were coming back to shore the parrot called to the lifeguards "Hey! Rescue me you idiot!" This sent the boys off into endless laughter and until we stopped it, many repetitions of the parrot's line.
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| Hodad's |
Hodad's was an experience. The walls were completely covered by license plates and stickers and music was playing so loudly that it was impossible to talk to anyone sitting across the table. But the hamburgers were delicious!
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| Jon's picture of his cheeseburger |
After dinner we took a walk down the long pier just down the street. The pier is a lot longer than I thought it was and it was full of people fishing. There was even a store and a little cafe halfway down the pier. It was a pleasant walk but we were all pretty tired when we got in. I went into my bedroom to get changed and ended up falling asleep halfway on the foot of my bed!
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| Christian walks back down the pier |
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| Christian cuddling with Grandma at bedtime |
Tomorrow will be a quieter day but still I think I'll need to sleep for a week once we get back!
