The Ocean

I am going to squeeze the last three days of our trip into this one post, so I am warning you, that you may be on picture overload when you are done reading. =)

On day 4 of our trip, we headed to Ventura where Jeff had his convention for work. The hotel was three blocks from the ocean, so the kids & I spent a lot of time there. I am so glad that we went here for the second half of our trip. After the constant going of the first three days, it was nice and relaxing! The first day we were there, we took the kids to the beach to show them the ocean. Being the silly mom that I am I actually thought telling the boys that the water was cold and to just walk in it, but not get too wet would happen. I know, I can hear several of you who know my boys well, laughing. =) Well, the water was cold, but that did not matter to them. They took one step into that water and were in love with it. The ran in and out, splashing and having the best time ever! It was just so fun to watch them get so excited experiencing this for the first time. Isn't it wonderful to see things through the eyes of a child? Here are boys the "walking" in the water.

See how wet they are? It did not bother them one bit though!

Lily and the ocean was a different story. While she was not crazy about the cold water......

she did like the rocks.....

and the sand.

Here they all are with Jeff.

This picture looks like it is just two brothers who are looking out at the ocean together, which makes a pretty sweet picture. But, the actual story behind the picture is even sweeter. (I think it is anyway.) Riley was not strong enough to stand up when a wave would come toward him. Not big waves, but he would lose his footing when the water came at him fast. So, whenever Riley would wander a little farther than Zach thought he should, he would hold onto him so that when the water came up, Riley wouldn't fall down. No one asked Zach do this, Jeff and I just watched him hold onto him each time. We were so proud of him for being such a good big brother!

The next day, the kids and I headed down to the beach to collect shells. Before they started, I took this picture of all three of them.

Here are some of the shells that Riley and Zach found.

Lily found more rocks.

That night when Jeff was done working, we headed to the Ventura Pier.

Zach loved watching the surfers.

Running down the pier....

There were seagulls everywhere there! The boys loved watching them.

This is in front of the pier.

I wanted to take pictures of the ocean at sunset, so we headed over to the beach so the kids could play in the water again. (this time in swimsuits!)

These are some of my favorite pictures.

During the day on Monday and Tuesday we spent time at both the beach and in the hotel pool, which Lily like much better because it was heated!

I don't have any pictures of Lily in the pool, because when she was in the pool, I was in the pool, but here she is sitting in a lounge chair.

On Tuesday, I had wanted to take the kids to the harbor and show them the boats, but when I asked them if they wanted to go, their exact words were:

Zach: "That sounds boring!" and Riley: "We wish you hadn't planned that."

So, we went to the beach again, where they built sand castles, and of course, I did not have my camera with me... We did get to go to the harbor for dinner with Jeff though. The boys were right, it was boring, but the restaurant we ate at was delicious and the kids got yummy ice cream afterwards. Here is a picture of the harbor and then the boys with their ice cream.

The next day we had to leave. I was ready to go home. As fun as it all was, I was ready to get back to our house and get back to not sharing one room with my entire family. =) Lily was ready too. She kept saying "Home, go home" on Tuesday. The boys, however, were upset we were leaving. They told us that they "only" got three days at Disneyland and three days at the ocean. I was gald they were having so much fun they didn't want to leave, but I told them it was time to go home. Then Riley told us he wanted to live in California, and preceded to tell us this the entire way to the airport. I think he is glad to be back home now though. =) Well, that's it. Not all 419 pictures, but still quite a few! Hopefully it wasn't too many. =)