Bikes, Gelato and Beach Shops

Bikes

One of our days we enjoyed the beach view from our rented bikes. It turns out that they do make bikes with baby seats! The helmet they gave us was a little too big for Mike though!

We got a good laugh out of it... Mike couldn't hold his head up because of the weight of the huge thing!

So he ended up just wearing his sun hat instead, still just as cute.

And Abbey got the helmet. She thought she was so cool to ride on the back with Dad. It even had little handle bars for her to hold on to. I think we need to get her a bike for her birthday!

I got to ride with Mike, who promptly ended up doing this...

I felt really bad for him, he was really falling over and my leg kept moving him up and down! But I got a lot of comments as I rode by people about how cute he was. Plus I couldn't help but laugh at how out he was... he was like a rag doll most of the ride!

The only down side to our ride were the annoying people who thought they were in a bike race... they would ring there stupid bike bells and whiz past you like you were in the way!! Hello... the speed limit was like 7 mph!! Where was the race?... Anyway, we rode down to Balboa Pier and ate and the Ruby's on the end. It was a great lunch. Here Abbey was playing with the little boat they gave her. Which kept her attention for two seconds.

We were really happy to get our food... the bike ride worked up quiet the appetite.

Aunt Carrie got Abbey to stay still long enough for a picture. She was all over those bar stools!

If you look to the right of her, you see she even brought her drink with her. She is so dang independent. I guess she thought the bar stools were cooler than our table.

Outside we spotted this Bob Marley bike... how cool is that? I couldn't believe how pimped out it was with Bob Marley stuff!


Gelato

This was our Gelato stop after lunch one day. The year before we had really good strawberry gelato. Tim decided to try the papaya this year. Not so good...

Here I am throwing it away while plugging my nose... because for all of those who don't know, papaya smells and tastes like dirty feet with Parmesan cheese!! Gross!!

Abbey stuck with the strawberry. It was very good.
Especially with a little sand. (click on it to see the up close of her face!)


Beach Shops

We also enjoyed the little beach shops by the pier. I guess I am out of the fashion loop, because I had no idea that these 80's glasses were back in style! The black ones with neon sides are back in too apparently!

Carrie always seems to make the appropriate faces with things like this... it makes me laugh.

Tim, on the other hand, enjoyed the mannequin... maybe he is just dreaming about something he doesn't have?

Sand, Sand and More Sand!

Everyone asks me what we did when we were in California... We mostly went to the BEACH! Five out of the seven full days we were there (not counting the traveling days) we went to the beach. We loved every minute and I can definitely say that we got our share of sand and water for the year! (Although I did feel a little bad for Carrie, who has no kids and therefore could go many cool places in California but was stuck with us... she asked me one day "are we going to go to the beach every day?")

Our camp was pretty sweet. We had a shade tent where we put up a camping table, chairs and Mike's pack-n-play. A big umbrella would give shade too. By the end of our trip we invested in some boogie boards, more buckets for Abbey, and paddle balls.

Abbey loved the sand and making holes where the surf would fill it up with water. She would find other peoples abandoned holes and clam them as her own. She also loved to play in the water.

Mike got to play in the sand a little, but mostly he hung out in the pack-n-play with his toys and would take great naps lulled by the sound of the waves.

Us adults enjoyed reading books, braving the rip tides to body/boogie surf, and laying in the sun. And of course we ran after the kids a lot!

By the end of the week the rest of my siblings and their kids joined us for a day of beach fun. It was nice for Abbey to have Wyatt and Luke to run around with, instead of mom and dad! And Mike got to hang out with Stella in the tent!

Beach House

Carrie, Tim and I decided that we wanted to find a beach house for our stay in Newport. We succeeded with finding this one.

(Abbey loved the flowers in the front, she was showing them off to Johnny, who was taking the picture!)

It was perfect for our beach needs. We were able to wake up, cook and eat breakfast, put our suits on and walk to the beach. When we wanted lunch or we were all done for the day a short walk to the house is all it took! No driving the car trying to find a spot for 45 min, no paying for parking! It was great. The only down side was having to still do dishes and sweep up all the sand! But who really complains about doing dishes when you have eaten french toast, carne asada tacos, and chicken shish kabobs! Not to mention bananas foster for dessert!

(Tim making french toast our first morning)

We were also really close to the pier, which meant we were close by all the shops to walk into and good restaurants like Spaghetti Factory. We would pack up the kids and go. I'm so glad we decided to invest in a double stroller before we left. We got a good deal on it and I can't imagine our vacation with out it! It was a life saver.

By the end of our stay we had to pack up and stay in a hotel for two nights. We missed the beach house... but it was nice to have some four star luxuries, ie house keeping!!

Happy Birthday to Us!

Okay, Carrie and Christine have the majority of the pictures from California that I need to have in order to post more about our vacation. So in the meantime I thought I would post about Birthdays!

Happy Birthday Timothy!

(This is Tim with his Birthday Dessert... Ricotta Cheese with Cocoa and Splenda, read why further down! There is a candle in it but you can't tell in the picture.)

Tim turned 27 this Friday. He actually had this weekend off so we have been enjoying another mini vacation with him home. It was a lot of fun to celebrate, we made sure it was low key seeing as we really had all the fun we could imagine in California the week before. So I let him sleep in as long as he wanted. Once we were ready for the day, we went to the San Tan mall to let Tim pick out some new cool sunglasses.

After which, we were treated to a Sweet Tomatoes lunch with Tim's parents. Who were kind enough to watch the kids so we could go to a matinee. Finishing off his day, I made Tim a gourmet South Beach Diet Dinner (Who says South Beach has to be boring!?!), and gave him a massage afterward.

I hope he felt pampered and relaxed, that was the goal! And yes, you read correctly. Tim started the South Beach Diet earlier this week. The final nail in the coffin was the picture of him in the surf looking back at the Life Guards boat that Carrie posted on her blog. He is too funny!

Happy Birthday To Me!

(yes I had a real cake with the full 26 candles)

That's right, it's my Birthday today! 26!! But we celebrated in style yesterday. Tim was so sweet. He thought he had a lot to live up to his celebration the day before! He started with letting me sleep in!! Soooo nice!! And finished it up with breakfast in bed (waffles with pureed strawberry) and a hot bath with fizz ball all to myself. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the waffles... he presented them beautifully (I think we have been watching Food Network too much!). Then before my bath was over Abbey was taken to Christine's to play the day away with Wyatt. Leaving us free to go to the mall and shop for some clothes for me! I'm not that bold to take pictures of me in my clothes, so you will have to settle for pictures of Mike at the mall.

He looks sooo chubby, probably because he is!

A little boy even made a comment to his mom about how fat he was and pushed his cheeks together like a fat boy and said "his cheeks are like this mom!" I'm pretty sure he got more giggles from others throughout our mall trip! After shopping we ate at Olive Garden for linner, it was really good. Then on to pick Abbey up and drop me off to get my toes done!

Finally at home again, we relaxed with watching a chick flick... perfect!