It's that time again! Time for our much anticipated summer beach trip! I look forward to this trip all year and this year was simply incredible! We had so much fun with our Henry :)
We started off our trip with an overnight stop in Yuma to visit family. As the year have gone by, the family in Yuma has dwindled as people have moved away or spend the summers elsewhere. Who can blame them really? When we rolled into town around 8:00 at night, it was still well over 100 degrees! Hot, hot, hot! My uncle Mark was gracious enough yet again to let us stay with him. My aunt Karen was out of town so it was just us and uncle Mark. Henry and Mark got along famously and played much of that night and the next morning. It was so cute!
Hi uncle Mark!
I love how Henry is looking at Mark in this picture!
Then we stopped by to visit my grandma. This was a hard visit for me as it was the first time I had seen her since she had gone into assisted living. My uncle and my dad had prepared me well so I knew what I was in for but it was still shocking to see my grandma so frail. When I first walked in to her room, she was awake and she didn't recognize me at first. I got a bit closer and then she recognized me. She was still very much aware of everything going on around her and we talked for a bit while she had her morning coffee. Then she asked to see Henry. I was unsure about how Henry would react to the place but he seemed ok so I had James go ahead and bring him in. Grandma loved seeing him and said how big and handsome he was getting :) Our visit wore grandma out so we left her for a nap. I was happy that Henry got to see great-nana as he called her. I think some of the other people there enjoyed seeing Henry too. He just smiled and chatted with everyone he met :)
After we gassed up and of course, hit the Starbucks, we were on our way to the beach! I have been going to the La Jolla beach for as long as I can remember. My grandma had an apartment right by the beach. It was literally across the street from the beach and we would spend weeks there in the summer. There is this one hotel right on the beach, even closer than my grandma's place that I ALWAYS wanted to stay at. We just never got the chance. Well, this year, I was bound and determined that this was the year I was going to stay there! Back in the day, the hotel was called the Sea Lodge. I still find myself calling it that now. But they have changed names and it is now called the La Jolla Shores Hotel. And let me tell you, this place was fantastic! I was beyond thrilled that I FINALLY got to stay here :)
The front of the hotel.
The back of the hotel.
And oh yeah... there's the beach! Ta-da!
There were a lot of little things about staying here that just made me so happy. One, was the closeness to the beach. I always hated trudging back and forth when we were staying further away. It's just so much easier being closer with a small one too! The second thing I loved was that they had covered parking! I hate having to find parking. Well, once I knew I had a parking spot, I didn't get back in that car until the day we left :) And the best part? The hotel provides AND sets up beach umbrellas, chairs and towels for you! Score! I was in seventh heaven! My only worry now was... would Henry love it as much as I did? Last year, he was not so into the beach. The water was too cold for him and he hated the sand!
Here's Henry getting his first look at the ocean. What's that?!?!? :)
Rule of thumb when at the beach: If it is sunny, you get your happy butt to the beach and stay there! The sun was out so we changed into our suits quickly and headed out. I totally thought Henry would freeze when we plunked him down on the sand. Um yeah, nope. He booked for the water as quick as he could! There are lots of pictures of Henry's back, sides and top of his head as we could NOT get him to look away from the ocean or at the camera to save our souls!
Henry's first step into the ocean!
Cold? Yes! But he didn't seem to mind one bit!
Me and my baby! Where is he looking? The ocean of course!
And back out again. I was happy that he liked the water but only went in a little ways and then right back out again, over and over...
Then Henry discovered a hole someone else had dug and he was hooked! He played in the water and the sand and just had a blast!
Having fun in the warm California sun :)
After dinner, we went for a walk and Henry just had to play at the little park that is right by the beach. He loved it there! Much more on the park later :)
That is the end of day one at the beach. We had planned to spend ALL day Saturday on the beach so I was hoping for another warm sunny day. I opened the shades to our room and saw this...
Yep, that's the view from our room! Gorgeous!!! So we slathered on the sunscreen and we were off!
Running in and out of the ocean.
Having a little breakfast. It's cold pizza if you were wondering :) Breakfast of champions!
Such a sweet boy!
Playing in the sand.
He loved putting the sand on the tops of his feet.
Then he discovered he could put sand on top of MY feet too! Such fun :)
Stopped for lunch. PBJ this time. Don't worry dad, we had Jeff Burgers too!
We had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel that night. I don't have any pictures on my camera from the dinner but I think James might. The dinner was so nice and Henry did really well for most for most of it :) After dinner we decided to walk down to the pier. I had forgotten just how far it was. Henry had a ball running in and out of the water and finding seashells for nana. Then we had an amazing sunset!
Running on the beach.
A rare cloud free sunset.
Me and my boy :)
James and I went back and forth on whether or not we wanted to take Henry to the San Diego Zoo. He LOVES the little zoo we have here but we wondered if he would get anything out of such a big place. We decided to play it by ear. If he hated the beach as we feared he might, we could take him to the zoo but if he loved the beach, we would just stay at the beach. Since he loved the beach and it was beautiful and sunny the whole time, we skipped the zoo. We only had a few days anyway so maybe if we have more time next year we can go. The last day we were in La Jolla, James had an errand to run for work so it was just me and Henry. We had a fun day all to ourselves :)
We started by running up and down the stairs :)
The tide was low so Henry had plenty of seashells to hunt.
In and out of the water we go.
Finding the perfect seashell for nana.
Here mama!
Once Henry had his fill of the ocean, we hit the park. It was really nice because it was super early so we were the only ones there! Score! No big kids running Henry down :)
Up the stairs...
Once while going up these stairs, he tried to turn back to look at the ocean and fell right between the bars, flat on his back in the sand. Ouch! He got right back up after a good cry.
For some reason he sat way far back and then scooted over to slide down.
Weeeeee!
At this point, Henry always said, let's go again!
Hi mama!
Happy boy.
There was a sculpture of a whale that Henry loved. Maybe Sea World next year too!
Then we went back to the beach for one last goodbye.
Little baby toes in the sand.
Bye bye ocean! See you next year!
Here is a short video of Henry's favorite activity on the beach, running in and out of the water :)
Now that we are back in the Old Pueblo, Henry still asks to go swimming every day. This is the best we can do :)
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