Beach part 1

I love going to the beach. I have been going to the same beach in La Jolla every summer for as long as I can remember. It's beautiful, cool weather, great memories and so much to do! There are a million pictures. This is just a fraction of the first few days of our visit. 

First up, Father's day! James has always wanted to go to a Diamondbacks game in San Diego but we just never seemed to be there at the right time. This visit, the stars alined and the D-Backs were in town the same time that we were! I had been to a game at that stadium years ago. All I remember was that it was freakin' freezing since the park is right on the water. So I brought sweaters for all of us and was prepared for the cold. Yeah, it was blazing hot!! Oops, oh well. Henry still had fun eating his peanuts. James would have had waaaay more fun if the D-Backs had pulled out a win. 

Henry enjoying the game. 

 The view from our seats. It says Happy Father's Day on the big screen :) 

 We had a great view. 

The next day, it was time to hit the beach! We had a whole bunch of our family in town at the same time, which usually doesn't happen, so we wanted to take advantage and have everyone on the beach at the same time. Henry LOVED the beach. He loved the water, the waves, the sand, building castles, everything! The first day we spent a good seven or eight hours on the beach and he was happy the whole time. 

Checking out the water with nana. 

 Checking out the sand now. 

 His favorite thing to do was run in and out of the water over and over. 

 Out

 And back in. 

 Out again ;) 

 He took turns pulling different people in the water with him. Now it's James's turn. 

 Happy boy :) 

 He got so cold that his lips would turn blue but he wouldn't care. 

 Emily's turn to go in. 

 Emily's friends Megan and CJ were there too! Henry adored CJ. 

 Look at that face!! So happy! 

 It was my turn to go in now! 

 Henry loved jumping over the waves. 

 Nana got pulled back in. 

 It made me so unbelievably happy to see how much he LOVED the beach :) 

 Jumping the waves with daddy again. 

 This is just a fun picture with my baby bump and my baby boy ;) 

 Henry finally came out of the waves for a break and he was totally happy to sit in his chair under his umbrella and just chill. It was so nice :) 

 After a break and some lunch, it was time to build a sand castle! 

 Not so easy to sit on the sand and dig a hole with my big belly in the way! I think I did ok :) 

 Again, so happy :) 

 CJ and Megan had built a sand castle too! And Henry destroyed it :) 

 Baby Godzilla! 

 Henry had ditched me to destroy sand castles so I looked a little goofy making a sand castle all by myself. 

 Ta-da! My masterpiece! I'm pretty sure Henry destroyed it later. 

 "The kids" going boogie boarding! Erin, Emily, Megan and CJ.

That does it for the first part of this day. We were there so long that I have to break it up. The next part, my brother Matt and his family came down! 

Summer fun :)

The first weeks of break, I was really good at doing projects and/or crafts. I was even pretty good at taking pictures of our adventures. I didn't get everything but here are a few of our fun summer activities. 

I had seen a few things on Pinterest on ice cube water color and decided to try it out. The ice cubes were slightly difficult to make as I had to mix the paint and the water in the individual ice cube sections. Add to that the fact that I didn't actually have normal ice cube trays. I totally thought  I did but alas, I did not. What I did have were ice cube trays to make chess pieces. Thanks James! So I finally got the dang ice cubes mixed and stuck in the freezer. The next morning, Henry and I ventured out to try them. We have a small patch of grass that gets shade early in the morning so I stuck his table over there and got him started. We began with paper but the ice made the paper too wet to really make any marks at all. I had seen that some people on Pinterest used fabric. Again, I didn't plan too well apparently and had no fabric. What's a resourceful mama to do? Steal one of her husband's plain white t-shirts of course! That worked out really well! Henry had a blast painting with his water color chess piece ice cubes on his daddy's shirt! Not quite what I had in mind, but turned out to be fun for Henry and really, that's all that counts :) 

Painting in the shade. 

 Checkmate! ;) 

 Hi handsome! 

 Our finished product... think James will wear it? :) 

 Later that same day ( I was a glutton for punishment this day) we made some sugar cookies! The real reason for this was that we had leftover sugar cookie dough and frosting from his birthday and he wanted to make some Mickey cookies. Sure, why not? I got all the supplies out and ready. I left Henry at the table and went to get a few more things. Lesson learned, don't leave a three year old within reach of cookie dough... he WILL eat it!

Yum! 

 I think this was his favorite part of the whole thing! 

 What? I didn't do anything. 

 How can you be mad at that face??? 

He got three good bites out of that dough ball.  

 Frosting the cookies. 

Such concentration.  

 Daddy helping with sprinkles. 

Last year we got Henry a small inflatable pool and water slide. It sadly did not survive the summer. I had been meaning to get one over spring break but just never go around to it. After so many hot days with no pool, I finally found one. A bigger inflatable pool with a built in sprinkler! Fun!! 

Think he likes it?  

Random picture time!!! I think Henry is a budding photographer because he has been taking pictures lately all by himself and they are pretty good.... for a three year old! One day, he did all eight of his little puzzles and was so proud, he wanted to take a picture of them. So he did. 

This was taken by Henry :) 

This next one is just a sweet picture of me and my baby boy. He had just gotten up from a nap and was super extra cuddly :) 

My baby boy :) 

One of my many projects that I wanted to get done over break, was to paint the old office which will now be the new nursery. It was a light gray and I wanted a bit more girly color. We settled on a light lavender shade. Henry, of course, wanted to help! 

He had his own little paint station and did pretty well not making too big of a mess :) 

Then it came time to get things ready for our annual beach vacation. We were staying a bit longer than we usually do, so we asked my dad to watch Daisy for us. Before we took her down, we gave her a nice bath. Henry, or course, wanted to help!

Giving Daisy a nice rinse. 

 All clean and ready to visit papa! 

Up next, the beach!!!!