We're Baaaacccckkk!

I have a most excellent excuse for not posting.

We were on our big trip to Disneyland (remember the girls worked

for two years selling blackberries to raise the money?).  I chose not to

post ahead of time that we were leaving.

Call me smart or extremely paranoid.  I didn't want the

entire internet to know we'd be gone for 9 days.

But we are back and we had a near perfect trip.

Kean stayed home with Grammy and Grandpa (I know, I've said it

before, they should be named Saints and have their own statues in Vatican Square).

Before heading to the "happiest place on earth", we took a slight, okay, not so slight

detour to Arizona to see family and friends.

Our visit was way overdue.  We hadn't been as a family in 4 years thanks to the pregnancy and Kean drama.

I failed to take any pictures of our Arizona leg-- but it was a blast.

We had dinner the night we arrived with the Billingsly clan-- a family Byron is very close to.

The next night after spending the day visiting close family and friends, we had an all out bash with 50 or 60 of our closest

compadres from our years of living in AZ. 
I kick myself for not using my camera.

And then the next night, we gorged on yummy food and fabulous company again with a family dinner party

with the Klinglers-- Byron's relatives who truly are like siblings. 

We ran from one great gathering to the next and crammed in seeing so many of those we love and admire.

It was so worth the wild ride.

Then it was back in the ol' car and on the road again (insert Willie Nelson track here...).

We headed toward California and went straight to the beach.

 Our poor, sheltered, shut-in children had never seen the ocean.

So this was pretty exciting stuff.

 My good friend Scott McGregor (whom we met later for dinner) turned us onto this beach find.

It is just below Laguna and the resort Montage and boy is it a slice of heaven.

The beach is clean, uncrowded and pristine with cool places to hike:

 On high tide, the water comes clear up to the cliffs and fills up this arch.

Tide pools are everywhere-- as are roosting pelicans.

 And one of the things we loved the most is that there is a Marine Biologist on duty at the area

to teach the children about all the amenomes, star fish, crabs and fish we saw.

Score!  I knew it was worth pulling the kids out of school!

 My dear friend, Lori (in the grey) lives in Newport and came down to join us in watching the girls

go crazy.  She brought a huge bin of buckets, shovels and other beach toys.

I do believe the girls had a bit of fun on their first trip to the beach.

Oh, we'll be back.  My friend Scott has offered to host "surfing school" for our girls and his kids.

That's a no-brainer.  We can't wait.

P.S. coming soon to a blog near you (uh, that would be this one)... highlights from Disneyland-- yippeee!