Newport Beach 2012

Going to Newport Beach is a Price Family tradition. We all look forward to it for a long time and it's always worth it. This year we left a day earlier so we could have a Disneyland Day. Then, on Saturday morning we headed to the beach house. Other than Church we don't venture very far until the next Saturday when we head back home. 

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The weather was good all week, though sometimes a little chillier or windy than I'd remembered. The bummer was that we all passed around a cold. I was one of the worst of the group and felt exhausted Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Hailey was pretty sad Wednesday and Thursday. Andrew didn't seem quite right some days and I'm guessing he was tired and not feeling at his best for those days too. Dave was mild and Ashley never got it. 

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 Callie and Ashley were so excited to just happen to have matching suits. 

Nana and Papa, posing after church, with their 7 beautiful grandchildren. Everyone but Hailey is smiling and laughing because Aunt Kim was performing a pretty hilarious "I'm a dog" routine right on the sidewalk. That's what it takes to get a good picture it seems. 

 The kids love to jump off the lifeguard towers after hours. They especially love to be introduced by Dave....something like "Introducing, Andrew, smelly pants McGoo" and then they make their entrance and jump. 

We tried but, just couldn't quite get a jump at the same time. 

 Hailey surprised us by loving the waves and water. She had to be holding someone's hands but, that was still more than I'd expected. 

Ashley just couldn't resist the water on our Sunday walk. Pretty soon most the kids were almost as drenched.  

 The community tub each night after the beach. 

 Ashley never grew tired of catching sand crabs. She is really good at it, and fast too. She showed us each one and named them too; darling names like splish and splash.  

 Ashley loves playing with William because he'll follow her wherever she goes and do whatever she does. 

 Jumping the waves

Jumping a pit

 It's fun to drive down to the wedge one morning and see the surfers and the big waves. We got there before the lifeguards, so the kids could run in the water...until they were told to get back. 

 Andrew and Joe. Joe makes Andrew so happy. 

"Catch a Wave Hailey!" She'd surf on the boogy boards, smile proudly, and then jump off. Pretty cute stuff. 

  Hailey had a love hate relationship with the birds. She wanted to see them so badly but, got really mad at them when they came near us. This tiny girl is always hungry and pretty territorial about food, so I'm guessing she was worried they'd eat her snacks. 

 Andrew leading Hailey back home. 

 Can you imagine going to elementary school right on the beach? We love to visit the school's playground just a few blocks down the boardwalk.  

 We'd ask Ashley "What was your favorite part of the beach today?" and her answer, over and over again was always something like "When I got to pet dogs". She can spot a dog from far, far away, then she takes off from us and loudly asks the owner "Can I pet your dog". She saw lots of dogs over the week.  

"Surfing"

Lizzie and Ashley "surfing" 

 

 Sweet, beautiful Ashley. She was our trip champion this year. She played hard each and every day, fell asleep first each night, woke up last each morning (except once when she was 2nd to last), never had tantrums or fits, had such a fun, happy, refreshing attitude and was entirely happy to play with everyone. She was also the only one in our family to not catch the cold. Her sweetness and goodness is amazing really. 

  Andrew loved playing games like this with Daddy. He also loved frisbee and catch. 

 Hailey affectionately named her baby Owie Baby, because it wears a hard bracelet that doesn't come off, that looks just like a Bandaid. 

On Thursday Hailey had a fever and spent all morning sleeping on my lap. Here she is awake for a few minutes and feeling pretty sad.

 The cute girl cousins. Hailey, Ashley, Lizzie and Callie. Next year we'll have one more! 

The cute boys: Joe, William and Andrew.

Seashell Collecting

 A long walk and ride to Balboa. Ashley rode her yellow bike over a mile. Andrew rode his scooter for 3! 

 By the time we got there Ashley was conked out! Good thing they got a Balboa Bar out of it. 

 In front of the Newport Pier is this random green ball and a 'maze' that the kids love to run through. 

 Ashley gave Boogy Boarding a try this year.

 Andrew always likes boogy boarding but, this year he seemed to have an extra hard time warming up after being in the cold water (probably because he was a little sick), so he didn't do it as much as usual. 

 Note to self: Don't stand in front when you're 7+ months pregnant and have been wearing kids 50 spf sunscreen all week. 

 My wonderful little crew. 

 Part of our wonderful little crew. 

 Ashley never needed a nap, except on the very last day. One minute she was playing happily, the next minute we see her passed out on the sand. I covered her with a towel and then moved her into our baby tent so the waves wouldn't come up and steal her away. She slept for hours. 

 Andrew was happiest when he got to play with lots of rough housing boys like him. Somehow that happened on the last day and he was loving it. 

Until next year!

Disneyland. This is the only pic from Dave's phone good enough to even use. The kids adored Disneyland. The highlights of the day for me were; 1) Going back to the hotel pool mid-day to escape the heat and crowds 2) that Andrew made the height requirement to go on Indiana Jones, which we'd been talking about for so long and 3) taking Ashley and Hailey on all the little kid rides early enough to have no lines or heat, so that we didn't have to wait later on. We got there very early and stayed very late. The kids were all champs. Andrew went on all the bigger rides and I felt bad knowing that he also still wanted to go on the smaller rides too but, that place is so busy that you just can't do it all. Ashley was devastated to not be tall enough for Matterhorn but, it's probably just as well because later she said that the Thunder Railroad "really freaked me out". Her favorites were Pirates and Dumbo. Hailey was really a good sport. She had the most fun splashing in the hotel pool.