We love our annual trip to Newport so much. Our weather this year was probably the best yet, with nice hot days just like I like it. The kids and cousins were just fabulous and I think they all had an amazing time. We almost always have some hiccup and we sure did this year; this year will be remembered as the year of the gas line evacuation.
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We left early Friday morning and arrived Friday at dinner time. It's a brutally long drive and we're all so happy to get out of the car. We switched Katie to a forward facing seat for the trip so she could see the movies but, I think it was a mistake. She couldn't keep her head up and was miserable when she tried to sleep, plus she's only interested in watching shows for a few minutes anyway.
We drove straight to the beach, ate dinner at Charlie's Chili, walked up Newport Pier to see the fishermen's catches, made our first of many trips to the donut shop and went to our hotel for the night. Everyone was exhausted and slept great.
A kind fishman letting Ashley hold a fish
The next day was Saturday. Our kids were disappointed that the cousins weren't able to make it until Sunday afternoon but, Saturday was a great day to just play together in the ocean and take it easy. That afternoon we were able to move into our beach house. We eat all our meals in except a couple, which is super easy and fun. That night Andrew was so hungry he ate about 5 tacos and a couple bowls of cereal. I'd never seen anything like it!
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On Sunday we went to Sacrament Meeting, played at the playground at 14th Street and were super excited when the cousins pulled in that afternoon. While Kim unpacked I went with most of the kids to the playground again. That evening the kids had fun looking in each fisherman's bucket on the pier, jumping off the lifeguard towers and as always, couldn't resist playing in the water fully clothed.
A fisherman let the kids each touch a little fish. He wanted them to smell it and hold it and when he saw that most were tentative but, Ashley was not he called her name with a thick accent and gave her the fish. He told her to feed it to a seal. After a minute she threw it back to the Ocean and about a minute after that we did see a seal swimming right below the Pier.
One second later Hailey was completely drenched and not loving that. Ashley and Andrew got drenched too and did love that.
The rest of the week we spent each day loving the beach, ocean and sun!
This year there was a sandbar each morning that was covered up each afternoon. It was so fun. The kids could play out there for hours and it made a shallow, warm, calm bay to play in too.
Kate loves shoes!
On Monday night I took Hailey and Katie to the playground on 14th again (which they LOVE) while everyone else went to the Angels Game. Ashley immediately wanted to be on the Jumbotron and was dancing around and couldn't stop looking to see if she was on. Dave told her that there were so many people and they had lots of time and to just enjoy the game but, she couldn't. She kept dancing and looking at the screen hoping it would be her. Dave said it was about 45 seconds later and yep, there she was up on the screen and a couple of the other kids too. She is always lucky.
Poor Ashley was still on an antibiotic for a few days of our trip. I didn't realize it but, she was ultra sensitive to sun because of it and was sunburned Monday. On Tuesday I used a thick blue zinc sunscreen on her and the others too. She wore a visor, sunglasses, and long sleeve swim shirt the rest of the week and actually liked all those things quite a bit. Luckily, the burn went away fast and as soon as she was done with the medicine she was back to normal too.
Hailey took afternoon naps in her breezy tent on the beach most days
Kate was a champion napper and took an afternoon nap each day on the beach in her baby tent. It was wonderful to have her be so easy to nap so that we never had to spend an afternoon inside.
Being blessed with 3 girls in a row makes it pretty hard to resist dressing them matching here and there.
Joe and Andrew played smashball, Bochi ball and even horseshoes all the time. They boogie boarded and played in the waves and easily kept themselves happily entertained. Joe is a great kid and is so good to Andrew. The only problem is that he is getting older and growing up too quickly.
Andrew got pretty good at boogie boarding!
The kids all loved wild pull rides on the boogie boards
Slurpees every afternoon
Will (5), Lizzie (8), Andrew (7), Joe (13), Callie (11), Kate (1), Ashley (6) and Hailey (4). Each of these cute kiddos has a Fall Birthday coming up (except Ashley who just turned 6 in June and Will who will turn 6 next March).
The jumpers taking off: Joe, Andrew, Callie, Lizzie and Ashley
In Air
Landing
Callie, Andrew, Lizzie, Joe and Ashley
A small shark is behind them
Joe and Andrew flying a kite at the perfect place
Katie was a happy, chatty dream all week. She started out not so sure about walking on the unstable sand and became more adventurous each day. By the end she loved playing with the wet sand and wading a little bit in the water. She really loved the playground and asked all the time "Wheee?"
Another good nap for Hay Hay
A game of Ultimate Frisbee with Joe and a few of his friends that were nearby. Andrew was a good catch and throw and kept up with the older boys just fine.
There was a section of the beach roped off for tractors that were bringing in sand and moving it around because of some storm that had happened. It wasn't a problem until Thursday when a construction truck right behind us at the beach hit an eight inch gas line buried in the sand that nobody knew was there. We had to quickly move down the beach. That was at 1:30 and we spent the rest of the afternoon just fine enjoying the beach. A few hours later though our beach house and all the others around us had been evacuated and we couldn't go in. We stayed out on the beach until sundown, which the kids loved! Dave was police escorted in the house to gather sweatshirts and dry clothes for our entire group without being able to turn on a light. We ate a late dinner at Charlie's again then after a long search ended up in a hotel for the night. We got to our hotel at midnight and slept very well. We felt lucky the next morning when the gas line had finally been turned off and we could get back in our house even though it was surrounded by work crews.
Balboa Bars over at Balboa Island on our last night
And the drive home. Looks a lot like the drive there!
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