To the beach!

We did one of the things on our summer list yesterday: we took Cecily to the beach in Huntington. It was... interesting.

She had woken up from her nap on the wrong side of the rocker seat. So much crankiness. But we went anyway! After driving around the parking lot looking for parking forever (this whole having to pay to park to go to the beach thing is soooo weird to me having grown up a block away), we coated ourselves in sunscreen, dragged all of our crap (blanket, towel, backpack, baby tent thingie, umbrella, etc.) out of the car, and began our trek to the water.

First stop: strips at Dwight's! Of course!

^^ reaching for the strips. smart girl. ^^

I really wanted to eat on the sand because it's more fun that way so we added two boxes of food to our haul.

After setting up our blanket and umbrella (and making an attempt at setting up the borrowed baby circus tent thingie), we ate.





Cecily really liked strips (the cheese and the sauce part anyway)! She liked them so much that she didn't really let me enjoy them because she demanded bites every two seconds! Haha! This girl loves to eat! We're working on patience right now... as much as you can with an 8-month-old anyway!

After eating, we put on Silly's Esther Williams swim cap and took her to the water. By the way, I bought this suit for her last summer while I was pregnant. I couldn't resist that swim cap. She looks like a little tomato head.










^^ she looks like a squinty old man in all the pictures. it was BRIGHT. ^^


^^ "i hate it, momma. i hate it!" ^^


^^ choose "original" under the settings for the best quality! ^^

This was her second time touching the ocean, and she still hated it. Haha! Poor girl! We tried for awhile after taking pictures and video, but she kept making these miserable little groaning sounds. She looooves water, but I guess she prefers it warm and not freezing cold/filled with sand/rushing at her.






^^ "save me, daddy!!" ^^

After our "swim," she was totally over the whole beach thing so we left. I think we were there for about 20ish minutes. Haha!




^^ she fell asleep nursing in the car. she was so tired that she didn't even wake up when i put her in her car seat. this never happens! poor sleepy babe! ^^

Oh well. We tried it! Even though we live so close, we probably won't go back to the beach until she's old enough to actually enjoy it. I'm sure she'll be a total beach girl next summer. :)

There's always money in the banana stand!

Thursday was Levi's last day at his second job for the week, and he didn't work at the salon in the afternoon so we decided to head down to Balboa to enjoy the pretty day, grab some frozen bananas, and introduce Cecily to the ocean (from a distance). We hadn't been down there in awhile, but I saw this old blog post the other day, and it got me in the mood to go.

First stop: frozen bananas. Obviously.


(btw, only about a month to go until season four hits Netflix!!!! FINALLY.)











Cecily saw the ocean for the first time:







She thought the waves were pretty cool.







Taking family photos by ourselves is hard. Especially when Cecily only wants to look at Daddy. She's pretty crazy about that guy.







We spent the rest of the day grocery shopping and made chicken curry when we got home. It was delicious. Cecily woke from a nap while we were catching up on some New Girl and Modern Family so she joined us on the couch before going to bed. Again. So hard to take photos of the three of us. That's Levi's lap on the left side.



I'd say it was a pretty good day!

Balboa, Bananas, and Bad Moods

Last week, we went to balboa for frozen bananas.

I was in a really crabby mood (which shows in the first picture below), but the combination of chocolate, rainbow sprinkles, sunshine, sparkling water, a walk, and a very brave pelican snapped me out of it by the time we got back in the car. Sometimes I need to just get over myself and look at the world around me. It does wonders.

(half sprinkles, half peanuts)

(This has become one of my favorite photos. It needs a frame for sure.)

(This little girl wanted to go up and touch the pelican soooo bad.)

la playa

we love long beach.

we really really do.

but long beach isn't perfect.

one thing it doesn't have is a proper beach.

it has a beach, but i wouldn't recommend going in the water...unless you enjoy swimming with syringes.

yessss, i am completely exaggerating.

but still, the water's not the cleanest due to the breakwater (pretty interesting debate concerning the breakwater in LB. if you're interested, you should certainly google it.)

i grew up in huntington beach, across the street from the beach (feel free to hate me; i know i'm spoiled). now that's a proper beach. it is my beach of choice.

so yesterday we took a little trip down south to good ol hb to do a little sunbathing and frolicking.

my baby sis was kind enough to document.

my camera was being funny, which is why the last two are out of focus, but i kinda think it was a lucky mistake 'cause they look pretty cool!

cheap weekend day one

we did a pretty good job being cheap yesterday.

expenses:

peet's iced latte - $2.90

(p.s. does anyone else hate nonfat milk as much as i do? they ran out of lowfat & substituted nonfat. blech. that stuff is more water than milk!)

strips at the beach & a coke - $5

TK burger (for levi) - $5

entertainment (the beach) - free!

more from the beach later!

umm so...

here's the thing about spf 70 (the kind i am wearing here) - it doesn't really work if you happen to be the WORLD'S WORST SUNSCREEN APPLIER.

which i happen to be.

this is what i did to myself yesterday:

the spots where i actually got the sunscreen were fine...but i missed a lot of spots.

it's those darn spray can sunscreens!

and this is not the first time i've done something like this.

look what i did to levi last summer:

please note the lovely zig zag pattern of his burn.

i better learn a thing or two about sunscreen application before i have children.

maybe we should start using that colored sunscreen?

sometimes, i am so stupid.

beach blanket bingo!

my mom and i went to the beach yesterday!

it was really nice. it's the first time i've been this year!

i was very happy to hang out alone with my mom because:

a. that almost never happens

b. she is leaving for germany next tuesday

we just ate strips, talked, and laid in the sun.

...not that laying in the sun really does anything for me since i coat myself in spf 70 (i had to tint these photos a bit to keep from blinding you all).

it's really hard to have an esthetician's license (not to mention parents who have had melanomas cut off their bodies) and not be super sun-conscious!