The Beach

I'm sure this will be a long post full of pictures. We spent 4 days at the beach. I'm so proud to say that our kids love the beach as much as Paul and I do. 

Before we had kids, Paul and I always planned our vacations around the beach. We both love a good beach! It was so awesome to see how amazed our kids were by the ocean. Rockwell in particular could have stayed there for a month and not wanted to leave. 

  

The first day Damon tried to eat the sand, but after a couple successful tries he learned that it didn't taste good at all. After that he didn't try anymore and played great the rest of the time. He loved playing in the sand, venturing into the water, and especially the seagulls. He would get so excited and chase every one he saw. It was adorable.

  

Tessa liked to be in the water, but she wanted someone holding her close the whole time.

  

We swam, jumped over waves, build sand castles, played tag, buried ourselves in the sand, boogey boarded (on our $1 blow up boards :), collected shells, and watched all the surfers. 

  

  

Damon was so funny with the blow up boards. He loved to climb on them. 

On the third day there I was playing in the sand with him when Rockwell ran up to the tent and dropped off his board. Damon immediately picked it up and walked it all the way down to the water. Apparently he wanted to catch some waves too. ;)

He looked so stinking cute carrying that thing down the beach. I just love this picture!

  

  

Damon and Tessa liked to rest a bit in the tent when they would get too cold. Damon looked so cute all bundled up, drinking his bottle, watching the waves. He took a nap in the tent one day, which made for a fun, longer day there.

  

  

  

We will definitely be taking more trips to beaches! So fun!!

Safari Park

Chad got us into the Safari Park for free since he works with/for them. Thanks Chad!

It's a huge park where they try to have the animals in very similar environments as they would in the wild. They have a tram that goes through a large section where there are numerous species all living together. It was beautiful.

The kids definitely enjoyed the carousel. We rode it about 6 or 7 times.

Don't ask me what Tessa is doing in the picture above. I love this one of her though.

Here's Rockwell making his crock face. :)

It was a fun day that definitely wore the kids out. 

  

Sea World

We spent a day at Sea World. It was a really fun park. The kids loved the rides and the bounce houses they were big enough for. Sadly Tessa was only tall enough for a few of them, but she loved those ones. 

  

We all got to ride on the tower. We had a beautiful view at the top of the ocean and all of Sea World. 

We loved the sea lion and dolphin shows. Seriously, those animals are amazing.

  

It was fun to see all the fish and animals. Tessa and I loved these penguins.

  

These Cleaner Fish ate all the bacteria and dead skin off your hands. The kids could only handle the tickle for so long. :)

Rockwell and I rode a rollercoaster where you got soaked. It had a couple steep hills and Rockwell was so funny when the ride was over. As soon as we stopped he looked at me and said, "I hated that!!"  He went on and on about how horrible it was and how everyone should hate that ride. I couldn't help but laugh at him because the whole time he was saying it he couldn't stop smiling and seemed like he loved the rush of it. He's such a funny kid.