This years California trip was a little different from years in the past. We went for a whole week. We left on Sunday and headed to the Good's resort for the night. Then we spent all of Monday hanging out at the pools and water slides at the Good's Welk Resort. Beautiful place to hang out with friends.
It amazes me at how Hailey and Randa can find the simpiliest things entertaining. Just give them a hand rail and they will be able to make a game of it......some how!!!!!
The water parks included splash pads. It was so fun to watch the girls play with the buckets of water. We kept trying to figure out which bucket was going to flip over and drench the unsuspecting kid, but there was no rhyme or reason to which bucket would flip.
Every once and awhile, the girls would get lucky and get drenched!!!!!!
James taking a five minute nap in between running around....he really isn't sleeping :-)
Finally the water slides opened up at 11am and the real fun began!
We always have such a fun time with the Goods. My cheeks usually hurt from laughing so hard!
Monday night we headed into Oceanside to our condo. Tuesday morning, we headed on our morning walk to the pier. The bait shop is our favorite place to go. We talk about Charlie the pelican all year. The kids love to feed him. This is not Charlie. This is Gloria the pelican. I guess Charlie disappeared last year and hasn't been seen since. We are thinking he might have gotten eaten by a shark. He was getting really old. So now we feed Gloria. But we are thinking Gloria isn't a Gloria, but a Gary! At least that is the talk on the pier. Who knows. We just like feeding the pelicans and walking on the pier.
This is the owner of the bait shop. We call him, "the white haired guy." I guess we should find out what his real name is. He is just as important to us as the pelicans. He makes the bait shop special. We look forward to seeing him every year.
We are thinking about renting these bikes Thursday morning for a tour down the boardwalk.
Hailey, Jenna, and Randa had a very important job of crushing down the base for the sand castle sculpture for Tuesday's adventure on the beach.
Jeff and James were set on making this castle the tallest and biggest castle YET!!!!! Woohoo. So excited to see their creation.
It is taking shape and the crowd has already started to form around the castle...word is spreading on the beach about their creation!
It is taller than 6 1/2 feet tall. It is awesome. King Triton is guarding the castle with his Triton. So flippin Cool!
Oceanside Harbor Fish and Chips came highly recommended by lots of people. We had to go try it out. It was a tasty treat. We can know say that we have eaten there. If you like fish and chips, it is a great place to go. I think our crowd is more of a pizza crowd though.
Ethan posing for the camera.
This is the group of kids we decided to take on a bike ride down the boardwalk....What were we thinking!
We totally look like a bunch of clowns shoved into a small car. I can only imagine what people where saying as we zoomed by!
Thursday's beach creation was a huge....and I mean huge octopus. I don't think we realized how much work an eight legged creature would be until it was too late. But this sucker was flippin cool! It had teeth in its mouth and was eating a turtle. The guys used the base from the Sand Castle from Tuesday to make the body. Jeanette, Lizzy, and I helped with the legs and the turtles. It was a big project, but totally worth it.
Friday's beach creations were a mermaid and a sea monster. I thought James was going to take it easy today. Wrong. He did the mermaid and monster by himself. The Goods didn't come to the beach today so he was flying solo.
The sea monster turned out so cute. His eyes just gave him the perfect personality. LOVE IT!
Saturday morning's walk to the pier. The ocean looked like it had a disease. I have never seen so many surfers out on the water at once. Looks like shark bait to me:-)
Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Lizzy and her kids joined us for our morning walk.
Saturday was a quite day on the beach. Jeff and James decided to make a couch for relaxing and enjoying the surf. If you look closely, you can see the remote ready for TV watching on the arm rest of the couch. Jeanette and I lent the guys our drinks for this picture. We did not give them permission to drink our drinks.....Yeah right!
We all had to try out the couch
The Goods just chillin on the couch watching their favorite show on the 90's style TV.
Grandpa Erickson had a couple of wetsuits stuffed in one of the beach bags. Kristofer was so excited he could hardly stand it. He loves the water so much and this made it so he could stay out even longer.
PARTY TIME!!!!
After we thought the guys were all done with sand creations, they threw one last one in: the frog. It was fantastic. You would not believe the number of people running around Arizona, Utah , and California with pictures of these guy's sand creations. We should charge!
Saturday night, we headed to Ruby's restaurant at the end of the pier. It has also become kind of a tradition to eat there at least once during our stay. Ethan's tradition is to get an Oreo shake. Very excellent choice my friend!
We were able to experience a beautiful sunset on our pier walk to Ruby's
We had an amazing week. The weather was pretty much perfect. Everyone had a wonderful time. No one got hurt. It was just a nice time. I can't believe how relaxing and rewarding it was just hanging out on the beach. I love the fact that my kids think it is the best time just soaking up the sand and sun. I wouldn't have it any other way. Til next year. Goodbye Oceanside. We will miss you.
