Surprise!

After picking up the kids from my Aunt Amy's house we decided that instead of doing another night in Vegas we were going to drive the rest of the way down to my parent's house in California. As soon as I explained that to Weston he started asking to go to Disneyland. Complete with "please, please, please, please." I diverted him by offering a beach outing instead. He seemed pacified. My sister, Jules, knew that we were coming, so she did her best to prep the house without letting Mom know anything was up. She did a great job because here is my mom's reaction when she answered the door to find her favorite grandsons on the doorstep.

We spent that evening visiting and playing with all of Grandma and Grandpa's fun toys. They got a train table since the last time we were there, so that was a big hit.

My parents both had to work on Friday, so we packed up the car and went down to Long Beach to pop in and visit all my grandparents on our way to the beach. First we stopped at Grandma Snowball's house. It was nice to see her and visit. The boys raided the Jelly Belly's and gummy bears, and Grandma was nice enough to loan us a couple beach towels since we had forgotten to grab some from the house.
Next we drove over to the Cal State Long Beach Institute, where Grandma Olson works. Sadly she wasn't there. Their house is only a few blocks away though so we drove over, but it was deserted. Luckily we got a chance to see them post-beach when the kids were pantless. We forgot to take a picture with them. Darn.

Finally it was beach time! We swung through In N Out and picked up lunch and then headed to Pooh's beach. A family friend (yes, her name is Pooh) lives right on the beach. I had called her in the morning and she was so sweet to let us eat at her house and use her bathroom. It was really fun to chat with her too. She has the greatest house right? (this past summer episodes of NCIS and Numbers were filmed at her place).
This was Davin's second time at the beach, but last time he was only 6 months old. He LOVED it. He wanted to chase the water the whole time. He stood on the shore throwing sand at the ocean and exclaiming at the seagulls. He particularly enjoyed destroying brother's sand castles, so Daddy made him some of his own to knock over (see video).
The weather was just gorgeous. Sunny and fairly warm for November. We eventually put on our jackets (only because of the ocean wind), but it was a far cry from the snow in Utah and we loved it. We had the beach completely to ourselves too.

Dad made the most amazing salmon for dinner when we got back. When the kids were in bed we went with my mom to Happy Feet for our 60 minute $25 massage. Ahhh Happy Feet.

Stay tuned for our fun-filled Saturday!