Newport Beach

We took the kids out to Newport Beach this year for our first ever beach family vacation. Yes, we've been to the beach before...many times...but never on our own - in uncharted territory. This was a new experience for us and there were several times we chose to laugh instead of cry (a common theme as of late - eh??)
I must give a quick photo warning/disclaimer here. These images are purely documentary - no real "eye-candy" here. When traveling to the beach with four young children in tow (packing up the car, driving 15 minutes to get there, fighting to find parking, unloading the car, watching the children that can move run off before they can haul anything with them and the children that can't walk, sit there waiting to be chair-lifted to their destination - and when you finally make it to your destination you realize that you just drove for 15 minutes and walked 1/2 a mile only to have forgotten ALL your towels) It is quite the experience. This experience is not conducive to cameras. Therefore, the camera was pulled out for 5 minutes (no more...no less) - documentation done and then put away. I just lacked the energy (no idea why?!#$%) to be creative...so without further adieu...

(**Side note...the beach is really really cold...even when there's an excessive heat wave inland...its still cold...you must therefore pack 2 sets of clothes - one for cold and one for hot) and bring 20 towels...'cause wet towels and cold wet kids don't mix.

Yes, Matt is actually making motor noises with his mouth as he drives the trucks over and around his dirt tracks - occasionally he'll let Mac and Indy drive a car on them too...

Laina could not be coaxed OUT of the water. One day we were all standing around waiting to leave and trying to get her to come OUT of the water.

We had our friends the Behns there to witness most of our craziness...and to love and play with our kids :)

INDY...

We are ready for next year...we have a few modifications to make...we'll plan our attack a bit differently, but we will definitely be back.

The only image I did NOT get and wish I had was of Matt and his beloved new DROID X. He went to 4 different stores the morning it debuted and finally walked out with one. We sang "I love technology" all day long in its honor. He has officially been dubbed the family vacation historian and videographer now (although I intend to delete the megan diving board footage) and had to wear a diaper from peeing his pants with glee all day long.

On his older brother's birthday they listed all the cars he had owned up to that point (it was impressive and there wasn't a normal one among the bunch)...for Matt's 40th we will be listing all of his handheld technology devices...starting with the original palm pilot.