Newport News - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

We just got back from a wonderful seven days in Newport Beach, California! We went with Kirk's brother Kade and his family. We loved every second of it, and loved just not having anything going and being together! We took a million pictures, so sorry to bore everybody, but this is for my journal, not your entertainment. Sorry! :)

Here's the breakdown:

The Good:

The Beach!:

We tried out just about every beach in the area. We went to Huntington Beach one day and just about got blown away. But when we went to Newport Beach and Del Mar Beach we had amazingly great weather!

The girls dug the hugest hole in Huntington - mostly to get out of the wind.
They loved building sandcastles, digging and trying to get sand in everywhere.

They all learned how to boogie board (with a lot of help from Kirk), except for Brynn who wouldn't ever get past her knees into the water. They caught lots of super great waves, got tons of ocean water up their noses, and ran over a few unsuspecting people.

I loved just watching my girls play, making an occasional sandcastle, reading and eating lots of snacks.

Disneyland!:

We ventured out to Disneyland with the rest of the world on Tuesday. We had gotten cheap park hopper tickets from what seemed like a shady guy named Mike that we had to meet at a gas station and give him cash for the tickets. But Mike ended up being a really nice guy, and even gave us a bigger deal, because he thought that we had already paid him, but Kirk told him we hadn't.

Disneyland was open from 8 AM until midnight, and we had planned on staying the whole time to get the most out of it.

We totally worked the system using FastPasses for all the big rides, and doing all the small rides in between. We actually never had to wait for more than about 15 min. for any ride.

All the girls were tall enough to ride all the fast rides and loved them all! I think everybody's favorite was of course Space Mountain. When we went on Small World, Brynn kept asking when it was goign to go fast.

We loved eating all the yummy Disneyland favorites: churros, frozen lemonade, rice crispy treats as big as your head, and fresh dipped corn dogs. We actually had brought in lunch and snacks, but had powered through them by about 10:00, and were starved for something yummy. (I think we worked up an appetite from running from ride to ride.)

By the time it was just about time for the parade, we were all pooped and ready to just sit and get ready for the parade.

Lizzie even was brave enough to go and dance with the girls when they asked her to. She looked super nervous the whole time.

We went on a few more rides after the parade, then got geared up for the fireworks. I absolutely love fireworks, and you can't get any better than Disneyland's fireworks with accompanying music. It almost makes me cry every time. (Imagine that.)

The Pool!:

The resort we were staying at had an awesome pool. We swam just about every day. The first couple days were a little chilly, so the kids spent most the time in the "hot-cuzzie", or "cha-cuzzie". They kept trying to actually swim, throwing in dive sticks to get, until I was thouroughly grossed out.

They had some fun pool games that Lizzie participated in. She totally rocked everybody in the freestyle race. Go Lizzie!

Brynn got really good at tricks and flips. I think Kirk was sore from throwing her and all the other kids all day long.

I like this one where her head is chopped off, she is so high!

They loved making towers and doing chicken fights! Hours of fun!

Playing!:

It was fun just having time to play together!

Here's the girls playing enormous checkers. Actually they just made towers and had contests to see who could stack the highest.

They loved rolling down the hills.

Playing in the sand - just in case we didn't have enough playtime at the beach.

Playing ping-pong. Riss, Belles and Kirk were all in the ping pong tournament. Riss, Belles, and Kirk were all eliminated after the first round. Aww.

Hanging Out!:

Like I said, it was so much fun just hanging out together. The girls got along really well. We loved playing outside, and occasionally being chilly - something that you can't do right now in AZ.

We even ate outside a few times. Why wouldn't you when you can eat with this view?!

The BAD:

Ok, no pics for these, but I did want to document the few things that didn't go too well, but added to our adventure.

Buddy:

Our crazy dog Buddy got left at home to fend for himself. (Don't freak out, we had someone feeding and watering him.) Before we left, we had everything packed up the night before so we could just get up and leave first thing in the morning. Kirk saw Buddy and felt bad leaving him, so he decided to take him on one last quick walk the morning before we left. As soon as he got out the door, Buddy took off, and pulled through his leash, and was off like a streak of lightening. Kirk ran after him, then came and got his car to go and find him, but to no avail. He came home after about 25 minutes of looking for him, and told Marissa he had run away. Marissa was sobbing instantly. So they took off again in the car to go and look for him. About 20 minutes, and many tears later, they found him in a neighborhood about a mile away. I think Buddy got all the walk he needed for the week. Kirk was a little aggravated to have to do all that, but more aggravated that we left 45 minutes after he had planned.

Food Poisoning:

Kirk and Marissa got a chocolate covered banana one day at the beach (that's the only thing that was the same that they had that day). Marissa got sick almost instantly, and Kirk waited until that night, after we had gone out on a date to a fancy restaurant to throw up expensive food. But, they were all better the next day, but probably won't eat another chocolate covered banana for a long time.

Crowds:

Like I said, we were in California with the rest of the world it seemed. Everywhere we went there were crowds. The beach was umbrella to umbrella. The pool had plenty of people, no matter when you went. And Disneyland was crazy. But, it really wasn't that bad. Nobody got lost, and it gave us plenty of people watching opportunities.

The UGLY:

Now, my kids are not ugly. We all know that. But why can't I get a decent picture of them, without them doing crazy faces? Especially when they're in a group picture, at least one of them has to be doing an ugly face, or doing peace signs, or cat claws or something. Brynn is especially fond of craziness. Funny girls!

Snails!:

Yuck!! The kids found, and collected, and wanted to bring home snails at the hotel. They would gather them up, put them in their little home, and then when they left and came back, the snails would all be gone.

I don't think the snails liked their game.

All in all, we had a great time!

We love you Newport Beach!