That Just Might Have Been the Best Weekend of my Life!

Friday I got done working early afternoon, so we decided to make an impromptu beach visit. We headed to a local place just to sit in the sand and take in the sights, sounds, and smell of the ocean. The kids packed just a shovel and bucket. It was a really laid back afternoon. I even left the camera and phone at home, just trying to unplug. The day was a little grey, but it was still the perfect temperature and scenery.

And then we saw dolphins. Not too far from shore, tons of them, and we ALL 4 were squealing with delight. And then I mentally kicked myself for leaving the camera behind. It was so beautiful!

We had such a great time that Saturday we decided to beach it again. We bought a California state park annual pass so we decided to cross a new state beach off the list and so we headed to Carpenteria.

Even the drive was gorgeous!

This time we packed up the baseball/gloves and volleyball and made a full afternoon of it. We started with a beach walk, where we quickly learned that the water was actually warm enough to get in. We all took off our shoes and walked the north side of the beach in the water the whole way. It was awesome!

We came across a tide pool (more of a tide river?) and stopped to play in it awhile. Austyn was doing cannon balls...

After our walk we played some volleyball and catch in the sand. It was way more fun than playing the same things in the grass :)

Since we learned that the water was finally warming up, Sunday we put on our swimsuits and headed up to Carpinteria (aka my new favorite beach) again. This time we started with a beach walk down the south part of the beach that we hadn't seen yet. This time we saw more tide pools, complete with tons of ocean life. Taylor was terrified by the hermit crabs, but other than that we were all mesmerized.

I found the best looking sand dollar I've ever found "in the wild".

We saw mussels, starfish, shrimp, hermit crabs, sea anemone, and ladybugs. Yep, ladybugs. They can swim!

After that we set up camp on the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the sand and finally getting in the ocean!

And other than my raging sunburn, we had a really awesome weekend!