Dana Point

Boating and Killer Whales in Dana Point

September 15, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

The girls went on their first whale watching boat with Jake and not surprisingly, it was a tale of two boat trips.

“I wanna go again!” -Amelia

“Yeah. That was rough.” -Jake

It was a two-hour trip and the girls didn’t run out of ways to keep themselves occupied. With just one adult though, Jake reported that it was a challenge keeping everyone from either tossing each other overboard or annoying the captain so much that they were thrown overboard.

Getting their sea legs.

They didn’t see large blue or humpback whales on this trip, but they did see dolphins and the most amazing killer whales/orcas! Apparently, seeing wild orcas off our part of the California coast is extremely rare, so the boat captain was ecstatic. The next day, the group of killer whales was spotted in the same place hunting and eating baby dolphins… I’m glad the girls weren’t there to see the carnage!

Maybe next time Jake will go on a daddy daughter date with just one of the kids. So much more manageable!

Man overboard!

Those poor other passengers.

After whale watching, the girls climbed rocks near the harbor and ran around the park.

The perfect grassy hill for rolling.

Meredith the tree sloth.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: boating, Dana Point, killer whales, orcas, whale watching

Mermaid Breakfast and Tall Ships Festival

September 19, 2017 by Rebecca Whitehead

The twins and I had a fun mommy daughter date at the Tall Ships Festival and Mermaid Breakfast in Dana Point on a beautiful Saturday morning! The twins loved walking around on the ships and hearing the boom of the cannons, as well as touching sharks and other sea creatures at the Ocean Institute.

Maybe next year we’ll get tickets for the pirate show where they take you out the ships, give you a job swabbing the deck and what not, and reenact a sea battle.

The tall ships were cool, but the twins’ favorite part of the morning by far was attending a special Mermaid Breakfast where they made crowns, gobbled up a pancake breakfast, listened to a mermaid read stories, and visited a swimming mermaid in the tank! There was another set of twins at our table and it was hilarious listening to both sets of twins vehemently argue whether or not the mermaids were real (Samantha would not budge on her theory that the mermaids were just humans dressed up as mermaids).

Starstruck when meeting the “human mermaid.”

Meeting more mermaids! I felt so bad for “Mermaid Rachel” swimming in the tank… she looked like she really regretted signing up for this gig! She would surface for a few minutes to catch her breath and would then dive back under, blowing bubbles and flipping her tail around for as long as she could hold her breath, before jetting back up, gasping for air with water streaming down her face and ruining her makeup.

The kids all thought it was awesome, of course, but it looked like a hard job! It didn’t help that the passive aggressive red-headed mermaid was constantly ordering her around, telling her to go back under and show the kids a flip or to resurface and answer questions about life under the sea (she couldn’t hear under the water, obviously, and the passive aggressive mermaid seemed agitated that she kept having to repeat instructions!) I almost gave her Jake’s employment law attorney card.

Samantha and the passive aggressive Head Mermaid.

Poor Mermaid Rachel had to dive under the water and pose for a picture 25 times for every kid! Props to her– that was a serious lung workout!

After watching the overworked mermaids, Samantha and Amelia are rethinking their life goal of becoming mermaids when they grow up.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Dana Point, meeting mermaids, mermaid breakfast, tall ships festival

Beaching and Jeeping

March 30, 2017 by Rebecca Whitehead

While Grammy and Grandpa were in town for the twins’ birthdays and Disneyland, we had two Open Houses at our house and needed to be out for several hours. It was so much easier cleaning and getting everyone out with the extra help, especially after being used to doing it all myself whenever we had showings during the week. Sometimes, I’ve had to have the place passably clean and the kids out with only an hour’s notice, and have been so stressed out!

One weekend during our Open House, we spent the afternoon at Dana Point and the Ocean Institute, where the girls touched starfish and other sea creatures, toured a pirate ship and learned all about whales, while Meredith ran around the park and ate. And ate. And ate.

On her third course for lunch.

Ready to start paddleboarding.

The weekend after Disneyland during another Open House, we had a picnic and beach afternoon at Marina Park in Newport Beach. I’ve been wanting to check out this park/beach for a while now, but Newport is about 30 minutes away for us, as opposed to Dana Point, Laguna and some of the other beaches that are much closer for us. It was definitely worth the extra drive, with a wide, spacious green space, awesome nautical themed playground, and a beach right on the playground that was so perfect for little kids. The beach had no waves and calm water, just like Baby Beach in Dana Point, only this one was much cleaner! We will be back!

Meredith’s first time walking into the ocean herself!

She immediately plopped down and got soaked. I could barely stand getting my feet wet– so cold!

Like a moth to the flame, Meredith was drawn to a bouncy house someone had set up.

Coppertone baby beach bum!

The twins are playground connoisseurs and gave this one two big thumbs up.

Before Grammy and Grandpa left back to Utah, the twins spent the morning racing cars on the amazing Magic Trax race car set from Grammy and Grandpa and showing off their driving skills.

Safari with Meredith.

Waving to her adoring public.

It was a rough week adjusting back to our routine after a week and a half of non-stop birthday celebrations, beach adventures, Disneyland and having Grammy and Grandpa around to help out and join in the fun. The week after, everyone was sick, cranky, sleep-deprived, off-schedule, and complaining about preschool being “boring.” With all the excitement, I fear we’ve created thrill junkies and are going to have to get them used to normal life again!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: beach, beach playground, Dana Point, Grammy and Grandpa, jeep, marina park, Meredith at the beach, meredith's first time walking into ocean, newport beach, sand

A Week with Grammy Poppins

June 1, 2016 by Rebecca Whitehead

Last week, all of us got a special treat in the form of Mary Poppins (a.k.a. Grammy) coming from Utah to stay for a week. Can you say peace and quiet time? Leaving to run an errand (or just sit in the car in silence for five minutes) in the middle of the day? Last minute weeknight dates? Not drowning in laundry? All this and more. Vacation time!

Meredith enjoyed being held 24/7 and is now having withdrawals ever since Grammy left.

Hanging out with Grammy and wishing she could eat that parfait at Great Auntie Lynn’s.

While Grammy was here, Jake was in Virginia for a few days for his little brother’s law school graduation from the University of Virginia. Four out of six of the brothers are now lawyers… eek!

I definitely want to tag along next time; we hope to do an American history tour with the girls soon.

Jake with a few of his siblings visiting Monticello during their stay… I was jealous!

Meanwhile, back at home, Grammy and I were holding down the fort. The twins enjoyed scootering at the park and a morning at the zoo, while I hung out with Meredith, who was wondering where her entertainment for the day had gone.

Grammy took the twins to the Ocean Institute in Dana Point one morning where they touched starfish (NOT the one whose leg was about to fall off, Sammy informed me), read stories and did some crafts by the sea.

It was a nice girls weekend while Jake was gone, but my mom and I were grateful to have the extra help, especially at bedtime, when he got back. The dinner-bedtime stretch is just one of those crazy/horrible times where everything seems to converge all at once, and we were tired! Good thing we could look forward to our nightly ice cream and vegging out to watch the entire Dr. Thorne miniseries (by Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame). Ultimately, my mom and I determined it was lacking the kind of moral dilemmas and sophisticated plots of some of the other BBC productions, but it was still entertaining after being braindead from a day talking about “corn poop,” among other enlightening subjects, with the three amigas.

As soon as Jake arrived home, my mom and I escaped for a facial and massage while he took over. Surprisingly, the twins didn’t mention him at all while he was gone, but as soon as he got home, it was, “Daaaaaaadddddyyyyyy!” in ultra-whiny voices all day long.

During the week, we met up with Great Grandpa, Great Auntie Lynn, and Great Uncle Steve for a quick dinner and ferris wheel ride.

Great Uncle Steve is always a kid at heart!

Up, up and away.

More Grammy cuddles for Meredith.

Jake and I snuck away a few times for our favorite coconut ice cream and acai bowls at Bowl of Heaven, a walk around the lake, and dinner with friends on Friday night.

I switched off with my mom for a few days, taking the twins to a birthday party, a play date with their friend, Grace, at the park, and to their swim, gymnastics and music classes. It was refreshing just being with the firstborns for a change… I can’t even remember what it was like to just have the twins! Samantha and Amelia enjoyed their two-on-one time sans Meredith too.

Meredith on a nice walk with Grammy and Bandit while we were out playing.

Meredith’s favorite time of the day. She reminds me of one of those little frog or crocodile toys you wind up and watch their legs spin around in the water. She loves to kick and scoot around!

Meredith had her 4 month doctor’s appointment (I’ll save her stats for another post, but let’s just say she’s basically an eight month old!) and the twins had to come too to get some of their three year old shots. I was dreading having all three girls get shots at the same time, but the twins didn’t cry at all (they just looked scared for a minute), and Meredith let out a few piercing shrieks before calming down and conking out.

Loving the attention!

After staying up late watching Frozen the night before while Jake and I went out, the twins were in full-on tantrum mode Saturday morning, with Samantha rolling on the floor kicking and screaming at one point. As soon as she woke up more rested from a nap and realized Grammy had left back to Utah, the first thing out of Samantha’s mouth was, “Is Grammy missing me?”

It’s a good thing Grammy is a saint, because she probably was, even after all the craziness of that morning and the week!

Next time we see Grammy, it will be on our first road trip to Utah with Meredith. The girls are already counting down the days.