Newport Marina and Knott’s Berry Farm

While we were in San Francisco, Grammy and Grandpa kept the girls busy at the zoo, We Play Loud and at all the parks around town. When we returned, Jake took a few extra days off work to work on putting in the new floors upstairs, so we took the kids on a few long excursions to get them out of the house.

Not missing Mommy and Daddy at all…

Our favorite beach park: Marina Park in Newport Beach.

Cheese! Grandpa remarked that the fact that the girls love eating seaweed so much goes again the natural rules of kid food!

Stylish beach baby.

Concentration.

The girls had never been to Knott’s Berry Farm, so to give Jake another full day to work on the floor, we took off on our adventure for the day. We mostly stayed in the Snoopy/Peanuts characters area, which was perfect for small kids, and ventured off to some of the bigger rides later in the day. It definitely was not Disneyland, but the girls had fun, especially mining for gold in the old western town and scarfing down the famous Knott’s chicken and boysenberry pie at the end of our long day.

Being pregnant, I couldn’t go on most of the rides, which was very convenient! Grammy and Grandpa win “Best Grandparents Award” for accompanying the girls on all the rides!

Grammy is a trooper!

Poor Grandpa!

Just watching the spinning Mexican Hat Dance ride made me nauseous!

Jake completed a good amount of flooring during our all-day excursion, and now that we’ve experience Knott’s, we don’t have to go back! Mission accomplished.

Lots of love,

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Beaching and Jeeping

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,

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