Sandcastles and Seashells

We took an impromptu beach vacation with our friends down to Pismo Beach this week. Their travel plans fell through in the middle of their planned family vacation and in lieu of melting away with us in 100+ degree heat, I suggested we all head west towards the coast. So I quickly packed up for the three kids and myself and left for two days without Chris for a brief visit to the beach. Crazy, huh? But, with my very best friend, her two girls and her husband/Daddy for hire we managed.

The mornings were cold and damp, but were also the best time to check out tidepools. Shell Beach is under the cover of water at high tide, however at low tide we found seashells, crab claws, and lots of algae. In the afternoon, we went to the main drag of Pismo which has miles and miles of the softest, powdery sand. The girls spent hours running back and forth from the water to their sandcastles, building and digging and dumping.

It seems I have just enough brain cells to take care of my children and none left for myself. They had everything they needed for a day at the beach however I left my bathing suit in the hotel, I didn't have shorts (only jeans) and even though the kids were covered and wearing suscreen, I forgot to put it on myself and got totally sunburnt on my face, arms and chest (not my legs because I was wearing jeans at the beach, der).

Sand got everywhere, I am still dumping it out of shoes and suitcases. And poor John Patrick, even though he was kept covered in his carseat when we were at the sandy beach, he still had sand in all his little creases and crevices. He was very good-natured about it though and just amazing the whole trip. The girls were mostly good too, but something happens when the number of children are doubled, the intensity, crazy energy and not listening seems to multiply as well.

The downside of the trip was that my friends were traveling with their sweet little puppy and not many quality hotels will accept a pet. So we were stuck with the kind of hotel you don't want to walk around in barefoot. Our room smelled like stale beer and cigarettes and the other hotel guests thought it was a great idea to have a cannonball contest in the pool at 1 o'clock in the morning. I got zero sleep and Zoe, Sophie, Ian and I all went home sick.

All in all, even though it was quite difficult herding four little girls and a baby around, we all got sick and the hotel was a disaster, our daytime excursions were super fun and we made great memories with good friends.

Checking out some cool algae.Collecting seashells.

This is how we rolled.

Half of the Pismo Beach crew.