2 Beach days at Mission Beach

 It was hard to leave all the Hansen family!!  We had such a good bonding time with them.  The kids truly enjoy all their cousins.  But at least our vacation wasn't over yet!  We headed south, hoping for warmer weather.  The first day and a half were cloudy, (pictures later in post, they loaded backwards again!!) but then the sun came out!  Here's Katelyn walking on our path to the beach, and Emma taking an afternoon nap while we watched the Olympics!

The kids used their souvenir money to buy matching flip-inside-out soft fuzzy octopuses. They played cutely together with them.

We had a picnic lunch on our rooftop deck one day!

Here was the sunny beach day.  Owen and Emma had fun digging!

SO much boogie boarding!  Here's kate and whit on a wave together.  And Emma loved running back and forth on the beach.

Owen riding a wave, and Katelyn on one.

Eric and Emma doing Emma's favorite thing, jumping over the waves.

Katelyn, Owen and Maris caught one together!

Eric and the 3 older kids, and then Kate and Owen again:

Whitney looking pensive, and Maris and Owen playing.

Little buddies loving the waves.

Eric needed 2 pairs of sunglasses at one point I guess!!

Emma didn't want to try boogie boarding yet, so we spent a lot of time playing together.  One time we found enough tiny shells to spell her name!

Owen and Maris heading out, and Eric and Whitney coming in. This was on our first full day, when it was super cloudy.

Sandcastle building!! Maris made a cake and Katelyn made a whole walled city haha.

Owen had some cool tunnels! 

Whitney played soccer instead!  She looked pretty cool actually.

Emma's creation.  I LOVED her perfect beach hair so much!!! Just curly crazy all the time. And here's Kate again.

Maris learned how to boogie board on this trip!  This was one of her first times out, when Eric would carry her board and help her jump on. 

Kate helping Emma do her favorite thing: and Whitney going out with Maris and Eric.

Owen on his way in, and 3 of them together:

More of Emma and Kate playing, and Maris riding one of her first waves!!

Yay Maris!  She progressed so quickly and spent hours riding waves.  So much fun!

Me and Whit went running on the beach!  We had been doing running club so she was used to running 2-3 miles a couple of times a week.

Cute sisters just chatting looking at the ocean the first night we arrived.

First evening on the beach in San Diego.  It was exciting to have a little warmer water and air, even though it was still cloudy. They can't just look at the waves, they must get in them!!

a little catch going on

Ice cream in Oceanside on the way down to San DIego:

 Family pic on the beach!!

Cute photo op at Belmont on our shopping day:

Picture of the kids on the balcony of our condo!  It was a little on the ghetto side but it fit us all and turned out fine!  And cute Maris with her newfound love, the boogie board. 

We love the beach!!!