Newport Beach California Temple

Sunday Feb. 20, 2011- Since we didn't really want to do Disneyland on Sunday, and it was still the sabbath, even on vacation, we decided to go see the temple in Newport Beach and the go to the beach and have a picnic and let the kids play at the beach. The Hutchinson's were pretty excited about this as they hadn't been to a beach since they left Australia and were having withdrawals. The temple was beautiful and the trip gave us a great opportunity to talk about the temple with the kids. On the way back to the car, Gus turned into my little poser and kept saying, "Mom, take my picture here!" So, I have a few in here of him around the temple grounds. I wasn't playing favorites, he just wanted to have his picture taken! Then we drove down to Huntington Beach. Seeing the water as the horizon was pretty cool since we are used to being surrounded by mountains. Being able to see water as far as the eye can see was absolutly beautiful. I kept saying to the kids, "Hey guys! Look at the water! It's the ocean. You can't see the end of it." They weren't as immpressed as I was. I have always loves the beauties of the ocean! The beach was a bit windy but that didn't stop anyone from going into the water. Gus went to the waters edge and immediately got knocked off his feet by the tide. He came back to the towels crying and soaked. I wrapped him in three towels and had him lay down in the sun to dry off. When I went back to check on him he was asleep. There's a picture of him below. He's the lump under the blue towel! Madi, Cooper, Max, and Carly slowly made their way in as they dig in the sand and used buckets to gather water. It didn't take them long either before they were soaking wet too. Rylee was content staying by Stacy most of the time, building castles. Leo didn't want anything to do with the sand at first. Every time you would put his toes in the sand he would cry! Then Joey got a bucket and started making little piles all around him and he reached out to knock over the first one and realized it was fun! He would knock one over and laugh while Joey put up another one next to it. It became a race to see who could build or knock over the fastest! We stayed until everyone was shivering and wet and ready to go! This was a good idea for a family outing on a Sunday in California!