That's why we were all so excited when Steve had a long weekend off. We planned on taking a little road trip to camp for a few nights. As the weekend drew near, we were discouraged to see that the forecast called for rain all weekend. Since we have a bigger trip planned in two weeks over Spring Break, we decided to scratch our plans for camping and just have a day-cation instead.
I am fully aware that in many of the blog posts up to this point, I have detailed the naughty food we've been indulging in (this post will be no different, I'm afraid). The term "comfort food" is one in which we all have a newfound appreciation. That being said, we have really tried to counteract our poor food choices with regular exercise, and I have sternly instructed my husband to try to keep his "secret" stash of chocolate bars more secret (I know they're here somewhere...I can smell them......).
Anyway, we started out our fun day with great workouts. Steve went on a 12-mile trail run (over-achiever!), and the girls and I did some workout DVDs. Julia jokingly complains that they are "old lady" routines, which makes me laugh...they are actually very recent DVDs in The Firm series, and they are awesome and difficult. If she thinks these are old-lady-ish, I am going to need to get my hands on some Jane Fonda or Richard Simmons workouts!
After exercising and getting ready, we drove to our local beach. It's only about 30 minutes from our home. I love having the beach so close! It was a chilly and windy day, but that never stops my children from getting in the water. I'll be glad when it's warm enough that the kids can actually wear their swimsuits at the beach. The water was shallow for quite a distance, and the kids had fun running in and out of the surf.
This next sequence of photos makes me laugh... all four of the older kids raced out together, but then you can almost hear Emily say, "Umm, never mind!" as the water gets deeper!
Luke enjoyed playing in the water...
...but Landon had fallen asleep on the drive. He was grumpy and wanted to be held, which I didn't mind one bit...I don't have much longer where my kids will actually allow me to hold and snuggle them!
Judging from Landon's facial expressions, I'm pretty sure I'm enjoying the snuggling more than he is. :)
We found a log to sit on, and had fun examining the shells we had discovered.
When the kids had had their fill of the beach, we loaded up and headed back to town. We had decided that as part of our day-cation, we would get some American fast food. Since we haven't had fast food in almost 3 months, there was a considerable amount of discussion and debate about where to go. As we've talked to Palmy residents, the one place that has come up more often in conversations has been Carls Jr. Have we ever been to Carls Jr. in the States? Not that I can recall, but we decided to give it a go. The building is actually quite fancy for a fast-food joint.
On the other side of the building is this wall-sized mural highlighting San Francisco...one of our favorite cities in the world!
Since we were sandy and wet from the beach, we decided to get our food to go. Thought you might be interested to see the display of our final order:
My $3.50 "big burger" came with ketchup, mustard, onions and gherkins (pickles). It was basically a bit larger version of a junior burger you'd get at home for 89 cents.
Here's Steve proudly displaying our very first fountain drink in months! Oh, how we miss fountain soda.
We took our food and drove a few miles to a cute little town called Ashhurst, getting a great view of the wind farm on our way.
When we reached the park, the skies opened and began pouring rain. We had to eat our food in the van instead. Maybe it was all that fat and sugar, but everyone got a little silly while we were waiting for the rain to stop.
Luke held on to that hamburger (his "craddy paddy") for as long as he could, without really taking any more bites.
Once the skies cleared, the girls had fun posing in front of this mural at the park...
Julia was the first to notice this brilliant rainbow, and the kids raced to find their pot o' gold.
It would appear that the treasure is actually...Julia herself! No surprise there...we think she's pretty special. A few more random shots at the park:
I love that last picture. How we adore these cute kids of ours!
We came home, changed into warm, dry clothes, bathed the littles and put them to bed, then watched an episode of "Sherlock" together (one that Steve and I had already watched and deemed appropriate for the kids). Have you seen that show? We absolutely love it. We had heard great things about it, and the day we searched for it on iTunes it was only $4.99 for the 2-season box set!! Bargain!
Great day for the Caldwell family. Never underestimate the power of a good day-cation.
First - none of your blogs are "BLAH". Second - I loved how this one really showed the whole "essence" of your beautiful family - healthy & happy! It seems like you have really chosen a great spot to live in for this year - so much to do close at hand. And those prices? Best incentive to only have fast food for really special occasions which is actually quite sad LOL.
ReplyDeleteI love this whole post. I felt like I was along for the ride. So I know we tell you all the time that Rachel looks just like you, but in the first picture of you cuddling Landon on the beach I had to double-take! Seriously.
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