Beach Week

The day after Christmas, I called my mom and told her she had to buy a plane ticket to California immediately. I hadn't seen her since September when I went home for the birth of my niece and that is entirely too long to go without seeing one's mother.

She promised to book a trip, but I was relentless until her ticket was purchased. After a lot of back and forth on who was coming and when, it was determined that we would rent a beach house and stay together in Manhattan Beach for a week during my youngest brother's Spring Break. 

Last Saturday, after 6 long months, I got to see my mama again. 

We spent the week walking to get bagels and coffee in the mornings, walking to get ice cream after lunch, and walking to dinner. There was a definite theme to our week and it had a lot to do with walking.

Manhattan Beach is about 15 miles from our house. It is our favorite beach town and we hang out there as much as possible. It is a great walking town with restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques all clustered together. We were on the north end of the beach and walked a good mile each way to dinner, sometimes walking twice a day. We walked a lot, but it was fun. 

We wandered into a farmer's market one day, discovered hidden culinary treasures at tiny cafes, and had many other adventures just walking around. 

We went to Disneyland and had a blast.

The rest of the week was spent playing and hanging out. Some days we had a plan, some days we flew by the seat of our pants. My girls were in heaven having grandparents around to spoil them.

They are gone now. I was sad all day yesterday and a little bit today. It will be awhile before we see them again and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that.

We miss you, mom, Ron, and Cole. Hurry back.