visit with the family

it was a picture perfect day at the beach this weekend. the kind of days you imagine when you think about the beach. those of you that live in the valley were probably dying of heat exhaustion! ha! but when its over 100 in the valley, its 80-ish at the beach! gorgeous!
I had a plan with my sister that lives in Corona (inland empire... yikes! talk about hot!) to come out to visit "Aunt Laura" at the beach... 3 kids, brother in law, the whole deal. They were going to come around 1pm and stay until about 7?
Of course when you have a timeline and kids and naps and chores and homework, etc... things get pushed back some. They finally left their house around 1:30 and got to my place about 2:30. We were all ready and geared up for the beach.
Before they got there I went out and got some snacks and juice, whatever they drink. I don't normally keep stuff like that at home. I also would like to report I woke up with a bit of a hangover! UGH! getting moving was a chore in itself... but the kids kept me motivated.
When I found out they were running late I had a chance for a little disco nap. Well, while laying down I started to think that they would be here for dinner! I am really not equipped to feed that many people... seats, plates, cooking equipment, etc... Yes, it was only 5 people coming over, but I live alone and only have 4 of everything. I thought to cook some of those burgers and steaks but I haven't got a grill... how do you cook that many of anything?... so, I decided TACOS! everybody loves tacos! back up to the store for the basics of that meal and some jello for desert. kids always want desert. adults always want a drink! or a beer or wine, whatever... handled!
Once they got there we all packed up what seemed like everything you could ever imagine needing for the beach and started to walk down there. I live about 5 blocks away. Taking into account that the whole wide world came to the beach yesterday parking by my house and walking out is the best idea. The beach strait down from my house has no parking lot so there is generally only locals and its less crowded.
We finally got there and set up "camp"... the kids know the program already. Its like a dance the way they set shit up. Clearly their mom has them trained on what goes where and what can get sand on it and what cannot.
Now we get to play! Running in the water, jumping waves, collecting sand crabs and whatever else we can find. Matthew, my nephew, made a little aquarium in a bucket with all of the creatures he found in the water. My donation was a clam... still alive in its shell. He put that in with all the other stuff. It was fun to watch the kids entertain themselves watching the crabs and clam burrow into the sand over and over. They all watched out for Jeremy (he's only 2). Matthew put him in front of that bucket and gave him a little shovel. He taught Jeremy how to dig up the crabs and the clam so they were on the top of the sand and then he could watch all that stuff bury itself again. A couple of jellyfish washed up onto the shore too... weird! have you ever seen a jellyfish? they were about the size of a frisbee and clear purple color. But the tentacles were gone from the bottom so we guessed they were dead. What's in the water over there?... I actually thought to check the water quality report but decided not to cuz we were going to the beach anyway. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss!
We played frisbee, ran around and had a great time. Tammy and Joelle came to meet us up there too. They met my family and played in the water and hung out with us for a while. It was great that they could join us!
About 6pm we packed up and went home. All the kids take showers or baths... sand everywhere in my house! I started making dinner. Tacos were fun and good. Then Jeremy was tired and they had to get out of there.
It was a nice visit with the family. The kids always want to spend the night or me to do the same. Its cute they want to spend so much time with me; Matthew asked if he and Valerie could come to stay with me one weekend a month without their parents! and, Matthew can hardly wait to try the Flying Trapeze with me too! =P
An Aunt Laura weekend... fun for the whole family!