Surf's Up Dudes!

Ahhh, now this is what I have been waiting for! We kicked off the 4th of July Weekend with a trip to the Manhattan Beach. The waves were huge and the water was pretty chilly. I will be the first to admit that while I love the ocean, I am afraid of the big waves. Vinny wasn't crazy about them either, but by the end of the day, he dipped his feet into the Pacific.He'd much rather build "big castles" and "little castles" in the sand. And oh boy, did he ever love the sand!
Have I mentioned yet how great the weather is here? Um, yeah, I get it now. Sunny Southern California? Pretty sweet. Now we live about 45 minutes inland, so it's about 10 degrees hotter than the Los Angeles weather forecast you may be keeping tabs on...that reminds me...I have to change that temperature tracker on the side over there...back to sand castles...

Manhattan Beach is very close to LAX, so there were airplanes everywhere. Vinny loved it, especially the little airplanes and helicopters that flew along the shore. There he is pointing one out to us.
This next sequence of pictures captures Vinny venturing a little further away from us and back up through the sand. He had some trouble with his balance, but loved falling in the sand just as much as digging in it.
His latest: "Vrooooooom, room-rooooooom"
I am not sure there wasn't a wrinkle, roll, or crevice that he didn't get sand into.
And just about all that sand came home with us. We looked like such rookies. You'd think we'd never been to the beach before the way we were trying to get packed up and cleaned off before getting back into the car. We somehow missed the showers, so we had to use wipes to get some of the sand off of poor sticky Vinny. In fairness, this was our first day trip to the beach. Last year we stayed at a motel across the street from the beach so it was easier. But driving? That's another story. We'll have another opportunity to improve our technique this weekend when Tom and Weez bring the boys out to visit. We can't wait!