Beach Day!

A morning walk to Crystal Pier, which was less than 1/2 mile from our hotel.

We played a game where when we saw a surfer get up on a wave we yelled "Surf's Up!" and I think that's what Josh is doing here.

 

We dedicated this day to playing on the beach.  Luke arranged our towels for us.

 

We got to work building a family sand castle --everyone had their part in this creation.

Josh is saying thumbs up for beach days!

Team work...

Josh was racing the waves finding seashells (or rinsing off his "tools")...

For dinner we went to a roof top brewery. 

And after dinner we asked the kids to be silly in the sunset light...we really love their silly pictures so much  more than the posed pictures. It's so much more accurate to their personalities.

What silly picture sequence is complete without a crotch shot?

Fun with lighting...

And then we went back to the hotel pool for the third swim of the day.  Lucky boys!

Zoo Time

Somehow over the course of this trip Luke invented a gorilla dance...which is so silly.  This is a gorilla dance in front of a gorilla statue.

Hi Hippo Breath

Josh loves him a snake skeleton. 

The Lion was asleep when we walked by. But it was still cool to see.

Monkeys in and out of the exhibit.

We got to see Pandas!

The boys loved the Polar Bear exhibit -- lots of fun things to do there like pretend drive a helicopter!

Pretty cool, no?

I love watching Polar Bears swim.

This was at the Polar Bear exhibit too...hiding in caves and popping through seal holes.

We bought a photo pass from the zoo and we got all these pictures from them.  Here's the first of several.

We rode the Skyfari tram across the zoo.  Josh was not a huge fan of the open air cab or the heights.

Luke and Daddy takin' in the view.

Back Home

The weary travelers return.

Luke's SIX stuffed animals and other assorted souvenirs.

Josh's souvenirs...he was more selective with his.

This sign was a favorite keepsake.

Around the house

I love this picture of Josh. Its' a Real Smile.  So hard to get on camera.
This is what they do after their showers...get into their robes and roll around on the floor. Ruby joins in most often.
 

Sunday we were ready to do something busy...the cold weather had us cooped up for too long.  They decided to build a marble maze and got out all of the cardboard/paper recycling and spread it on our living room table.  Sigh.

Josh got this hat for free (lucky!) from Bob Ward. He looks like such a punk! 
This is his face when he was telling me to put the camera away.

Ruby and Champ are thick as thieves. Ruby chases her to the strangest places.  The mantle is one favorite spot.

The furniture is another....

But how can you get upset with this sweet face?

We got so much drifting snow!  The snow in our front yard was deeper than the snowblower was!

Toofless

This is the picture that the daycare lady sent me. 
Luke lost his first tooth at daycare when a boy knocked him in the face with a soft Frisbee.  The tooth was loose, but I was not ready for him to actually lose the tooth.  it means he's growing up!

He was SO proud of himself. He asked me to take a picture of him right away.



Luke's Home Alone impression.



Isn't he scary!

Just a random close up of his gap.