Wednesday it was our day to spend together as Armstrongs and Torrances. We tried to organize a trip to main beach, but it just wasn’t happening. Ryan desperately needed a nap, so they took a car drive to try and get him to sleep. No luck. But when they returned we had finally gotten the pack n play for him and Dawn coaxed him to sleep. Then Miles fell asleep before I could get him in the snugli. In the end, it was only Colin & Dylan taking the free shuttle to main beach. Geoff went to pick up more charcoal for the bbq, and to get side dishes for dinner. Elijah, Dawn & I hung out on the deck. Once we started dinner cooking, the boys got home from the beach. Got a long distance call on my phone (Hi Mom!) and just bragged about the weather and sights.

After dinner, Dawn & I walked down to main beach with the babies. I wanted to take Dawn to Wild Oats to see if we could find food for Ryan (he’s lactose intolerant and also can’t have egg whites). We did find some good stuff for him to try, and it encouraged Dawn to get to her own health food (Hippie) store. When we got back, there was a poker game going, and we jumped in, sending Dylan & Elijah off to bed. I think we played until after 10pm (party animals I know).

Thursday the Torrances ventured off to Disneyland for the day. We had made lunch plans with Rod & Diana, so I had to convince Elijah to have an early nap. Rod & Diana found the cottage easily enough and we all walked down to the restaurant I picked out, GG’s Cafe. It describes itself as Turkish/Mediterranean food. It was a lovely lunch (I had a pannini, Geoff had a hot pita sandwich, Elijah had pita bread) and so nice to catch up with Rod & Diana. After lunch they took Geoff to UCI to meet with his old boss, and I took care of feeding Miles before I too went to Irvine. I went to WCC to see Julie (most of the old staff has left or is leaving), and also saw Marilyn and Erik. Elijah found some girl on the playground to play with. Once we were done, Elijah and I went to In-N-Out for milkshakes. Geoff wasn’t done yet so I headed to Mason park (our old park we used to go to) to feed Miles. Elijah wanted to check out the lake, but we couldn’t stay. We picked up Geoff and ultimately decided to go to the In-N-Out on campus for dinner. Geoff called up Ryan to meet us afterwards for dessert. We had brought the laptop and the coffee shop had access (yay!). Once Ryan arrived he treated us to gelati (a little messier than I envisioned Elijah would get). A short visit, and then back to the cottage. We didn’t wait up for the Torrances to get home, we knew it would be late.

Friday. Our last day. We were all feeling sad. We tried to get some laundry done, and get organized. Colin & Dawn watched Elijah for us while Miles slept and Geoff & I ducked out for some alone time. We walked down to PCH and stopped in at Andree’s. We got a treat (a muffin & a chocolate croissant) and did some shopping. I got a souvenir, a gift for Amy for watching Honey Cat, and I bought Dawn’s birthday present (her birthday is in November). We talked about when we’d be able to come back again. Geoff wants to rent the house again. When we got back we made plans to hit the beach in the afternoon for tide pools. I waited all week for tide to be low, and it was scheduled for 2:20pm. We headed down to our beach, and then towards the keyhole. Walking along the tide, having it wash over my feet, I’m going to hold onto that feeling the next time the boys are driving me batty.

We broke into pairs, Geoff & Elijah, Colin & Dylan, Dawn & Ryan, Miles with me. At this point disaster struck. I was walking through the keyhole and had the sand swept from underneath me. I lost my balance, and with Miles strapped to my chest in the snugli, we fell into the ocean. I broke the fall with my hand on a rock, I cut my elbow and my feet. Miles slammed his back (padded by the snugli) into the rock I cut my hand on. He got sand all down his back, and the ordeal, while frightening to me, didn’t even faze him. He barely blinked. This scared Dawn off coming in to tidepool, she & Ryan were right behind me. It took the fun out it for me too, and I didn’t stay long. But it was teeming with life. A lot of crabs could be seen scrambling over the rocks. Once tidepooling was done, we set off to take our group pictures and to play in the water. This was the first day I actually got to get in the water. It was awesome. Too short was our time, we had dinner plans. We had to pack it up, get kids washed and go to Jake & Cindy’s for Crab Fest.

Again, traffic was awful, we got there shortly after Colin & Dawn, and they left long before us. But there was lots of food and Kroliks to see. Everyone got to meet my family, Ryan got adopted by Abbie, Dylan hung out with some older kids, Elijah found his own friends to play with and Miles always had someone wanting to hold him. The 4 kids barely saw each other (refreshing for them I’m sure). Us parents loved it. Dawn said, we should have done this all week! Elijah and Dawn both had their first taste of crab, Colin & Dawn got to taste Jake’s famous (and delicious) Lutzy Putz (I think that’s what he calls it, Kroliks out there, help me out). It’s a polish pork recipe he won’t share.

We couldn’t stay too long, we all had a busy day ahead. Many many sad eyes as we had to say goodbye.

Now all that’s left is Saturday and Sunday.