Day 4--Upland, Ca: Just another day at the beach

Last night, sometime after midnight, I was cursing this whole blogging thing and just about ready to give up on it. It is a bit complicated trying to figure out how to do the writing combined with pictures, and I had had it by that point. After working on it for a bit this morning, my blog was restored and I was able to send it off, but I'm still trying to figure out how to be faster with it because I won't always have so much time at night. But enough of the boring stuff. Now don't freak out from the second picture...that was my car, our Toyota Land Cruiser, about 3 years ago after Daren and a few fire fighter friends took it to Las Vegas for their annual guys weekend. They got in an accident on the way home (not their fault) and this is what it looked like. When it was getting repaired it allowed Daren to...fix up a few things, shall we say. He made it a little more original, and a little more off-road ready. Then just over a year ago he sent it away for a few months to really get it "pimped up," and we have had a blast with it. The third picture was taken this morning as Daren was loading it up for the beach, dump trucks and all! We love this car and it is the perfect "cruiser" for our family, thus "Crusin Around in June."

The first picture I just added and can't figure out how to move it down, so I'll just explain that it's the beach where we went today. Back in my younger days I used to go to Newport or Laguna Beach, but just a few years ago, thanks to my Uncle Grey and Aunt Lynda who are beach junkies, my parents found Crystal Cove, located just up the road from Laguna Beach, and we have been going there ever since. It's a state park now, but it has these old cottages which were built in the early 20th century and are now being restored. They add so much charm to the beach experience. I recommend this place if anyone is down here looking for a great beach to go to. It's not too overrun yet, but more people are discovering it all the time.

All Will cared about was if he was going to get his chips or not--even though we just ate at In-n-Out for lunch! I have a cute story about him. All the boys have been into watching "The Magic School Bus" lately, and each story is about a different kind of field trip the whole class goes on. So for at least a week or two before we left Will kept asking me if we were going to "Take Mommy's car on a field trip to California." It's so cute how their little minds think.

Just a pretty cool picture of Daren

Daren, Ben, and Jake spent the first hour or so wandering the beach shoreline and found tons of these little crabs

There is a story to this picture. This boat has become known in our family as the Titanic Boat at Grandma's house--when Will gets a hold of it at Gma's the first thing he asks is if he can get in the tub with it...That's usually followed by Jake and sometimes Ben getting in, all in this little tub. The boys think it's the coolest thing. Not bad for a purchase from the thrift store.

The boys discovered boogie boarding a little late in the day, but that didn't stop them from going out time after time after time, even though the water was a bit nippy.

Even Will made a go of it! Daren said that the whole time Will was out there, he was singing the "Captain Jones" song--aka: the Indiana Jones song. I'm still not sure how he came up with Captain, but it is darn cute when he sings it. He's even confiscated the Indiana Jones whip that Ben got for his birthday, and now claims it for his own (it plays the song when you press a button on the handle of the whip). We totally brainwashed our boys into the Indiana Jones movies (we watched the trilogy for our Sunday Night Movie in the weeks leading up to the new movie release), and on Memorial Day we took them to see the new movie. When it was finished, Will came over and said to me, "Mom, that was a great movie!!" I do have to say, though, that Jake is pretty scared of ants now, if anyone has seen the new movie!

We were one of the last ones there at the beach today, and if it hadn't gotten so cold, Ben and Jake might still be out on their boogie boards! Tomorrow we start the first leg of Route 66, just so we don't have to deal with L.A. traffic on Monday, and then come back to stay with my parents until Monday. Bye!

Total mileage to date: 930.1
Ok, if anyone knows me, I'm always checking on the weather (my running friends always ask me what the weather is going to be like that day/week), and now I've got Ben into it as well--he claims he wants to be a weatherman someday (he's taking a meterology camp class at school this summer for a week). He and I just decided it would be fun to add in what our weather is like each day--boring for most of you, but kind of fun for us to remember! So...weather today was sunny, 74 degrees at the beach.