Easton and Layla are best friends no matter who bites or bosses or bothers. We had an absolute blast in SLO! Here's one of the best shots of the week showing the sibling love between our blessed twins.
We do have pictures of their faces, but do you know how hard it is to get a toddler to look away from the ocean and directly at the camera? Then take into consideration there are TWO of them and the odds become very small.
Do you see the stuff packed into this bellman’s cart?
.JPG)
This is what it takes for the 4 Webbs to set up shop in a room for 3 measly days of vacationing. That’s a crazy amount of gear, but it sure made for a comfortable, pleasant stay. The weather was perfect with foggy calm mornings and sunny, cool afternoons. I almost forgot what it felt like to be chilly because of the AZ summer temps. I wish we could have stayed there a full week or more. We spent most of the time dining at local specialty places and discussing what to eat at the next meal after the one which we were currently eating.
I can't tell you how wonderful it felt to be chilly with overcast skies. We gave Easton his blankie, Oma's lap to sit on, and a view of the ocean. He was very excited yet completely relaxed at the same time.
Layla was her energetic self the entire time and found joy from the simple things like repeatedly jumping off the brick platform in the middle of the resort grounds. She has impressive skills for a 2-year-old. Just look at how she pulls her feet up behind her...
Oma and Kendra didn't have a lot of mother-daughter time during our short stay. However, they found time for a side-by-side massage. From what Kendra said, there was zero conversation between them or the massage therapists and it was the best massage she'd ever received.
When Mama is happy, everybody is happy!
Our big day at the beach was stressful as always when adventuring with twins, but well worth the effort. Nobody pooped in the ocean. Everything else was pure icing on the cake. I have no idea what it is about toddlers and being in the water, but we crossed our fingers the entire time hoping for a poop-free outing.
Layla wasn't excited about the waves or the ocean. My theory is that she likes controlled environments and confidence in the situation. Being her first coherent trip to the ocean, it was certainly not controlled with the waves lapping at the shore line nor did she have any confidence because of the unfamiliarity. This picture below sums up her ocean experience. Run away! Run away!
Easton surprised us all with his go get 'em attitude. He bravely charged into the waves while giggling as the water rushed towards the shore past his legs and then again as it retreated back into the ocean. From the first time we saw the ocean as we drove over the hill into the SLO valley Easton said, “wabes!” (meaning waves). He continued that mantra and asked to go see the wabes every second we weren’t next to the ocean. When I asked him what he likes about the ocean he has one word: "muddy".
Layla was timid and Easton was the life of the party. Seemed like a complete role reversal, but we just let them be whoever they want to be in every situation and try not to force them to act a certain way. Within boundaries, of course... Their rash guard shirts are 100% UV protectant and the sun block lotion Kendra uses has the consistency of mayonnaise which works out to SPF 1000 or something like that. Me? I'm Native American... me no need sun screen. me just darken like golden brown toast.
The morning fog burned off beautifully and left us a pleasant, sunny afternoon to dig in the sand and make sand castles.
Bree built the best castle given the clumsy, plastic tools we brought for the twins. Unfortunately Easton and Layla have no appreciation for art yet. They do have a desire to smash things with their hands and feet though...
Earlier in the day we took Logan's advice for toddler-friendly activities and sent the twins with Oma and Opa to the SLO Children's Museum. Turned out to be the perfect way to burn out the twins with activity and provide an environment for interactive fun with Oma and Opa. Layla pretended to be a nurse and gave Opa an excellent bill of health.
Easton found police motorcycles and fire trucks to save the day!
Throughout the short, intensely fun trip we all took time to stop and smell the roses... and the California Poppies.
Kendra and I agree the most incredible smell was the freshness of the ocean breeze. Maybe I'll look for a perfume to buy Kendra that captures the essence of the scent without smelling like Old Spice.
Speaking of things that stink... Occasionally Layla has a less than pleasant attitude about sharing simple things like a section of chains roping off the scenic view of the ocean. In case you can't read the look on her face, if you look in the dictionary at the word, "no", you'll see this picture:
Then again, if the word, "Yee-haw" was in the dictionary, it would have Easton's picture swinging on the chains like this:
Along the way through town we found a local park to increase our odds of wearing down the twins so they would take a nap. Layla and I took a ride on the cement USS Imagination ship.
That moment lasted about 10 seconds because although Layla and I both have great imaginations, there wasn't much to work with since it was just a big ship-shaped block of cement.
The park was atypical as one might expect with it being oceanside on the central coast of Cali. Very artistic, but... Seriously? It's a huge egg. How is that supposed to be fun? The most enjoyable part about the egg for the twins was dumping the misallocated sand over each other's legs.
The highlight of the park for Easton was the bold, brave, and daring move by Opa to turn Easton sideways in the baby swing. you would have thought he was being tickled based on how much he giggled.
There was a huge killer whale in the middle of the park and it made for a good picture of the three generations of girls.
However, you can imagine it wasn't all that interesting or fun for the twins. We ended up just making our own fun by taking turns running up and down the grassy hill. Guess which 2 out of 3 people were worn out from this sprint? Hint: it wasn't the energizer bunny, Layla.
As with all adventures, you win some and you lose some. Overall this was a "win" and everyone wished the time together would last a few more days. Neither of the twins took a nap in SLO and that made for some overly dramatic evenings, but...
Praise the Lord for the ocean!
We completed the journey to Oma and Opa's house safely thanks to Kendra's driving and the DVD player. We purchased this Pioneer model and it became our key to peaceful travel. Now we are working to settle into a good routine here before I head back to work on Monday morning bright and early.
See you soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment