Beach time!

It would appear that Gray is his father's child. He loves the beach and would stay all day, every day if he could. I, on the other hand, am so pale that too much sun is never a good choice. That and I'm not really a fan of being covered in sand for hours up to days (in the car, in your bag, in your scalp) after each trip. I try to be a good sport and go occasionally, but I would much rather just look at it than actually play in it. 

Pacific Beach is a tourist haven in the summer months, so we are usually driving around looking for parking or wading through a ton of people for a place to lay our towels out. I prefer going later in the season on a week day. There is generally less people out and the weather is usually nice enough to go at least a couple weeks out of every month. The one thing that is strange about the beach here is that it can be FREEZING in May, and warm in November. It is usually warm all summer, all year really, but the weather isn't 76 and sunny all year around like San Diegans would like for you to think it is. I literally wore a hoodie in late May this year to watch Josh surf. 

This particular day there were tons of dolphins in the water. It seems like I see dolphins fairly often down there, but Gray totally missed them this day. I originally saw one fin and got a little freaked out (I even know that if you see a shark you are generally ok. It's when you don't see them that you could be in trouble.) then I saw about 4-5 more pop up. They were surfing and playing along the beach. Josh surfs with them often enough, and I'm pretty jealous about that. Maybe not jealous enough to surf with him... 

Not sure if I shared these two photos below before, but I just love them so much it can't hurt to re-share them. California has beaches different from anything I've seen on the East Coast or the Gulf, but they are all beautiful in different ways. Pacific Beach is no different, it just happens to have a different vibe than most of the beaches in San Diego. 

Disney (Part 1)

Josh was spending about a month in Yuma, so we decided to take Gray to CarsLand as a little family day away before he left. We took Gray to Disneyland in March (after Josh's deployment) but CarsLand didn't open until the summer. Gray was freaking out about the commercials every time he saw them, so we wanted to take him to see Mater and McQueen. 

Of course we hit the high points and saw lots of characters in our one day visit. We rode Midway Madness (Toy Story ride), which is maybe our favorite ride. Gray met Goofy, Donald, Buzz, Woody, and McQueen, Mater, Red, and DJ from Cars. We had to hop over from California Adventure to Disneyland to ride a few things, but we spent a large portion of our time in CarsLand. 

Next in line for Midway Madness! 

Midway Madness is a 4D arcade game. It's excellent! 

Buzz! 

We did a few random rides before heading to CarsLand because we weren't sure Gray would ever be ready to leave. We took him in the main entrance (there are several ways in) and I'm pretty sure we blew his mind. He stopped in the middle of the street and just stared, then started pointed and yelling "CARSLAND!!!"

If you have ever been to Disney, then you know that they do everything (literally everything) in the theme! The bathrooms had little cars on them to tell you boy's vs girl's restrooms. Flo's was a diner with a huge rear view mirror on one wall. The flowers made from reflectors from the movie were scattered around town. Sarge's had a flag and mail box outside. It was like walking into the movie. There is a little glass case with the three piston cups that Doc won, hidden Mickeys, lots of fun Mexican stuff in Ramone's. They really did a great job making Radiator Springs real for fans of the movies. 

However, there are only 3 rides and Gray was too short to ride on the super cool McQueen (racing through Radiator Springs) ride by about 1.5"-2". We LOVED CarsLand, but I felt that it fell short in that regard. It looks amazing, but I wanted more. More rides (at least 4, but 5 would have been great) and maybe a museum like in the last movie. It was awesome, don't get me wrong. The other major problem with CarsLand is the sheer number of people. The other parts of the park would be fairly dead, but the lines at CarsLand were crazy. There were people everywhere! 

Frozen in disbelief. 

Sarge's Surplus

Mater at the Cozy Cone. 

Inside Flo's V8 Cafe!

Waiting on lunch at Flo's.

View from Flo's.

Ramone's. 

Luigi's.

Luigi's Tire Ride. 

McQueen and Mater drive down main street to the Cozy Cone and switch out for pictures. 

Stanley. 

DJs Dance Party! 

Mater's ride. 

And maybe his favorite part of the day...
Meeting his two favorite Disney characters!  

Summer Fun!

How about a random post with a bunch of pictures that totally don't match? OK! 

Josh celebrated a birthday, and Gray picked out the cake. There were so many dirt movers on the cake, we almost didn't have enough room for all of the candles. Gray still talks about this cake! 

We stopped by the Pacific Beach firehouse because Gray saw a firetruck come back and was dying to check it out. The firemen were so nice, they let Gray get on one of the trucks and try on one of their super heavy hats! 

Gray got a new hat from the Padre's store, and he wore it constantly until he lost it. Luckily they had not sold out of them before the next game we went to and he got a replacement (that I quickly tagged with my phone number)! He is very serious about coloring in this picture. Or returning crayons to the box.

Fun times at the Safari Park!

Gray lined his boots up by his Daddy's. Awww.
Had to get a shot of that! 

Gray is officially a big boy. No more crib in his room! 

Leaving a Padre's game with Daddy! 

He is so cute, but I'm so scared this is going to end in the ER. 

He is getting TOO big! 

Babysitting two big girls. Fletch is dating both sisters on the sly.  

Skateboarding in the neighborhood! 

Josh taught him how to ride on his bottom. Much less scary for me! 

Sprinkler time! 

Rinse off after playing at the beach! 

Walking Fletch in the neighborhood.  

Beach Day! 

Fletch recovering from a walk. 

Gray gets a hideous hair cut/style.
He looks in the mirror and says 'My hair looks stupid.' 

Bike rides to dinner in Pacific Beach.