It was a rough February in our house. We had continual sickness and as a result I found myself feeling excessively cooped up. After one particularly bad day when Andy had been out of town for a week and Lilly had been throwing up (again) I just about snapped. “I have to get out of Utah!” I told Andy. “I need sunshine, warm weather, and the ability to play OUTSIDE with the girls.” His response? “We’re homeschooling now. Why not?”  Oh yeah!!! I forgot about that. We can travel whenever we want! So, last Thursday I packed the girls into the car, left brown, windy Utah behind and headed to my parents house in California. When we arrived it was 84 degrees and, under gorgeous blue skies, flowers were blooming in abundance. Before I knew it I even had one my dad’s famous margaritas in hand while sitting in the backyard watching the girls play. Ahhhhh.

Needless to say we’ve been spending a lot of time outside. Today we headed to the tide pools in Laguna Beach. We met up with my best friend Bethany and her daughter, Norah. I took lots of photos so when we return to Utah Trinity can practice classifying the animals we saw. (The teacher in me couldn’t resist.) Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the dolphins but I did photograph just about everything else. They’re not the best photos since it was through water with a glare but it’ll give you a good idea of what a great day we had! 🙂

Few things make this girl as happy as Palm Trees reflecting in her shades:
Checking out a sea anemone and a hermit crab:

We saw Brown Pelicans:crabs:
Look who else we found! Bethany must be our good luck charm because she first spotted the dolphins and this little guy:We also saw sea urchins:tube worms:muscles:a lot of muscles!:a sea hare (also known as the California sea slug):

chitons:

sea stars:We also had time for some fun on the beach:
The cool California coastal morning was too chilly for a full swim but getting our toes wet was plenty exciting: