Ryan and I couldn’t help ourselves a couple weeks back — with Summer slipping through our fingers, and our old home quietly tapping on our hearts — we booked a hotel in sunny San Diego and within a few days, we hit the road. The girls were ecstatic. I was ecstatic! Chalk it up to years of living in that perfect city and taking my babies to play at the beach like you play at your neighborhood park, but one of the most relieving, relaxing experiences for me is being at the beach with my girls. Kids check out of real life and into an alternate reality on the ocean’s shore (especially if you play and swim with them first for a good 30 minutes!), and sitting down, sitting back and watching them enter their imaginary, sandy, watery worlds is one place where, for me, heaven brushes earth. My 8-months-pregnant mind and body was feeling the need for that reprieve so much – to play and relax and relax some more – and honestly, I think the girls needed the physical and mental escape, too. I know that Ryan did (that rockstar has been carrying a hefty load between his job and the house!). Truly we all had the best time. So much so, we’ve made it a goal to repeat this trip every summer: we’ll stay in the home hotel (“The Seabird” in Oceanside — it was to die for darling and so much fun), we’ll eat at our go-to spots and find a few new ones, and we’ll spend a full beach day on our favorite sandy shore in Del Mar. For sure our bias from living there is real, but for us, no beach can beat Del Mar. I couldn’t wait to snap photos of the girls “home again.” Freezing us all in the sunshiny things that make up a Del Mar beach day filled my soul!
Knowing that we’ll be here every Summer (so long as we have our way!) thrills me, since it means that Baby Brother won’t be left out of growing up on the beach, too. He was kicking like a wild child when I was swimming out in those waves…something tells me that, like the rest of us, his soul will be so happy on the shore. Till next year, SD!! XOXOX
