Life's a Beach

Greetings from California. I am currently sitting on my aunt's couch, waiting until midnight when it's time to pick up Rob and Chloe from Disneyland. Yes, that's right, they went to Disneyland without me. I decided it was not prudent to send $80 when I can't even ride all the best rides, so just the two of them went today. I'm not going to lie to you, I've been pretty sad all day. It helped a little when they told me it was super crowded and hot, so I know I would have been pretty miserable had I gone, but still. It is the happiest place on earth, and it'll probably be a few years before we can go again, because we'll have to wait until Baby Girl is a bit older to appreciate the magic. Sigh. Feel free to pity me. Or not. I am still in California, after all.

Here are some pictures of some of our adventures thus far:

The first night we got in we went with my family down to Old Town Orange and had dinner at this awesome BBQ place. Then we walked around the Circle and had our picture taken in front of this lovely fountain that you can hardly see. Oh well. There were orange trees and beautiful flowers all around it. Made me really happy to be back in California.

Before you freak out and call Child Services on me, please let me explain. My aunt went into this old fashioned candy shop and bought a pack of candy cigarettes. Aren't we funny?

Yesterday we drove down to Newport Beach with my grandparents. We got some delicious clam chowder from a little fish place for lunch, and then the three of us kids hit the beach.

Here are Chloe and Rob beckoning me to join them in the ocean. Normally I would, but I was trying to maintain a low profile, because I looked like this...

So much for a low profile, eh? Here I am in all my 26ish weeks pregnant glory. Yikes. I bought this swimsuit before our trip. It's not maternity, but it's a much larger size in order to give me the length I needed for the belly. Unfortunately this also means it is quite ill-fitting in the bum, so that's the main reason I was self-conscious. Oh well, I might as well enjoy the only time I have an excuse to be this large.

Chloe, taking some photos of the lovely scenery. It really was a perfect day at the beach.

Rob is, as you see, overjoyed to meet the waves.

Here he is trying to force me to come swimming. I did get in up to my waist approximately, but as always with the Pacific, the ocean was freezing. Plus we weren't going to be there very long so I didn't want to take forever to have to dry out and then sit in a wet swimsuit in the car. I know, I'm lame. But he was pretty cute trying to coax/force me in the water.

Here is Rob's famous sympathy belly. He will be upset with me for posting this, but I think it's so funny. He's a really trim guy so the sympathy weight he's gained has been pretty endearing. He said his goal is to gain the weight with me and then we can lose it together. So far he's gained quite a bit more than I have (although both of those numbers shall remain a secret), and I hope to keep it that way.
However, on this trip we've been pretty bad about treats. Case in point, the famous Balboa Island frozen bananas and Balboa Bars you see us enjoying here, courtesy of my wonderful grandparents. We're on vacation, right?

On the way back from the beach we stopped by the Newport Beach Temple. This is one of my very favorite temples. I was able to go to the open house and it's just so beautiful and unique. Rob had never seen it before, so I was glad we drove by. It was Monday, so the temple was closed, but we snuck in a couple of pictures.

And today has been nice too, even though I haven't been at Disneyland I had a nice day with my grandparents; they took me to lunch and even let me roam around a HUGE Babies R Us for awhile. I scored some sweet clearance deals on maternity clothes from the Target here, and have overall enjoyed the lovely weather and a relaxing day.

Whatever. Those jerks better have bought me a present.