Back from sunny California

Although we were pretty sleep-deprived when we landed in cold, rainy Minneapolis yesterday (our early bird woke up at 4:00 every single morning while we were on vacation), Elijah and I had a great time visiting my mom in San Diego. Elijah was a total angel on the airplane, both ways. He was more well-behaved than I ever could have imagined he would be. I was the one who had a tearful meltdown in the SAN airport yesterday morning after a ticket agent refused to seat Elijah and me next to each other (we did end up sitting next to each other, but it was a crazy ordeal).

Going to the beach was one of the highlights of our trip. I will never, as long as I live, forget the look on my little boy's face as we turned the corner to see the ocean spread out before us. The awe and excitement and sheer joy on his face made little happy tears roll out of my eyes.

At first he stood like a flamingo with only one foot in the sand, not knowing what to think of the texture and wetness.



After a minute or two, he was a man in love! He squealed and giggled like crazy every time a wave crashed into him.



He kept trying to trick us into taking him further into the ocean. He would say, "Walk!" and start out walking (with us holding onto his hands) along the beach, and then he would gradually start to veer straight toward the ocean. We had a hard time getting him to move even one inch back toward the shore.



I tried to soak it all in. Elijah isn't the only one who loves sun, sand and the beautiful ocean.



We found a few cool rocks and seashells to look at.



We let him get his fill of the beach. I think we have a future surfer on our hands. Maybe we should reconsider our current place of residence?



It was a gorgeous day, the scenery was beautiful and it is a memory I will have with me forever.



There is nothing better than seeing this smiling, happy, beautiful face.



More fun vacation photos to come...