Violet's beach trip

On Friday, we took Sue and Gord back to the airport for their return to England. It was sad to see them go, as we had such a great time together while they were here!

With Cora at Alexyss's house for a sleepover, Stace and I took Violet down to the beach after dropping off Sue and Gord at LAX.

 Manhattan Beach Pier has a neat little aquarium, so we showed Violet the fish while the fan lifted her dress. (And she called them "fish," not "nemo." Kind of sad!)

 Here, she checks out the eel...

 ...and she and Dad get hands-on-glass friendly with the fish.

 We watched the surfers try to navigate some difficult waves before joining them down on the beach.

After the scorching heat of SClarita, it was phenomenal to cool off with the ocean breeze. The water was warmer than I've felt in ages, and I wished I could have dove in like Stacey did. Alas, I wasn't wearing a swimsuit. And, we had parked at a two-hour meter, so we didn't have the time.

Rather than jump back onto our normal freeway route home, we drove through the beach cities to Santa Monica, and then crawled north along Pacific Coast Highway's waterfront to Malibu. We weren't going any faster than we would have on the 405, but the view sure was 1,000 times better! Not to mention the temperature.

Even with all that car time, silly Violet didn't sleep any more than 30 minutes, but she was happy to sing and play in the back seat. Stace and I enjoyed the two-on-one time with our toddler.