California Beach Getaway

Brady and I just returned from a little vacation to southern California.  We stayed in Dana Point and checked out Newport Beach, Santa Monica, Laguna Beach and San Clemente as well.  This was our first real trip away from Sadie, so it was a big deal for us.  We missed Sadie a ton, but we had so much fun together.  It's amazing all the adventures you can do in one day without a toddler!  Each night, we'd get back to our place and totally crash.  We did so many fun things and we were pooped at the end of each day.
We got there Thursday night and saw the beautiful sunset at the beach just down the street from where we stayed.

We got some really yummy and super overpriced ice cream at Dana Point Harbor.

On Friday, we went for a run along a beach path in San Clemente.  It's always more fun to run when there's a great view.  I was feeling pretty good too.  I only had minor ligament pain toward the end of our 4 mile run and I'm at 26 weeks, so I was excited about that.  Brady, of course, jumped into the ocean after our run.
Then, we went to the best breakfast place.  It's called "Stacks" and it was delicious!  We wanted to order everything off the menu.  I got french toast with bananas and nutella that was amazing and Brady got a "small" stack of macadamia and banana pancakes that filled his whole plate. We were pretty full when we left. :)  After breakfast, we headed to Crystal Cove state park and hung out at the beach for awhile.  Brady was jumping waves by himself and was so sad that I wasn't too interested in getting in the water.  He told me he was disappointed in me.  :(  I mistakenly shaved my legs that morning so the salt water made me really itchy!  That was my excuse at least ;)
Then we went on the ugliest hike I've ever been on.  Haha, but for reals.  The hike went away from the ocean and we were surrounded by dead brush everywhere.  We made it into a loop trail, so at least on the way back we got to see a cool view of the ocean.
We stopped for lunch at a place called "Shake Shack" and ate yummy sandwiches with the best view of the ocean!

We went to Newport Beach after that and rented a couple boogie boards. I was super hesitant at first because I was worried about being pregnant and putting too much pressure on my stomach but I was totally fine.  I caught a couple good waves and it was really fun.  At that point, I felt bad that I had wasted time before just sitting on the sand instead of being in the water!  Oh, the temperature of the water was 75 degrees.  It was perfect.  We got to watch the sunset there at Newport.  Watching the sunset each night was one of my favorite parts of our trip :)

Saturday was my 25th birthday.  Brady made a humble breakfast of eggs on a muffin. ;)  He got me some red Toms, a cute maternity shirt and a silver necklace.  He did a good job!  At 10am, we set off to kayak on the ocean.  I was so exited about this little adventure, but of course once we got out on the water, I started feeling super nauseous from all the rough waves.  We rented the kayaks for 2 hours, but we only ended up being out for about an hour.  I was sad to waste that time but I felt so gross.  We got to see some seals though!  And I really do like kayaking.  I prefer it to canoeing. Next time I'm kayaking on the ocean, I'll be sure to take some Dramamine.

After kayaking, I went to get a manicure while Brady patiently waited for me.  We spent a couple hours at Laguna Beach.  There were so many people there! Holy smokes.  Way too many.  Brady and I spent some time jumping waves.  The waves there were really powerful and high pretty close to the shore.  We were just standing there not really paying attention when all of a sudden we look over and there's a huge wave about to crash on us.  I plugged my nose and the wave pushed me to the floor.  I hit my shoulder and my hip pretty hard.  After that, I was all done with the water ;)
We got all dressed up for my birthday dinner.  I made Brady wear a nice button up shirt.  We went to a Mexican place at Dana Point Harbor called Tortinos.  We shared a huge plate of nachos and a burrito.  For dessert, we found a place that sold all sorts of goodies.  I got a Reese's brownie and Brady got a cinnamon roll.  Mine was a little disappointing. :-/ Brady says he'll make me a cake this weekend though, so I'm looking forward to that!  We went to the beach after the sun went down and walked along the shore.  We danced for half a song but it was hard to hold up our phones so we could hear the music hehe.  Throughout the day, I made Brady tell me 25 reasons why he loves me.  His second reason was that I'm stylish and the third is that I'm a good mom.  Interesting order there ;)
My birthday was super fun.  I loved spending it with Brady.  I did miss Sadie a ton though and wished that she could have spent it with me as well.

26 week prego belly

Waves were crashing right behind us... you just can't see them :)

On Sunday, we went to church and then hung out in Santa Monica.  It was probably the hottest day of our trip and of course we didn't swim.  Oh well ;)

We flew home that night and raced into Stu and Helen's house to get Sadie.  We were so excited to see her, but I think she was even more excited to see us!   She was smiling so big and giggling for 2 hours straight it seemed!  It made us feel special that she loves us so much.  I told Brady that no one has ever been as excited to see me as she was in that moment.  We love our little girl so much!  And we are super grateful for Stu and Helen for watching Sadie.  It made us feel so good knowing how much they love her and how much they enjoyed watching her.  They said she was really good for them and didn't even cry.  That made me proud :)