Newport

On our days off from Disneyland, we headed straight to the ocean.

The boys dared each other to jump.

Guess who actually went for it?

He loved every second of the jumping until we put a stop to the injury prone idea.

Of course, Blake had to follow suit.

Oh, the sand.

The face of a boy whose snack was just swiped by a seagull.

My friend Julee and I braved the freezing water to about our knees and called it good.

There were some pretty cool play structures on the strip of beach we discovered.

We loved the spot we found at Newport Beach so much that we went back with more friends on our other off day.

There were shells to be collected.

Kids to bury.

And surfers to watch.

We watched a jet draw a smiley face with smoke in the sky.

We enjoyed such gorgeous days at Newport. It was so nice to set the kids free and not have to worry about them staying right by us and hustling them along like at Disneyland.

We topped off our second day at the beach with dinner on the pier overlooking Balboa.