Thousand Steps Beach

On President's Day, I took the girls up to Thousand Steps Beach in Laguna Beach to meet Tatum, Tess, and Rue Hawkins. They're living in Redondo Beach now, back from a few years in Shanghai. Laguna is about halfway between our houses. Ever remembers Tess and Rue from the couple of times we've seen them over the last few years, and she was so excited about getting together. She even wrote Tess a note on the car ride up saying she was excited to see her. Of course she was scared and shy when we got there, but she eventually warmed up.

The weather, however, did not. I checked the forecast the night before and suggested some alternative plans, but Tatum wanted to stick with the beach. My girls and I were dressed in warm clothes and were still really cold. Tatum and her girls were in swimsuits, and I have no idea how they survived. It was freezing, but it's a very pretty spot.

Hundreds of stairs lead from the street down to the beach (hence the name), and a really nice lady who was doing the stairs for exercise carried most of my stuff down when she saw me struggling with all the kids and junk. Super nice.

Once my kids started interacting with Tatum's they had fun looking for treasures (or sharp objects) in the sand.

Wrenzy's always showing a little crackage.

So many girls.

Tiny spent most of the time throwing things away. She'd find garbage and other throw-away-able items like plant debris and head off to the garbage can, where she'd stay for a long time, searching the immediate vicinity for other items to toss.

Once, she ended up going super far from us and clearly had no idea where we were. She didn't care at all, though. She's the minuscule speck in the middle here:

She just plopped down and hung out in the sand. I finally retrieved her.

Wrenzy cuddled up with Tatum and Rue.

Tess wanted to check out some rocks at the end of the beach before leaving. Ever had to go, too, even though by that point I really just needed to get the little people home. Tess and Ever:

I had to run to the store on the way home to grab a couple of things for dinner. (I had soup in the crock pot.) The girls passed out in the car. When we got to the Sprouts parking lot, Tiny was nearly impossible to wake up. A car alarm was going off a few feet away, and I was touching her (unbuckling her and trying to remove her sweater) and talking to her. Nothing.