Beach Vacation Day 2

Continuation of our vacation.......day 2! We headed down to the beach first thing that mornning again and hit the tide pools, so we could make low tide. The girls had so much fun and so did Dustin and I. We saw TONS of starfish and little crabs and snails (Josey was in heaven) and the girls loved touching all the sea anenames (or as Josey and Lilly called them "sea enemies").They were climbing all over those rocks!Lilly did not want to be put down......EVER. So mostly Dustin held her and climbed around unless I could pry her away from her daddy for a few minutes. She was just not feeling well all weekend.Josey was so proud of herself for picking up this little crab. She reached right into the water and picked it up. We had to convince her that she couldn't keep it because it would die and eventually she decided to let it go back home. As we were sitting on the beach watching the girls play in the sand I started digging with our shovel and there were TONS and TONS of these weird little crabs I guess in the sand. It was honestly a little creepy to me and I didn't particularly want to sit on the sand anymore. Dustin and I called them the cockroaches of the beach because that is what they reminded me of. Maddy had fun collecting them though and then we made a big cockroach sand castle.We decided to head over to Newport to go the aquarium latter in the afternoon. I made a deal with the girls that I wouldn't brush their hair but they HAD to keep it pulled back into a pony tail for the duration of the vacation. Which is why they look so haggard. I tried.....but not that hard, it was a vacation for all of us! These are some of the cool things we saw at the aquarium in order of creepiness....

These are some of the cool things we saw at the aquarium in order of creepiness,

huge schools of fish.......

lots of starfish and things to touch......

very pretty jellyfish......

an AWESOME octopus display. I have never seen one totally swimming around. They are usually tucked back into some hole......
manta rays......

freakishly big sharks swimming right over our heads....

VERY creepy spider crabs! They were SO scary looking!But this was the creepiest of all......Dustin having a conversation with a fish.Everyone helped out with taking care of Lilly. The girls were a big help and definitely Dustin took the brunt of her clinginess. But I think he really enjoyed having her want him to hold her so much! I kept trying to get a cute picture with my girls but I couldn't get Lilly to hold still and even glance at the camera for ANYTHING. Here is me trying to talk her into taking a picture.....obviously it didn't happen.
I had to just sort of follow them around and try to get a snap shot that would turn out okay......while Dustin relaxed on a seal. On our way out of the aquarium we drove by these really weird sort of outdoor, overly themed shopping center and we just had to stop because it was so weird! They had a bunch of huge statues and so I used them to try and get another picture of my girls.
That night we headed back down to the beach to cook smores. I love that there are no California regulations about starting fires on the beach. We just walked down and built a fire anywhere we wanted and cooked our yummy smores while the girls played in the waves.

It was heaven.