Santa Cruz

Knowing that we were days away from Claire's surgery- we decided to take a light hearted trip down to Santa Cruz. Damien's sister, Ali, goes to school at UC Santa Cruz so we were excited that she was going to be able to meet us at the Boardwalk! We woke up to sunny, beautiful skies here in San Jose, loaded the car up, and headed south. We were blasting Beach Boys tunes and having a lot of fun in the car until we hit a pretty substantial (and unusual) bit of traffic before we started over the hill towards the ocean. Despite the frustrating fact that we weren't moving and dealing with Emily's growing frustration that the car was not rocking her to sleep for her morning nap- we pressed on in good spirits.

After about twenty-five minutes, the traffic thinned out and we were cruising! We got there in no time, found some great parking, packed our stroller full with towels and other beachy things, and headed to the Boardwalk. It was a little chilly. Hmmm. Hadn't thought about that when I packed for the day at home. Didn't bring any sweatshirts for the kids but I did bring swimsuits! Brilliant. Perhaps I should check the forecast next time. OR, maybe I could rely on good weather in July!!!! Either way, we were not going to turn back now!

I kept hoping that the cloud cover would burn off, but I was out of luck. It was still warm out but it just was a touch too breezy to not have a little jacket. We didn't let any of this bother us and had such a great time with Ali! Emily absolutely loved all of the sounds and the sights. She thought it was hysterical when her siblings were on the rides and even managed to have a two hour nap in my tired aching arms. Matthew definitely had the 'cool guy' thing going on today. I think Matthew loves that he isn't the baby anymore. He got to go on rides by himself and do things that Emily couldn't. He loved riding the Pepsi truck ride, the boats, and the tiny whales. Michael and Claire were quite the pair today. They rode some of the thrill seeking rides (one rollercoaster with Auntie Ali) and both of them reminded me so much of my own childhood. I loved riding rides that scared the heck out of me! They seem to have that same need for speed! The best part of the day was when they rode the pirate ship. You know, the one that rocks back and forth making your stomach drop! Well, last summer in Seattle- Claire came off this ride crying. She hated it! Michael thought it was the greatest ride ever! Well, this summer Michael begged Claire to go and hesitantly- she did. I will say NO MORE than the fact that there was a complete role reversal on this ride. Damien and I were dying!

The last thing we did today was go down to the beach. We decided to leave the swimsuits in the swim bag (a little too cold) and instead opted to just get our feet wet. Everyone had a great time. Emily "I have NO fear" Swendsen tried to sprint out into the ocean and drown herself constantly. The other three kids jumped, frolicked, and just had so much fun. It was great . . . until the walk back to the car through the sand. Emily, who thought she could walk without holding our hands in the sand, couldn't. So I picked her up and carried her. Damien was carrying our over-packed stroller which obviously couldn't roll through the dense sand. Michael and Claire were kicking sand on each other and on other unamused beach goers despite requests NOT TO DO THAT from Mommy! And lastly, Matthew was trying to chase them down and was upset they wouldn't slow down for him. This, my friends, was juggling kids to the max! We couldn't afford one more problem at this moment. But God tested us as Matthew fell face first into the sand and although he was okay, he rubbed his eyes with his wet sandy hands and packed a huge amount of sand into his eyes. It looked horrible (I had quick visions that the ER was in our future) and he was screaming so bad I almost started crying myself. I kept thinking how incredibly painful that must be! What to do? Well, I yelled at Damien to drop the stroller and gave him Emily. I trapped Matthew between my legs and began to flush out as much sand as I could with water all the while trying to hold Matthew still and keep him from rubbing his eyes again! It was horrible. All I will say is that it took about ten minutes to get him to stop crying and get the visible sand out. Torturous. Seriously bad. I have never wanted to just get to the car so quickly. Deep breath . . . Once we all were strapped into the car and calm after the sand incident, we decided to go to a great Tiki restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz. It was the perfect end to a busy day and although it was nuts at times, I can't wait to go back again!