Labor Day

Laguna Beach was a sea of umbrellas

New suits for Shane (finally!) and Sage...both brown.

Life is always better at the beach

Beach Date

Shane's cute sister Kristi was in town so she and her best buddy, also named Christi, babysat Sage so off we we went off to Laguna (our love to the Christi's). Shane and I have the same expectations for date night: good food and good conversation in a great setting so this is our usual date:

We park in our favorite parking lot right by Main Beach...it's free after 7 PM. Then we stroll over to Peppertree Lane where La Rue Du Chocolat (best chocolate shop ever) awaits. We recommend the Giant Peanut Butter Cup, Coconut Toasties and the Chocolate Covered Mac Nuts.


Next we walk up and down the beach, find a comfortable spot and get settled in. We chose a lifeguard stand this time around.


And last, we eat our chocolate goodies and talk until we can hardly keep our eyes open.

It's a simple life and I love it.

An End and A Beginning

We spent our last day with Amy and her darling girls who are moving to Spain (just for a year thankfully). The sand, the sun, the surfers at San Onofre...we soaked it all up!

After some a good long frolic in the surf and sand Sage and I headed to.....

....the Rainbow store and bought her very first pair of Rainbows!
I think this is the start of a life lived in flip flops.

At BYU I remember thinking that Californians were crazy...wearing their flimsy flip flops in all kinds of weather. Oh, but now I understand...Rainbows are like butter, like second skin. Shane and I wear them constantly and I have a feeling that, wherever we end up, we'll always be crazy Californians with our Rainbows permanently attached to our feet.

Our Little Beach

While out moutain biking on Saturday Shane saw the marine layer creeping in. No sun means no swimming so we headed down to our little secret beach that we reserve for cloudy days and winter days too.

California bebes make sand angels

Did I mention that there are a lot of stairs?

Saturday is a Special Day....

We spent the morning at Crescent Beach. We always enjoy C.B because there's free parking and a bathroom and sometimes we get to see seals being released into the wild. It was a seal release morning so the beach was buzzing with little Brownies (seal sponsors) and their parents. It just so happened that the one of the seals was named Sage. Sage the Seal was a bit hesitant and it took her quite a while to decide to return to her watery home (see photo). In an effort to scare us away from the seals (I think) one of the ladies from the Seal Rescue place told us that these seals will bite when scared (no big surprise)...but not just any bite..."a bone-crushing bite." Woah. We stayed away.

A kind diver stopped by our beach blanket and told me that Sage was, "very sweet" and gave her a conch shell he had found diving. That made my day and Sage's too.


Today was also Reward Day for Sage (she stopped sucking her fingers). We got Zoomar's (petting farm) and ice cream in but the train (Amtrak) wasn't on our schedule so we'll have to try again soon. It was her 2nd time ever enjoying the creamy, cold goodness of ice cream. We whizzed some fresh strawberries up in the blender and poured over the vanilla ice cream...yum, yum.

Good Day Sunshine

Our first time At Corona Del Mar Beach and our first time in the water this year.

P.S. Shane wants me to tell you that he was wearing swim trunks. Not my fault he chooses flesh colored trunks.