Nora at the Beach

I'm sorry to everyone (if anyone) who has been expecting a blog for a long while now. I'm sure that's poor "blog etiquette." Please forgive me in my tired busy pregnant-ness...= ) Mark, Nora and I are in San Diego right now. We are on a family vacation for the first time in way too long. I haven't been to a beach in about 5 years, and I've never been to a Cali beach, so this is quite exciting to me. We are having a blast!

We arrived last night around midnight after a six hour drive with a one-year-old who doesn't approve of sleeping anywhere but in her crib. The drive was a little rough, and the parking was even worse. It took us an hour to park. Yes we have a garage in our cute little beach house, but we decided to borrow Mark's folks' minivan so we could fit all Nora's "gear" we wanted to bring, and it didn't even remotely fit in the garage. What a long night that was. Then, to make matters worse, Nora screamed probably 45 minutes after we put her down in the pack-n-play...I didn't sleep well.

But this morning we woke up to the sound of the Pacific Ocean waves and beautiful cool foggy weather (at the earliest 7AM I can remember in a while). We walked down the street to a cute little cafe with great coffee and very fresh breakfasts then strolled back on the beach. So life is good again. And later today after a good lunch, we took Nora to the beach, only about 100 feet from our cute little red front door. She had a blast. Loves sand. Cold ocean water not so much...but we did get some great photos. She was towed around like the Queen of Sheba in her red wagon, ate her first whole apple (not a fragment went to waste), hugged some poor random sleeping guy she thought was Dad, and helped build--and destroy--her first sand castle. It was great. Now she's sleeping after all her accomplishments, and we're just kicking back having a beer or gestating a fetus, depending on which one of us you are talking about. Good times.

Oh, and I'm finally 3rd trimester--28 weeks and change now. I feel like I am looking huge again already, and am rocking the contractions many times a day. Maybe this kid isn't going to wait a week after her due date like Nora. Eh...we'll see. For now, I'm just going to thing about the sand in my toes and my lovely family. How's that?
First WHOLE apple ever (sand, seeds and all)...
Queen Nora...
giving baby sister hugs....
Our cute little "red door" beach house we're renting...