Sunday in California

On Sunday, we went to church by the Newport Beach Temple.

Then we headed out to Crystal Cove State Park to go to the beach. It was super nice. But I will get back to that in a moment.

We found that we were unprepared for the weather. In June in California, the mornings are always overcast, cool and often a bit foggy. It's what is referred to as "June gloom" and we'd experienced it every morning. Usually around 9-10, it clears and the day starts warming up. That's what the weather forecast called for on Sunday, so we didn't think anything of it when it was overcast when we left for church. By the time we got done, we figured it would be sunny. However, it wasn't. In fact, when we arrived at the beach, it was a {not} balmy 60 degrees. All we had were our church clothes and our swimsuits. We hadn't even thrown our jackets in (note to self: always throw in jackets!). So we decided to improvise. Sarah's dress had a sweater with it so that made it a bit warmer. We put Megan and Matthew in the Ergo and Boba and then wrapped towels around them to keep them warm. (It helped U and me as well.) And off we went.

Crystal Cove State Park is a nice, kind of secluded beach south of Newport Beach. It's what could be called "open beach" in the midst of a sprawling metropolis all around it. (It's actually more than just beach--there are areas to hike and camp as well.) The beach is quite long and the ocean within the park is considered an underwater park where you can scuba dive and snorkel. You can surf, swim and body surf as well. However, we didn't do any of those things. Remember the weather? And the two 2 year olds? We just enjoyed walking along the beach and exploring. There are lots of tide pools and rocks. We saw a number of crabs as well as little fish darting around. It was a beautiful place that we really enjoyed. Hopefully we'll be able to go explore some more on a future trip.

U enjoyed taking some pictures of the beach. His description of this? "A neat picture of a rock that I liked the texture and colors in."

Another cool rock.

Panoramic of the beach.

Panoramic towards land.

After some quiet/nap time at the hotel, we ate a yummy dinner and then headed over to Downtown Disney to explore a bit.

Sarah very graciously shared some of her Mickey lollipops that she bought with Megan and Matthew. She received a special Tinker Bell pin from a Cast Member in celebration of her birthday.

It was fun to see the huge LEGO creations by the LEGO store.

We also enjoyed the grounds of the Disneyland Hotel. The kids loved running around on the nice grass they have (we do miss good grass here) and seeing all the Disney decor.

Fun Mickey, Minnie and Pluto topiaries at the Disneyland Hotel.

We finished the evening watching "Aladdin" in our hotel room.