Manhattan Beach

Another exciting morning--pajamas and sneakers--very tricky to squeeze those foot pajamas into shoes.

 Eli and Alianna discovered the trees near our neighbors' tents had little ball shaped seeds.  They were very excited.

 We drove around some to Manhattan beach in LA.  We wanted Eli to have a little nap and not be grumpy all day.  It was worth it.  He was happy, the beach was beautiful, free parking, and not crowded.

 Also, this beach had the most shells.  They were little, but Alianna had fun collecting them.

 She also loved being buried.

 Eli liked knocking down all the sandcastles we tried to make.

 Everyone liked having feet buried in the warm sand.  Notice the octopus shape on Eli's feet.

 Alianna has fish on her feet.

 And we made a whole sandcastle on Mark's feet as he took a nap.

 Eli learned how to play frisbee.  He actually figured out how to throw it, although it usually went the wrong way.

 We made pizza on the grill the last night.

 And hiked further up the hill, for about the same view as from our tent, only higher up.

 One last photo before we took our tent down and said good-bye.  We all sleep better on our own beds and not the really hard packed ground covered with little rocks.  But we had a lot of fun.  The fresh air was good for us; the hike up and down the hill to our tent was healthy; sand and sunscreen all over...  It was great.

 On the way home we made a stop at a cheese making place.  There were signs for it telling how great it was for quite a while before we got there, and we needed lunch and a place to stretch.

 The kids ran around.  We made sandwiches, and Alianna found this amazing tree house.  Eli and I went inside too.  It was awesome.  The tree was growing through ,and each window is a different floor with steps in between.  Alianna said it was her tree house and didn't want to leave (she is a little obsessed with tree houses--was before she saw this one, and now even more so).  Luckily she is happy making tree houses at the bases of the trees in our yard.