So, 24 hours in a car in the span of 4 days=get creative! Although I am blessed with a little girl who LOVES to travel (hmmm…wonder where she gets that!) so we actually had a ton of fun. We did take a couple side trips to see the giant “pinwheels” as Lena called them.

yes, I know they have a giant windmill coming out of their head but I had to include this because this picture makes me laugh. The wind was bitter. bit.ter. and we got out of the car with grand delusions of walking to the windmill but 5 feet in Lena turned around and we all happily followed. This is my mom and dad. giving their very stoic “i’m freezing and about to blow away, why are you pointing that camera at me” pose:)

then this is what happens when you get bored. first up, self portrait of me and the lena bean.

next up, an impromptu photo shoot while Lena ate grapes (hence the hilarious mouth!)

the svelte nana!

cute cheeks and shark eyes. the indie bear.

they took me to trader joes. i stocked up on almond butter and then tried their hummus at the party and realized I should have stocked up on that too! I’m now planning all my trips around Trader Joe’s and Ikea:)

then we loaded up Lena’s cart with the important stuff…bwahahaha!

quick story for memory purposes: Lena loves penguins. all penguins. but especially the one’s from Madagascar. So we found this one right before we went on our trip and it talked, not when you squeezed it but with motion. So the whole entire trip all we heard with every slight movement of the car was “cute and cuddly boys”, “soldier, you can share a foxhole with me anytime”. Needless to say the penguin lost his voice a few days ago and no one is mourning the loss:) The penguin was also the first cousin rivalry so by the end of the trip we had found Indie one too. Love these pictures. Love that they capture one of her favorite toys and the hands on the cheeks in the first one:)

oh, and one backtrack by a few exits to make sure we got a starbucks fix.

10 hours later we arrived.  it was dark, right after sunset, but our first stop was the ocean.

because when you have a two year old in the back seat who has said all day “i go to ocean” how can you tell her its really going to be tomorrow.

so we found a little access to the beach, parked illegally, and made our way in the dark across a small boardwalk.

**

Lena hit the sand, teetered on it, and held up her hand to her ear and went “what that sound” in amazement.

her last trip to the ocean was at 10 weeks old so this was her first “real” trip, one that she can react to.

With Mr. Moon big and bright, a beautiful breeze and not a cloud in the sky we ran to see the waves

and even found a few shells:)

it was a good day.