Three Little Monkeys: Father's Day

Our weather forecast for Father's Day was 108 degrees.....one hundred and eight! I read this earlier in the week and promptly decided then and there that we would be kidnapping Daddy and escaping to cooler parts for the duration of Father's Day this year. Once decided, I called Nathan, asked him to block out his day, and left the rest as a surprise. The boys and I then put together a survival basket of sorts and let Nathan open it the day before our trip. We were in need of some help loading kayaks on Saturday night...pregnant bellies aren't really friends with loading kayaks onto huge hubby-driven trucks. Besides which, he was going to wonder why I was making him get up at the crack of dawn on "his day" anyway. Best to just explain it all on Saturday. Anyway, we let him open up the basket we had filled with sunscreen, a hat, chapsticks, snackies, etc and let him guess where we were headed. His guess actually wasn't a bad guess. He thought we were headed for a day in Yosemite and although that would have been fun, the cooler weather in Morro Bay just sounded so much nicer all around. Once said, Nathan was quick to agree. :)

I realize that I am completely biased, but my boys have the best Daddy!

Collin, of course, wouldn't look at me for a picture. Instead, he would poke at Nathan and then giggle at his reaction. I think I caught this one just after a poke.

Remember? We like self portraits, and every so often, our kids work with us and smile too! This was the first time we had kayaked with both the boys. We had Collin sit up front in the kayak with me and Drew sat the same way with Auntie Jenn in her and Burke's kayak.

It was surprisingly easy to paddle with Collin in my lap...that is, if I was able to paddle. Collin started out very cautious and so mellow but as our trip went on, his confidence grew and suddenly I found myself with a little boy who wanted to "help" paddle. Needless to say, this pretty much stopped all paddling on my end. Nathan ended up paddling us around solo and Collin would leisurely dip his paddle in to "help" every so often. Heaven forbid I try to take that paddle and actually get back to work though! It was off limits for Momma, Collin didn't need any help. Eventually though, Coll did lose interest in the paddle, but only because the water all around us had finally caught his attention (it was inevitable, really). Unfortunately, this still didn't translate into me being able to paddle again. Rather, I spent my time reminding Collin to sit on his bottom and to try and keep at least half of his body in the kayak at all times. Seriously, it made me wonder if we each had two different goals- my goal to keep Collin dry, and his to dive into the water! I eventually just broke down my paddle and handed it back to Nathan to stow for me. Holding on to the rugrat in front of me became priority numero uno. Oh, how our kayaking days have changed!

And it wasn't just Collin who eventually thought it was more fun to play in the water than it was to stay dry. Surprise, surprise.

Smoking hot and a great Daddy to boot! I scored with this one.

After kayaking, we went to lunch at one of our favorite little places for some clam chowder. Not only were we having soup (and enjoying it!) mid summer, it was even cold enough on the patio that the heaters were on....such a welcome break from the valley heat!

The boys in my life

Drew's only request when he found out we'd be heading towards the beach was to build some sand castles and dig in the sand. So, after kayaking for a few hours and lunch, we headed down to a freezing cold and breezy beach for some sand castle fun. Jenn and I stayed completely bundled up, but the boys didn't seem to mind the cold at all....

Collin was a nut at the beach. He didn't spend a whole lot of time digging, but he did make plenty of sand angels. He also got a kick out of just laying in or squirming through the sand on his belly.

And where was Daddy for the first portion of this? Cat napping! We apparently wore him out!

The nap was short lived though...the boys wanted to play!

...and not only in the sand, in the water (!!) as well! Fortunately, Nathan was willing to take them down to the water to play. There was no way this Momma was headed down to get wet...that water was frigid!