day four.

We woke up & walked to Jamba Juice which was right by our hotel. This is where Kosty said my favorite thing of the whole trip--

Kosty: "I feel sorry for Jamba Juice."

Me: "why?"

Kosty: "because I hate it."

I laughed for quite a while. Then we went to Balboa Island for the best candy store ever. Then, we went to the shops at Huntington and then back to the beach to meet up with our friends, the Hestands/Lee's.

the BFF's and their matching hats.

Brayden was obsessed with this hoodie. He was pretty ticked at me for not buying it. At least he has a picture.

I'm pretty sure they were done with the camera at this point. :) Ignore them and look at those beautiful hydrangeas!!

We ended the night with a BBQ with our friends and Tawny even played mexican train with the boys while me, jer, jenna & kevin went on a beach cruiser ride down to the pier and to the donut shop. We came back late and the boys were playing the Wii and having the best time!

newport. day three.

Our hotel had a cafe in the lobby with the most delicious breakfast spread I have ever seen. Everything you can think of: crispy bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, french toast, hash browns, ham, fresh fruit, oatmeal with all the toppings, muffins, pastries, yogurt, cereal, 10 kinds of juice. Ah, I was only wishing I had like 7 stomachs. Mmmm.

while I'm talking about food, here I am about to demolish my favorite burrito on the planet. Wahoo's. YUM!

We met up with some of our friends on Huntington Beach and played for the day. geez, I didn't even get a picture...just imagine they took up about a mile on the beach. Big family, tons of little ones.

do you see that peach fuzz on the sides of his dimpled face?? I want to eat him.

These pictures make me laugh because see those pretzel sticks Kosty is holding? Brayden had some too but scarfed too fast and then begged kosty for the next 30 minutes for "just one" as kosty slowly tortured him and ate every last bite. Brayden wasn't too amused.

Kosty knew he was mad so he tried his best to butter him up by cuddling.

pretty much the ONLY picture kosty would take with me. His heart belongs to daddy. :(

We ended the night with a late movie. We saw Despicable Me, and it was so cute. I'm buying the soundrack, if there is one.

Newport beach. day two.

Brayden and I woke up (leaving a sleeping jer & kosty) and walked to the Starbucks by our hotel so I could make good on my promise that I would 'someday' buy him one of those overpriced chocolatey drinks he tried a sample of many months ago. He slurpped it down in about 10 seconds. It was fun to just be with Brayden for a bit.

then we got back to our hotel where we found kosty up and ready in his swimsuit, enjoying his comic book on the balcony.

Then we went back to the beach where we played lots of scoop ball (our favorite) and just played.

Kosty was cracking me up, he was making all sorts of fighting poses at the waves and he was getting SO into it. He had some intense facial expressions, and Brayden said it best when he said, "Kosty like thinks he's like the toughest and coolest guy on earth!"

Yes, yes he does.

Here we made good on our promise to Kosty for his favorite donut of all time from Seaside Donuts on the pier

I love this one, we were waiting in the hotel lobby forever....for Jer to finish a few work emails...

We met up with our friend Derek who also randomly was staying at our same hotel with his cute kiddos. We went to Red Robin on Fashion Island and then walked around the Koi pond till late. The kids had these plants and were pretending to fish. They LOVED it there.

Then we went back to our hotel and soaked in the hot tub. Did I mention the kids went to bed at 11ish every night and slept till 9:30? That was pretty cool. Thank heavens for those dark hotel rooms!

newport beach. day one.

(I can hardly handle his cuteness!)

We just got back from our annual Newport Beach trip. Our first time not in a beach house and our first time with our own little family. Different for sure, but it was so much fun and memorable as always.

Since jer is the only one trained in what he does at his new(ish) job, taking off was pretty difficult and this is what most of the first day consisted of. High stress. We had to pull over and find random WI-FI spots at certain times and he had strict time deadlines. He almost got left there at McDonalds in Indio on the ride up ;) yes, we sat at a different table.

Finally we arrived, checked into our hotel and went straight to the beach. All was happy again. It was a gorgeous evening and the water was freezing, but that didn't stop Brayden from getting all the way in.

First day beach pictures are always my favorite ever. The pure joy and excitement when the kids first get to the beach is unforgettable. You can just see how happy they are here. I felt extremely grateful this trip. The boys are at such fun (& easy) ages, they get along so well, and they had the best energy. They were so full of positivity, and they radiated with it!