Labor Day Adventure

I always get a little antsy when the boys have a 3-day weekend and Kirk is on shift. It's already challenging enough entertain them for the weekend alone; sometimes that extra day will put me over the edge! This year, Kirk had to work Labor Day weekend and the weather was supposed to be unbearably hot at home, so I decided an adventure was in order.  (Don't I always, though?) We don't get to visit Kirk at his station often enough, so I decided that definitely needed to be a priority.  Everything else was just spur-of-the-moment fun.

 First, we had lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory and finally saw "Planes: Search & Rescue." Then, after a swim at our hotel, we headed over to SMFD Station 21 to visit with Kirk.

 This was one of the sweetest moments of our trip (possibly of my life). We were walking back from buying our dinner and Kirk was carrying Lawson on his shoulders. A little boy shouted from a passing car, "Look! That firefighter has a baby!" 

 As always, the boys all had a wonderful time at the station; and, as always, I took too many pictures of them having fun. 

I'm not going to say I got a lot of sleep that night, but the big boys did. Thank goodness I had the iPad to entertain the little boys for a bit in the morning. I think I scored an extra 20 minutes of sleep... 

The next morning, we headed over to Santa Cruz, expecting the Boardwalk to be a madhouse. I'd already warned the boys that it would probably be too busy and that we'd likely just head north to one of the quieter beaches. It was surprisingly un-crowded, so we made a day of it. 

 The little guys even took a snooze on the beach, so I had a chance to relax a bit and the big boys had a chance to go explore the boardwalk at their  leisure. 

And when your kids look like this, you know it's time to load up and head home!