My Favorite Place

We spent our New Year's Eve (Mr. M's birthday) at my new favorite spot. It's a little hidden cove down the coast, and I had never been to it before last Saturday. I spotted it on the map and suggested we check it out - then Mr. M realized that it's the beach where he shot his thesis film for his Master's degree 12 years ago (we met at USC Film School when we were both getting our MFAs). He shot that thesis just a few months before we met, so I had never been to this beach with him. How crazy is it that after all these years, I would pick this spot randomly to go to as a family for the first time on his birthday?

See that building down by the beach? That is actually a preschool! Can you believe that?! I want to send Ginger there next year, but the drive is a bit much...if she were my only child I would totally do it! But I don't think it would work because, well, when you have three kids you can't drive one child 30 minutes each way to preschool. ;-) But having siblings is way better than a year or two of beach preschool. Right?

To get to this amazing beach, you have to hike down the cliffs. The girls did great...thankfully, this was actually one of the last days Ginger agreed to wear clothes and shoes, so she was able to do it no problem. I guess one of her 2012 goals is to cut down on laundry by going clothes-free? ;-)



I had baby Violet in the baby Bjorn, so I had to kinda trail behind and go slowly so as not to tumble...



Once we got down to the beach, Ginger hung out on the rocks and was being a pistol. A cute pistol.



Me and the birthday boy. :-) Baby Violet is under that nursing cover, fast asleep to the sounds of the ocean.



The little pistol and her daddy. As hard as she is, she is so full of joy and sunshine. It's a wild rollercoaster with her...one day she is going to make her future husband very happy and very crazy. Ha!



Paprika swam in the water the whole time we were there. She was doing her mermaid dances, and having the grandest time. She told us that she wanted to live at this beach and never leave. The water was freezing, but she did not care one little bit.



The most amazing part of the day (for me) was when I noticed a pod of two dolphins not far out. They swam near us for quite awhile, and I just felt like it was the twins, Vivian and Annemarie, saying hi to us. It's hard to explain, but I felt the girls' presence in that moment, and it was pretty magical. It felt for a brief moment like our whole family (the twins included) were all together on a magical beach, on the last day of the year, on Mr. M's birthday. It was a truly rare, perfect moment.



Then we came home and had birthday cupcakes for Mr. M and took turns singing Happy Birthday. We didn't have birthday candles (doh!) so we used regular candles and an LED candle. Classic!



The day after New Year's Day, we decided to go back to the beach again. Paprika was soooo excited. This time we put her in a swimsuit so she wouldn't have to swim in her dress! It was a gorgeous day, but since it was after the first of the year and Ginger had obviously made her New Year's Resolution not to wear clothes or shoes, we had a hard time getting her down to the beach. So, I played with her (barefoot) and baby Violet up on the cliffs while Mr. M took Paprika down to swim. I did get a dress on her (briefly)...and took these pics on my cellphone camera:



I cannot wait to go back to this magical place. Just thinking about it makes me happy. :-) Next time, we are bringing the Ergo baby carrier, so if Ginger won't wear shoes, we can carry her down! Ha!