tuna crab city

Well, I debated between watching my new fav show Grace and Frankie or writing this and I chose this. Because I feel like the excitement from today will wear off in the days to come and I may not remember everything. Plus watching TV is such a waste of my brain. I do love that show though.

So yesterday I braved the pool with the four kids which was an adventure in and of itself. Neighbor friends Gabe and Mari were there and mentioned they were heading out to Crystal Cove in the morning. You should come, Gabe said. We would totally help you, he said. I replied, Nah I don't think so, feeling overwhelmed simply entertaining the idea of taking all four kids to the beach without Dan. But Mari convinced me later that night via text. I believe her exact words were "You'll feel like a rock star." I do love to feel like a rock star so I agreed. I told Dan and he was very against the idea. He was certain someone would drown in the sea with that many kids and babies to keep track of. But I already told the girls and they were super excited so I told him not to worry even though I was pretty worried myself.

So I applied tons of sunscreen on the babies, packed toys and snacks and off we went. We parked our minivans full of our 9 kids and started piling 3 strollers (two singles and one double) with towels, diaper bags, beach toys and snacks. I don't think there were actually any kids in them at first. Addie hitched a ride with Gabe at some point on the way.

I posted this on Facebook but I have to include it here as well. Good ol' Mari. Look at her nursing while hiking downhill with a stroller in slippery conditions. What a gal.

As we walked up to the beach, the girls were all screaming something about crabs. We realized what it was a few seconds later... I guess El Nino washed up millions of little red tuna crabs along the coast of Southern California and Mexico. Thanks El Nino. It wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't all half alive... Mari has a thing about things that are half dead... I never thought about it before but I guess I'm not a fan either. We walked down a bit further and found a good spot with not too many half dead/half alive crabs and set up camp. Addie stayed in the stroller for a good 10 minutes while everyone else played. Maybe she was not a fan of the crabs either.

Annabelle (Mari's 8 year old humanitarian) saved as many as she could, tossing them back into the ocean.

This is Grace. She wanted to document this particular crab. Maybe it was a big one?

And Winter had fun stabbing them and building dead crab sand castles.

The big girls explored and the babies played in the sand for the most part and everyone had a great time with minimal crying and whining. And I totally felt like a rockstar on the way home... until Winter informed me that she went poop behind a large rock... But it was still a very successful beach day.

That large vein popping out of my neck is partly out of excitement that we survived the day and partly in anticipation of hiking back up the large hill we walked down.