yesterday was beach day. it was sooooooooooooo fun! i could spend my whole vacation doing beach days. the waves were satisfyingly huge. there's no walking in bit by bit here. no way hosea. you step in and a wave comes and all the tender parts are doused at once. one step is a commitment in other words. anyways we had two boogie boards so we boogie boarded with the boogie boards, which is what you're supposed to do with a boogie board when you have a boogie board. it's so awesome when you catch a wave and it crests under you and propels you forward with a bubbling broiling frothing force. i caught this really big one that took me all the way in to the beach. i was still high on the wave all that i could see under me was the bare beach. "uh oh." i thought. "i'm going to get thrown." and i was, but it was ok. i survived. i could have kept going and going, and the only reason i got out, was because karey couldn't last, and you can't stay in by yourself, because in my mind, that's when the sharks come and get you. but it was so hard to get out because there was always one great wave in the distance calling me, inviting me even. yesterday was 'auntie sherry's' birthday as well as being beach day, by the way. she took time off of work while we're here. she's pretty hilarious. we started beach day by taking sherry out for lunch, which was breakfast even though it was almost 12 when we got to Coco's. luckily everyone liked breakfast all day types of meals. then we did a little shopping at Khol's. i'm going through a photo album phase. every time i see a really nice photo album, i feel a need to buy it. my fingers start twitching and my pupils dialate... so yesterday i had a stack of five that i was carrying around for a long time, the whole time thinking "this is ridiculous." but not being able to let one of the precious albums go. luckily i walked around long enough to let my better sence take over the feverish shopper me, and i only bought two. bought some sunglasses too, (green ones. like 'em. like 'em a lot.) and some speedo flip flops which are squishy and so accordingly comfy.

at the beach sherry kept telling everyone who came even near to our spot on the beach (which was nice and empty) that we were canadian and that she's been here for 15 years, but that we were just visiting. she's so funny. everyone was very friendly and stopped to chat. she even stopped some lifeguards who were driving down the beach in a yellow jeep so that we could take their picture. and once when we were asking for directions from a friendly man, his son was taking the garbage out and as we slowly drove by him, she yelled out the window "you're cute!" ha ha. he looked so surprised. sherry has a daughter who is 12 and basically she's in for some embarrassment during her teenage years.

i think we've finally re-coop-er-ated from our drive down here. we drove all through the night and got here at 4 pm. karey drove from 4:30 to 9:30 (to almost the bottom of washington) and then i drove until 4:30 in the morning (into oregon all the way through oregon, and into california). while i was driving my 7 hours karey was snoozing in the back. she woke up and we knew it was dawn's turn so i told her to take a nap in the back. well this was karey's argument that after driving all through the night for 7 hours, i had to stay awake with dawn while she slept in the back. well i tried for half an hour, but it was impossible. i fell asleep in the front with my head lolling back and forth. only to wake up two hours later from dawn's weaving back and forth. she kept hitting the wake-up strips. ha ha she only lasted two hours and then karey was back in the seat. by this time the sun was up and we were in the valley. it was beautiful, sunny, hot and green. i thought "i don't remember california being this beautiful.".... and that's a good place to stop. i need to eat something before we leave for disney. because today's disney day.