Breakfast

Molly & Clara enjoying Joe's O's at "our" beach house.

Play All Day (by Taro Gomi)

Nana got the girls a most excellent activity book: Play All Day by Taro Gomi (also known for the classic "Everyone Poops"). They're right now happily popping out the linking monkeys, and chatting away. Quotes include the following exchange (which I think reflects their mood in the moment, their mood with the book, and the vacation in general):

M: this is just sooo fun!
M: being here in Santa Monica
C: I wish we could stay here forever
M: it's like being in a dream
C: and we could go to the pier whenever
M: well maybe not whenever, but if it was like a summer camp we could.

Heal The Bay Aquarium

(fishy faces!)

Fun on the Pier

As always, the Pier is a big hit. Unfortunately, the kids have come to associate the word "pier" with "amusement park", as we found out when we went to the Pismo Beach pier, which is just a regular ol' pier, and the girls kept asking where the rides were!

they even like the little rides!

Clara & Sofi on the ferris wheel

Molly piloting an airplane

Sisters piloting a hot air balloon 

camera wars

the Zander-Franklin girls on the Ferris wheel

Clara snuggles a parrot

Molly ponders a parrot

Clara on the goat!

Clara enjoying the bumper cars

sisters flying a plane

Clara and Molly on the drop ride

Molly & Clara take Nana for a ride on the balloon

Nana & Molly on the roller coaster (they're in the 2nd row!)

Dragon Boat Racing

Loose Tooth!

That's right! at long last, Ms. Molly has a loose tooth. She woke up yesterday and leaped out of bed declaring "I have a loose tooth!" And she's barely been able to keep her finger off it since then. She also refused to go into the sand at first, for fear that she'd lose the tooth in the sand and not be able to find it!

She references the tooth fairy often, usually describing what she thinks the tooth fairy will bring her (toys, not money) and that she knows who the tooth fairy really is ("it's your parents!" she declares. After which I usually ask - "Nona and Opa?!" or "If I'm the tooth fairy, why don't I know it?"). She's also decided that the tooth fairy won't come until we get home if she does happen to lose her tooth while we're on vacation, because, of course, the tooth fairy needs a vacation as well. Which is good, because we have a beautiful tooth pillow waiting at home.

Water at the Beach

Most days we also make it all the way to the water. It's a verrrrry wide beach! But the water is lovely.

Clara & Zach starting the trek.

Clara doubling back for something.

Zach & Clara checking out the water.

everyone checking out the water

Finding sand crabs

digging for sand crabs

sitting in the water

going a little farther 

the view back to our place