Opa and Oma visit - Friday: Santa Cruz

Today I took Opa and Oma, Wyatt, and Nick south 45minutes to the beach/surf town of Santa Cruz. We left a little later that I had planned which worked out fine because the weather was overcast and cool starting out and warmed up as the day went along. We drove through the winding roads with Yannick screaming "airplane MOM-MY!" meaning he wanted me to play the airplane song (Danger Zone from Top Gun) over and over. Since we had guests in the car, I deemed it poor form to make them listen to one song ad nauseam. Wyatt was also asking for the Spiderman song repeatedly. Still, we made it there by 10:45 despite me getting a teensy bit lost. Not lost really, but when there are one way streets going the opposite way you want to go, it's tricky. Needless to say, we made it to the pier. We stopped at the restaurant on the beach first to get our coffee break. Kids got hot chocolate. Wyatt dipped his granola bar in his, and Yannick refused to drink his. I enjoyed my white chocolate mocha! We all ate a granola bar for a snack and started our walk down the pier. I know I have done this walk several times now, but I still love getting to the end of the pier and hearing and seeing the sea lions. They did not disappoint this time either. We saw some sleeping on the cross beams, some awake, and some in the water, all, as Chris and Martin Kratt would say "living free and in the wild". Wyatt was very eager to get to the beach at that point so we walked back down the pier and claimed a picnic table for lunch. Opa guarded all the stuff and sat at the table while Oma and I went to the beach with the boys. I was smart this time. I remembered to bring extra pants for the boys and towels for drying off afterwards. They dug in the sand for a bit, then headed off towards the water. Wyatt had a grand old time splashing around in the water. Oma stayed with him and got to check "feel Pacific Ocean" off of her bucket list. Nick is seriously afraid of the water. It does not help that last time he accidentally got soaked when a rogue wave washed up pretty far. However, I did find him a small puddle which pleased him. Finally he had enough and he and I went back to the sand toys to dig dig dig. Wyatt and Oma joined us after Wyatt somehow got not only his pants, but his shirt wet as well!! I did not think to bring a spare shirt! So Wyatt ended up wearing his jacket like a shirt on the way home. :) At 12:30 we made them stop playing in the sand which was met with much consternation. But the clock rules the world (or at least mine), and it was time to eat so we could get back in time for naps bf Z comes home. We all showered our feet off...Wyatt extensively and ate our picnic lunch. The highlight for Yannick was that Wyatt dropped one of his pirate booty, which a bird then stole off the ground. Nick spent quite a bit of time saying "bird. take. Wyatt. booty." :) Cute. Everyone did well on their lunch, and we all had a few M&Ms as a treat. Then back to the car with 15 min to spare ($0.25/10min!!) and headed back home. We had to exit off the highway after W realized I had never buckled him in. Eek! OF COURSE I somehow missed the exit for 85N and we had to turn around and head back, but I just barely missed it so it was just 2-3 minutes out of the way. But made it home we finally did! Both boys fell asleep in the car, and amazingly BOTH stayed asleep during the transfer to bed. Now we have an hour to relax before Z gets home.