the mansfield family: Avila Beach

We took a trip to Avila Beach this weekend for an annual men's motorcycle riding weekend that John, his dad and uncles do every year. I just love Avila. It is my second favorite beach that we visit. We stayed in the Lighthouse Suites with John's parents and sister. The room was great and was right on the beach and across the street from the park. The hotel has a pool, ping pong tables, a life sized chess game and putting green. Lots of fun activities for the kiddos. We left on Friday afternoon and arrived early evening. We checked in and took a stroll down to the street fair that was taking place. After eating we went back to the room and attempted to put the kids to bed. Max had other ideas in mind- such as a pajama party. Yeah no fun for us, but apparently lots of fun for him. We ended up separating Max and Sam and Sam went to the other room to sleep with Aunt Katie. Bad idea. Who knew Sam was such a bed hog and that Kate would end up sleeping on the floor because Sam thought he was king of the bed and wouldn't scoot over. We all finally fell asleep around 11:30pm. The next day the men headed off for their ride and I took the boys down to the beach and then to the park with Karen. Sam loves to run from the waves and didn't even mind when the waves kept knocking him down. Max was not as fond of the water. Later that morning Karen's sister-in-law and two girls who live in Avila, met us at the park to play. John absolutely loves these girls and has such a close bond with his cousin Sofia. They are like two peas in a pod. We then headed over to the Avila barn for a very healthy lunch of ice-cream!!(Max and Sam did have PB&J) They barn is a great family place. They have hay rides, all kinds of farm animals and a cute little store. Next we went up to Julie's house. She lives up in the hills in Avila in a gated community. I love this house. It is directly on a hill and they have deer that come right up to their house. They also have a club house that has a great pool, so while Max napped Katie and I took John, Sam, Cascina and Sofia down to swim. Those kids swam for three hours. Karen calls John and Sam chocolate bunnies because they are so dark. After swimming it was dinner time so we went down the hill to their Deli. SOOOOO Yummy!!! At that point Sam was so tired because of the long day, so we took them back to the hotel to get ready for bed. They didn't protest that night. Little John was lucky enough to get to spend the night at his cousins house so John and I got to go for a motorcycle ride up to their house to give Little John his P.J.'s and clothes for the next day. Then we rode over to Fat Cat's diner to have a late night snack. Jeez that was a busy day. Sunday was much more relaxed. We spent it at the beach the whole day after getting Little John and the girls. We ate a late lunch, got an ice cream cone and played at the park some more. The ride home was incredibly long because of rode work. Thank God for the DVD player in Karen's van. We got home around 9:30 and all crashed.

funny story: while we were down at the beach I asked Sam if he wanted a PB&J sandwich. Max heard the word "sandwich" and came running. He loves food and can always eat. Later that morning he spotted some crackers on the person's blanket next to us and slowly crept over to try to snag some. He was just about to bend down, ever so sneaky, when I caught him and ran over to get him.

look at my beach bum son. He has an unbuttoned shirt on with no shoes in the resturant!

Our find of the day- a sand crab

Max almost asleep on Papa's shoulder. He was so good for how tired he was.

Mommy and some of her boys playing in the sand. Mikey aquired quiet the attitude while around his cousins. He was too cool for baby stuff, like digging in the sand.