Family Vacation -- Newport Beach

Usually there are Excel spreadsheets.  Spreadsheets about the spreadsheets.  Usually a family vacation would entail months of planning.  Physically planning on the Internet.  Mentally planning the logistics.  Financially planning the expenses.  This year was different.

The Hubs had a moment of spontaneity, and I capitalized on that moment.  It was one of those life's too short sort of moments.  I love it when he has these moments.  He loses the planner in him for a moment, and I feel as though we are on the same page for a brief moment.  We balance each other nicely that way.  He's a planner... a saver.  I'm a doer... and like to spend our money on things that will give us priceless memories in return.  We are both right, and we are both wrong, so we balance.

So, in this moment of spontaneity, we decided to head to the beach.  I couldn't think of anything I wanted more from this summer than a photo of my boys playing in the sand.  I got my wish.

We started our trip to Newport on Saturday, and we planned to head to the beach and Knott's Berry Farm.  We did that and more.  We visited Balboa Pier several times during our stay which has a fun kids' area with both a ferris wheel and a carousel (which went waaaay faster than the one at Knott's Berry).  We had some nice dinners, and also mauwed down on some fried goodness (read: corndogs!!).  We stayed at the beautiful Westin hotel in Costa Mesa.  It had a fantastic pool that we visited daily.  Here are just a few of the 187 photos that were taken over the weekend.  I'll try to get more up later.  

I hope your summers are going well!!