Hudson was on bird duty. He kindly would chase away all the birds, he loved them, and we loved him chasing them because they were crazy! At one point after hiding our food under a blanket from them, they pulled the blanket off and all tried swarming our food! They even stole tissues right out of my diaper bag! 

Aside from the birds though, it was a beautiful relaxing day at the beach.

My daring Josh was even brave enough to go swim in the water... which was extremely cold seeing as it was January 1st! Here's the thing about the Josh though... I'm 100% positive that his single man dream would be living as a homeless person on the beach. He would seriously find that delightful, his heart belongs at the beach and in the water.

One good thing about the beach in January though, was this it was always pretty empty. We didn't have to wait for a fire pit to open up. In fact we were the only ones using one. We roasted hot dogs and made smores. Some how they both always taste better over an open flame! 

Literally seconds of that last picture of Piper dancing she fell completely off the lifeguard station! I thought for sure we would be leaving the beach with broken bones or something. It was at least a seven foot drop, but the sand softened her fall and she only lefts with cuts on her legs from hitting the ladder on her way down. 

From the beach we went and dropped Josh, Steve, Piper and Hudson off at the train station. The last thing on Josh's and Piper's list of things to do in California was to ride the Amtrak. They all rode the train from Irvine, CA to San Juan Capistrano, CA which was only a 12 minute ride but Josh said the kids had a lot of fun, although they were more interested in the reclining seats. Josh mentioned that the conductor on board was very sweet to the kids and gave them a Junior Conductor's Guidebook and some crayons. Anna and I drove to meet them at the next stop to pick them up, we beat the train by 20 minutes, so we poked our heads into a few fun stores and stole a quick glance at The Mission San Juan Capistrano! I hope to take a tour of that next time we go back, it looked amazing! Even though their train ride was short Piper became a Junior Conductor! She was very proud!

After the train ride for the kids and the boys, Grandma and Grandpa took the kids home and Josh's and I went on a little mini date to get some fish and chips at the pier. 

They were delicious! It was so fun to walk along the marina and listen to the sea lions barking as they were hunting and socializing. I wanted to stay and smell the ocean breeze longer, but it was so cold. Josh and I drove back to Grandma and Grandpa's house to put the kids to bed. We were sad that this would be our last night in California so we took the slow way back home. As we drove we tried to remember all of our favorite moments and the the things we would miss the most. For me, it was just the combination of everything I could not for the life of me pick a favorite, and for Josh it was the beach!