Love, Learn, Play: California Adventure- Day 21

Ok, so I know that yesterday I said each day gets better than the day before... but yesterday was truly the best day of our trip!

Ever since I was pregnant, I have had a wonderful support network of twin moms from across the country- all who had their twins in the year 2009. Over the last three years, we have shared the laughter and tears of raising twins. Some of these women have become very close friends and I'm not sure how I would have survived this journey without them. Before we came to California, I had had the pleasure of meeting two of my closest friends... Heather and her twins Max and Ty in Sarasota, Florida and Aileen and her twins Sean and Christopher in Long Island, New York. Today I got to meet another of my closest friends... Jenn and her boys Nick and Jack in Santa Barbara, California :) They actually live just outside of San Francisco, but they drove all the way down to Santa Barbara to meet us!!

We had the most absolutely amazing day together. We met at "Shipwreck Park" in the morning and all four of the boys got to play for quite awhile. We stopped for a morning picnic snack, then they all discovered the ugly fish fountain that spit water! Nick and Jack built a dam to pool up the water and when the dam broke all of the boys dug a river path. Every few minutes the ugly fish randomly sprayed a giant fountain of water so the boys all eagerly anticipated the next spray. Jon and Chris, Jenn's husband, kept trying to figure out the timing of the spray... when they were unable to accurately do so, they came to the conclusion that someone somewhere was sitting there with a little remote control and waiting for some grown up to stick their face in there, then pushed the button to spray them and laughed!

Between the fish water and sand, the boys were covered head to toe in sand mud so we decided it was time to head across the street to the beach. If you have ever pictured a perfect beach day on the Pacific Ocean- we had it. It was sunny but cool and Santa Barbara was just gorgeous... giant mountains rising up behind us and dozens of sailboats docked out in the water in front of us. All four boys worked on some sand castles for awhile. Then we got out some bubbles and they all had fun blowing and chasing bubbles in the sea breeze. And then they discovered the little sand ledge and started the new Olympic sport of cliff jumping!!! It was toddler heaven!!! It only took a few minutes for Jon and Chris to jump in and start shaping the cliff with their wolverine diggers, or badger shovels, or whatever they were called... but it was quite hilarious! Then all four boys (or should I say all six boys!) spent what must have been a solid hour jumping off the edge of this cliff!!! There were a few face plants in the sand, but no tears... just uncontrollable laughter!!! At some point the older of the six boys decided to start digging little caves into the side of the cliff. So all six of them were hard at work digging toddler sized holes in the sand while Jen and I sat under the beach umbrella laughing hysterically. After all little four boys took turns relaxing in their cliff caves, Matthew and Jack had the idea to combine cliff jumping with their new cliff caves and spent some time jumping over the cliff and into the caves! As if we hadn't had the most perfect beach day in the history of the world, Jon broke out the kites he and the boys bought the night before for some kite flying on the beach. With the sea breeze, the boys were able to just hold the string and watch in amazement as their kites danced in the air. Our two kept letting go of the string and the kite would run away... twice Jon went flying across the beach to catch it, and when it was Chris's turn he took a rolling dive in the rocks to get the string before it was gone forever!!! Oh dear!! All for a $1.00 kite!
It was almost 2:30 in the afternoon so we decided to pack up and get all of our tired little beach boys a nap, so we each drove around Santa Barbara for an hour while they all slept. Then we met back up at the train station to watch the trains come in and to see the world's largest bay fig tree, which was the one and only thing Jon wanted to see in Santa Barbara. It was actually quite amazing! After that we rode the carousel, walked to a pizza place for dinner, and then walked out onto the Santa Barbara Pier. The boys got serenaded by a street performer who sang a song about them while they all danced on the pier :) We watched pelicans fight for the fish the fisherman were tossing their way... at times we got to watch a little too up close and personal! We even saw a sea lion pop up from under the pier! We walked back to the beach park where the boys all golfed as the sun set and before we knew it, it was nearly 8:00 and time for us to all head home :( It was so hard to say goodbye to our new friends and to our wonderful day. I just pray that somehow we will meet again and that the boys can continue these twin friendships long past just one day together as toddlers.

Thank you Jenn, Chris, Jack, and Nick for driving all this way so we could get together and thank you for the most amazing day... it was more than I could have dreamed of and it will surely be a memory to last a lifetime! And now for the photo bomb!

Hit the Skater's Point before we met up wit our friends