Another day at the beach! Everyone rents big umbrellas at the beach, which was a relief because the sun is strong and hot! Another thing about the beach is there are constantly people walking along the beach selling all sorts of goods - plantain chips, ice cream, beer, hair braiding, water, a hot meal, empanadas... the list goes on! When we go back, I totally want to fulfill my childhood dream of getting my hair braided on the beach in Mexico like so many of my friends, but through Holly and Greta. They may hate it. We didn't buy much from the walking vendors, but I did buy sliced green mango with salt and lime juice and that was so good, so refreshing! The only thing that would've made it better was if it was cold. Definitely buying that again when I get the chance!

Holly and Greta loved playing in the water, in the sand, and looking for shells (lots and lots of shells!). Maeve was very, very happy in the water and playing on the beach. On this day, she fell asleep almost immediately once I put her in the ergo to go! 

I'm excited to return to the beach and a little nervous too about logistics. Conor will still be working for a week and a half at the beach (didn't take that sabbatical after all, saving it for later). I'm not sure how I'll protect our belongings from being stolen, and swim in the water with my children, and have money to buy green mangoes, and have keys to return to our apartment. Never mind taking photos. It may be time to buy a fanny pack that can come in the ocean with me! Or we may have Conor do an alternate work schedule where he comes with us to the beach for a little while during the day. Our white skin can handle only so much of the Ecuadorian sun anyways. We will figure it out, I hope!

And just to tug at the heart strings, here's Greta in the same swimming suit Maeve is wearing at a pool in California and at Bonavista Lake in Calgary! 

We loved Salinas and look forward to going back early in April. What a treat it was to swim in a warm ocean with just the right amount of waves. Salinas is so hot and humid and there were many moments when the heat was too much for me. I'm still Canadian after all. But, once we made it to the water it was perfect! Refreshing but not cold. All three of my daughters loved the water. Maeve was so happy to be kicking her little feet and moving her hands through the water. It was adorable and brought me so much joy! 

While in Salinas, we went to La Chocolatera, which is the most westerly point in Ecuador. We went just as the sun was beginning to set and it was beautiful! And the perfect temperature. We could see crabs scuttling around on the rocks - they were so camouflaged it was hard to see them! The ocean is so healing for me. I loved being along the coast again. 

Maeve's little romper is size 6-12 months and it still fits her (she's 15 months old!), which is great because it's one of my favorites. 

We're savoring our sunny days at the beach. They're coming to an end. In less than 3 weeks, we will no longer call California home. We're beginning a new chapter in Washington. I'm at both ends of the spectrum emotionally. I'm excited about Washington, happy to be closer to family and I'm in love with the home we're buying. And I'm going to miss California something fierce - the place, the people, the whole dang thing. Living in California has been an amazing gift. Our family, our marriage has done a lot of changing while we lived here. We climbed so many mountains here, our most known one was paying off our debt. California is the only home our girls can remember - they were too small when we left Colorado. We are going to miss just about everything about living here (our dear friends are at the top of that list!) and I'm already planning next summer's vacation in this golden State!

A trip to Half Moon Bay with Conor! Traffic is seriously so insane here these days. It can be painful to get to the beach. We were planning on going to Santa Cruz, but there was a couple accidents on the 17 and early Friday afternoon traffic... so change of plans! Half Moon Bay was cool and breezy and beautiful.