Poppie and Grandma Butt-Butt go to the beach (with us)

Zachariah's parents are visiting us for a while, and the kiddos are loving it! I'm pretty sure Poppie and Grandma Buttons are enjoying it, too... We have a lot of monster-ing going on, as well as lots of owie-pokie-swording, reading, snuggling, playing outside...good stuff.

Saturday we all piled in the trusty mini-van and headed to Piriapolis, home of our favorite beach (Punta Colorada), the animal zoo/park place, with all those cute little capybaras and more, and our more-recently-discovered-but-also-a-favorite: the marine animal rehab. And, of course, here is photographic proof:

On Cerro San Antonio, looking down on Piriapolis... Nuala was snoozing in the van.

Poppie and Bran

Look who woke up! I love her hair.

We rode cable cars down Cerro San Antonio. Gorgeous view! Pretty much the same one you saw up above. Which is gorgeous. Nuala loved it, if you couldn't tell. She was so excited, kept pointing all sorts of things out, "Mira, Mama, mira!! Big boat!!" (mira = look).

And oh yes...first we headed to the zoo/park place...We got there, and it was CLOSED! It's never closed! So Z got out to ask what the deal was, when it would open, and now just look at the handsome fellow...On TV. They were there covering the jaguar escape story, and thought, "there's a handsome redhead, let's get him on camera. But avoid the socks." So yeah, we didn't get to go see our little capybara buddies. The darn jaguar just had to stage his escape for the same day...what nerve.

Playing owie-pokie swords on the beach.

Grandma Buttons showing the owie pokie Bran so generously armed her with. For some reason his opponents always seem to end up with some dinky little stick when he's the one bestowing them. His are always huge. I'm sure it's just chance. Ha! The rascal.

We dug for razor clams and sand shrimp, too. Lotsa digging.

And built sand castles.

And of course went in the water! Here's GB getting ready to do some serious body boarding.

Then I got a turn. I love it. And can I say we had the most beautiful weather? Well, we did. It was really a blessing, because the previous couple of days had been rainy, and then Saturday was clear and sunny and hot. Sunday was clear and sunny, but we had a slightly nippy breeze, which is how today is, too. So we were very, very thrilled with our perfect beach weather!

AND, since we had more-than-willing Nuala and Bran watchers, Zac and I even got to body board together!! Do you know how long it's been since we've been able to play together? Too long. It was great. He's so much fun! So am I, if I do say so myself. Which I do. We were awesome at Team Body Boarding. So much so, that we think we'll start competing. I'm sure there's a big underground scene. (We just have to work on him not hogging the board.)

We sledded down the dunes...

...and tumble-bumbled, too. B&N love to tumble-bumble. I loved it when I was a kid, but now am not so fond of it. Z feels the same, but he got to be the lucky one to tumble bumble this time. GB and Poppie did, too! What good sports :) I got to take pics, though I've tumble-bumbled plenty in the past. And I foresee much more in my future...

Then we went to the rehab center. This little sea lion had only been there 5 days, but was really friendly. He even walked/flopped all across my feet in his rush to follow the rehab guy around. And he was so soft. So soft. You just wanted to pick him up and rub your face all over him, but didn't because he might bite your nose off.

Waiting for fish. The sea lion, not Bran. Bran's just watching. I don't know, maybe he wanted a fish, too... The sea lion got his medicine stuffed inside a fish belly. He wasn't fooled. He did eventually swallow it, but not with much enthusiasm.

Four of the group of oil spill penguins that we saw the last time were still there, still waiting for their feathers to all grow back. They're the same type that we saw on the cruise, Magellanic. This little guy had some neurological issues, so he had a head twitch. That didn't stop Bran from trying to poke him with a stick. Yes, we intervened. They are seriously the cutest penguins. You show me a cuter penguin, and I'll just close my eyes and pretend not to see.

The penguins were gently removed (meaning, the guy reached in the pen with a glove on, let a penguin bite his finger, then pulled them up and over the fence by their beaks) and individually fed vitamin pill-laced fishies. Then they were gently put back in their enclosure (meaning tossed over the fence). I got a nice action shot of that. See the little sea lion hanging out still? There were some other sea lions, and a giant petrel (they eat penguins, I didn't know that!), and a green sea turtle, and some other birds, but these guys were the most fun.

Then we went home, and drove through an awesome lighting storm! Yep, it was a good day.