Speed Bump

La Jolla holds a special place in the Geiger family. My Geiger grandparents lived there for about 20 years and all of us grandkids made trips to visit every summer. My first solo plane trip was to visit them and it was such a treat to be an only child for the week with special activities planned for each of our visits. It was the first place I saw the ocean and probably why California beaches will always be my favorite. A visit to La Jolla became the first visit to the beach for a new generation of Geiger grandchildren this year. I remember learning to boogie board with Grandma Lo, watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off with Grandaddy Geiger when he was pretty sick from his treatment for lung cancer, going to the yum-yum with him for donuts, and going to Disney Land with Uncle Adam. I remember fresh squeezed orange juice, Grandma's garden in the mornings, sitting in the hot tub under the stars, and the salty air of the ocean in June. We visited enough to make friends with the n...

This is Charlie obediently looking at the camera and saying "Cheese." We're still working on the smile that goes with it. Just across the street from our beach house was an awesome playground. Check out the ocean views in the background. We had some relaxing mornings here - Charlie playing, Mom and Dad drinking coffee and taking in another beautiful morning in sunny California. I could get used to this! We met up with our resident Kansans while in La Jolla. My friend Dan and his family are stationed with the Navy in Coronado. We were very jealous of their ideal location on Coronado island near the beach, an idyllic small town life in southern Cal. Last time Charlie saw Amelia and Maren (she was under the weather and didn't come with us to the park) it was in Kansas. I hope we get more California visits in the future.

A few more posts from our February trip to California... Charlie loved the beach! It was the perfect playground. He would sit in the sand and dig for hours. Ryan and I were able to relax next to him in beach chairs with a good book. But Charlie also liked to have help digging so we did plenty of that, too. The sand got everywhere... I know we brought lots of it home with us in our suitcase. Charlie's Geiger cousins were with us during our stay and so he had a constant playmate. One day we all went to a Navy airshow - it was a beautiful sunny day and we packed a lunch to have a picnic and watch some airplanes. At one point there was a 36 plane flyover in formation! Very cool. Mitch very patiently helped Charlie hit the baseball... and kept him from swinging the bat directly at Mark. It was a relaxing and beautiful Saturday in California.

Charlie saw the ocean for the first time this February and I think it's safe to say he'll want to go back. He walked right into the water, although with a hand safely tugging on Dad's shorts. The beach in LaJolla was perfect for little ones with a long stretch of water with shallow waves to wade in and sand as far as the eye could see. We had great weather for our visit and the water was cold but not too cold to wade in... Charlie had so much fun chasing the seagulls and birds on the beach. Baby Manies was also at the beach for the first time, maybe she could hear the waves... Nothing like the ocean to make a little guy look incredibly small.