lovely oceanside

I mentioned before that we spent the first week of March in Oceanside, California for Tony's birthday week. We bought a week at a condo at a charity auction for Southern Cross/Eagle-Condor and with our free flights, it was a great deal!

The condo was a short walk from the beach and we went with a simple agenda. Sleep, exercise on the beach, sleep, go to the San Diego Zoo, sleep, play on the beach, relax, read and more sleep.

And we did just that. It was wonderful.

First, some pictures from the zoo. I guess we tend to spend birthdays at zoos. First Ryan's first birthday and now Tony's. I tend to spend my birthdays either on a plane to NY or at the NY Gift Fair, which is another type of zoo altogether.

The zoo was amazing and we could have spent a couple of days there. Ryan was captivated by all the animals and so were we.

There were some silver back gorillas that were amazing - we couldn't stop watching them. But we were equally captivated by the lions, tigers, bears, elephants and everything else. By the end of the day, he was zonked.

When we first put Ryan down on the sand, he wrapped his legs around Tony's and didn't want to stand on his own. It was quite funny, but it made for a heavy boy. But after a few days, we couldn't keep up with him. I loved watching his cute little bum run along the sand.

With the exception of Ryan discovering his terrible two scream, it was an amazing trip. When I got home, I told my friend Marcia that Ryan was a big challenge on this trip and it would take a lot for Tony to talk me into another vacation anytime soon. She just replied, I love it. She was happy to see, as only a good friend can be, that Ryan wasn't all easy all the time.

But screams or no screams, he's still a pretty fun kid and we wouldn't trade him or our vacations for the world.

Next up...mom's big 70th birthday party.