staycation, all I ever wanted

the rest of our week in newport flew by in the blink of an eye. vacation always does that, right?

although the hub did have to leave us a couple of times to do some actual work. when he headed out the first time, we decided to take a break from the beach and did a lot of browsing at nearby fashion island. 

the kids picked california pizza kitchen for lunch, where i enjoyed a bit of day drinking with their sangria flight. 

we drooled over all the fun stuff at the apple store. i personally would not turn down this pretty little rose gold mac book air:

i'd asked the old lady if the dress i was wearing that day screamed "homemade," but with the right accessories i guess it was okay. 

the bean got to pick out some fun stuff from the markdown rack at the ivivva store. that's the girls' version of lululemon, in case you didn't know. 

the next day, the hub was gone all day long with various meetings and things with clients. it happened to be the one day that worked out for my parents to come down for a quick visit. 

they liked our little rental house and its close proximity to the beach. the bean loved getting herself half buried in the sand. 

I busted out my floppy hat and another dress i'd sewn just the week before. 
 

later, the four of us headed down to the beach again to watch the sunset. 

the next day, my co-leader and her two kids came down to join us for a day of fun in the sun. 

we had dinner at ruby's diner at the end of balboa pier, and then hit the fun zone for a ride on the ferris wheel and a couple of balboa bars. 
 

for our last full day at the beach, the hub decided to take a nice morning walk down to the pier. the girls and i headed down a little while later to meet up with him and found ourselves playing on the swings. 

and then somehow, we ended up renting a boat to cruise around the harbor. 

i recognized this giant yacht from a recent episode of RHOC, when heather dubrow threw a party on it for the whole gang. 

the bean started out at the front of the boat:

and then she eventually made her way to the back, where she curled up and snoozed for a bit. 

so of course, i took her place. 

we attempted to stop here for lunch:

but because we aren't seasoned boaters and were nervous about banging the thing right into the damn dock. so we opted out. 

as we neared the end of our rental period, the old lady did her best "king of the world" impression. 

and the bean woke up in time to help her daddy bring the boat in. 

she got him to let her take a turn on the bungee jumpy thing:

and then we made one last stop before heading home to make dinner. 

after dinner, the hub headed out to run an errand while the girls and i went back to the beach for one last sunset. 

just before the sun finally slid out of sight, the hub joined us on the cold sand. 

it always takes a couple of tries before we get a good shot. you know, because of photobombers:
 

or bickering between siblings. 

but everyone finally cooperated, and i got those last shots of our beach staycation. 

gotta love it.