Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

While we were visiting Mike's parent's house this summer, we had so much fun going to the boardwalk.We went with Sabrina, James, Alan, and us.

Emma went on her first big girl ride. We started out going on the pirate ship. (This one didn't flip around.)

 As the ride started to get higher, Emma got increasingly more concerned. About half way through she looked like she was going to cry and turned to me and said, "Mommy, this makes my tummy really hurt. " I laughed and told her that it is just making her stomach do flips like on the swings and that it is supposed to feel that way. I tried to convince her that it was part of the fun of the ride. I'm not sure it took so well while we were going, but as soon as it was done she perked right up and said. "I want to do it again!" (Make sure that you enlarge the picture below to check out Emma's priceless face!)

This is me trying to convince Emma that this is fun.

The adults took some turns going on the rides. Grandpa watched the cuties while Mike and I went on the big roller coaster there. We were feeling all mushy and sentimental because our first date was at an amusement park and it reminded us of way back when. 

Speaking of Grandpa, we had one of those panic moments with Anya that was a little bit sweet. She was wanting to wander so we told her that she had to stay with Grandpa and hold his hand. At one point Mike and James went on the big roller coaster so Alan and I stayed with the girls. Alan decided to run back to the car to get his sweatshirt and as soon as he left I couldn't find Anya anywhere. Emma and Kaitlin and I took off to try to find her while I was in a complete panic. I figured she might have went after Grandpa, but I couldn't see them through the crowd. I'm frantically trying to find the cell phone so I could call him to see if he knew where she was. (Skip forward 5 minutes and down the pier to where Alan was.) All of a sudden Alan felt this little hand reach up and grab his hand. Anya was just following Grandpa and holding his hand like she was supposed to. Once we were reunited, it was almost a cute story. ; )

The girls and I went on the carousel. Emma was so excited that she got to ride on the highest horse. It was so high that she had to climb on mine to be able to climb on hers. (I love the perspective of little kids.) 

The best part of the night was when we split up so Emma could go on the dragon roller coaster and Anya could go on her own ride. I went with Emma and Mike went with Anya. Emma was cracking me up because she screamed on the ride, but not a long ahhhhhhh scream, it was these short, tiny, high pitched ah, ah, ah, ah. Then she would try to be brave and would slowly put one hand in the air while the other hand was white knuckling the bar across our laps, but as soon as we turned or went down a dip, she would quickly grab the bar again. It was so funny!

Anya was equally cute as she rode on her ride. There was a bell that she kept ringing the whole time and was smiling up a storm. 

My favorite part was that when we were walking up to each other to meet back together, each child ran to the parent that they didn't ride with and started quickly, and excitedly telling them about the ride they just went on. It was so adorable! We had a lot of fun and I hope we will do again next time we are down there.