Carlsbad - Day 2

We decided today would be a great day to relax and take things as they come. No serious plans other than we'd go pick some strawberries and stop at the outlet mall. It was a lovely morning where we just laid around in our jammies, had breakfast, and then relaxed a little more.

Eventually, we did get around to getting dressed and going to the strawberry fields. We love this place. And even thought we always seem to get here at the end of the season, we never fail to get some seriously delicious berries!

After strawberry picking, we headed to Carlsbad Premium Outlets. As much as I love to shop here, it always reminds me how much Madelyn is growing. I can remember shopping at Baby Gap years ago and practically buying out the store! All those cute little sizes and little girls outfits. It's hard to believe I'm now shopping for size 7!

Madelyn had fun carrying around all her bags. And all the bags were literally hers, except the Crate and Barrel bag. Lucky duck. We have been working on not begging for everything she sees, so she asked if she could "compliment" the things she liked and then at the end of the shopping trip if she had been good, she could maybe pick one of them. That worked like a charm. And she decided on a little 4th of July doggie purse, which she named Firework.

After shopping, we came back to the house and picked right up where we left off with our relax at home day. It was glorious!

We took the opportunity to use the BBQ and enjoyed some hot dogs and steaks. The weather was gorgeous, so eating on the patio was perfect.

Then, it was back to the beach to watch the sunset. But first we had to stop at the tiger mural to do a new pose...

Madelyn took watching the sunset quite literally at first. Here she is watching the sun set.

Once she realized it was going to take a while to actually see the sun set, she decided some cartwheels were in order. 

And then dipped her toes in the water...

Thanks, Kristin, for taking our picture. 

I don't always remember to put myself on the other side of the lens.

We chose the perfect night to watch the sunset from the sand. It was so peaceful, and absolutely beautiful!

Our neighbor made us some beach brownies (well, we called them beach brownies because that's where we were going to eat them), so we enjoyed a treat on the beach and then broke out the sparklers!

A boy who was on the beach with his family came over to tell us a sparkler secret. He said we could put the lit sparkler in the sand and pull it back out and it would still be lit. And what do you know?! It worked!

By far, tonight's beach adventure was my favorite part of the trip so far. We certainly will have dreams of sea water and sand. And sparklers. And sunsets.