Sunday work day

A. had to be at work (again) today at 1 PM. We went swimming for an hour before we all headed out to Santa Monica (again) together. Yeah, we were there yesterday but that was a shopping excursion. Today I decided to take Aria to the beach while A.'s at work. Aria and I had a quick lunch at McDonald's, then we trekked to the Santa Monica Pier. Boy was it crowded. And I can't believe how hot it was. Even with the sea breeze it was a pretty hot day. First, I took Aria to the indoor merry-go-around for a ride then we hit the Venice board walk. We really didn't go far on the board walk. I did discover so very kid friendly areas there. There were some climbing structures shaped like a dragon and a boat and there was a swing area and a whole gymnastic area for kids. She had a good time exploring. I had to drag her away so we can hit the beach. We spent about 4 hours on the beach. Majority of the time she played in the sand. We went into the water occasionally to cool down. Aria wasn't too keen on going into the water by herself so I had to go with her. I really had to carry her in, but she loved getting splashed by the waves . My phobia about things in the water (ie: trash, jellyfish, bugs) kept us from going too deep into the water. Hey, I saw so gross stuff being washed up in the water. That's the price to pay for going to a popular public beach that's also so close to runoffs. Thank goodness for water shoes. The only bad thing that happened today was when we were heading back to A.'s office. I was pushing the stroller and it hit a part of the curb when I was crossing the street. Aria wasn't buckled in and she flipped out and hit her head on the cement street. I was so scared for her. I heard her head go 'thug'. I thought for sure she was hurt. Luckly, all she had was a good cry and she went right to sleep for the rest of the ride to A.'s work. I'm a bad mom.

At the indoor merry-go-round.

Can you make out the dragon?