Making the most of Furlough days

Our school district is BROKE! Like, over a million dollars in the hole. So the school board decided to have 6 furlough days this year and 12 next year. They're like snow days, but with gorgeous spring weather.

 

On our first furlough day we went to Avila Beach. It's a great beach, but we don't go there often because it's usually crowded and we have to park SO far away. But on a random Monday afternoon in May, we were able to park right up front and practically had the place to ourselves. 

Dave met us there after work and grilled ribs for dinner. This means that I had to pack the car for the beach PLUS everything we'd need to cook dinner ALL by myself, stopping several times to feed Chloe. You wouldn't believe how long it took me. Like, 2 1/2 hours! Then on the way we stopped at the hospital to give them a thank-you card and a 2 lb box of See's candy. I stayed in the car with sleeping kids while the 3 oldest boys ran in and gave our gift to the pediatric nurses. They called Dave to thank us and say how amazing our boys are. It's true!

One great thing about this beach is that it has 2 parks - an old one right on the beach and a pirate park right next to it.

They love these old swings because they're so tall. New parks have pitiful short ones, if any.

I had fun taking pictures of the kids on the swings. I accidently cut off the top of Spencer's head in this one, so I cut and pasted one from another picture and thought it looked cool just sticking out of the picture. 

You know how much I love back lit pictures!

Yum!

We had one rib leftover, but a seagull swooped down and snatched it right out from under us. Man, they're quick!

Chloe just chilled the whole time. She's such a good beach baby!

Of course we had to roast marshmallows with the hot coals.

See - I was there too.

I love this picture of Brennan. He's so dang cute! It was an amazingly beautiful evening at the beach, and we had to pull ourselves away around 7:30. After all, we had school the next day.