And then there were 9

The five of us were joined on our third day at the beach by Marc's parents and two of our nieces, A and Z.

We started off our day with them by having lunch at a place I've never heard of, but will never forget. We walk up to this little corner cafe just up from the Pismo Beach Pier and waited in a long line for about 30 minutes, then waited in a very crowded cafe for another 30 minutes and then tried some of the most wonderful clam chowder I have ever had. Seriously, Marc and I were just talking about how we should take another trip to Pismo just to try out that clam chowder again.

Wanna know what the place is called? I'll tell you: Splash Cafe. Try it sometime and tell me what you think. People in line kept saying it was worth the wait and it certainly was.

After lunch we headed out to Avila Beach. It was about a 15 minute drive from Pismo and boy was this place a family friendly beach. It was awesome!

Running to the beach when we first got there

Brother's famous pose...

The ocean always makes a great picture

Brother and Z running to and from.. check out the bird... and don't those boats look so cool out there?

Marc and Baby playing her favorite game of "Catch Me"

Bad part was, it was extremely windy. Sitting on the beach wasn't the funnest thing to do. You either needed to be in the water or shielding your eyes and mouth behind a jacket.

Sister didn't last long in wind, not only because she doesn't like the wind but she didn't like eating sand. So I went up with her to the park just above the beachfront. I took some pictures of her just because it was funny to see her out in the sand and sun with a coat on.

I was intently watching my daughter and seeing how the other children around her would interact. I was trying not to be offended as I would see each child she approached to play with looked at her strangely and walked away. She seemed to be oblivious to it all and would just continue to play on her own until she found someone else she thought might be willing to play with her. As I was contemplating the challenges my daughter would continue to face all of a sudden the entire playground emptied... I was thinking, OK I know that my daughter isn't that scary, what just happened? And older man noticed my confusion as I was coming out of my thoughtful daze and he chuckled, "Hurry, they're giving away free ice cream over there!" And pointed to a Target van parked alongside the park area.

Thank goodness everyone left for ice cream and not because of my daughter... (smile)

Target certainly didn't skimp on these frozen treats. Sister got a big rocket popsicle and I got a yummy drumstick... mm mm. I called down to Gary and told him to send the other kids up for ice cream. They got up there real quick.

While I was up at the park Marc took pictures of Baby making sand castles with Grandma Lynne

nice hair dude

After a few hours we said our goodbyes to the family so they could get home in time for swim practice and we went on to San Luis Obispo again.

Funny story about San Luis Obispo... we had accidentally left Sister's favorite blue jacket at the park we had gone too. (Hence the pink coat at Avila). We figured since we were going back there we would try looking for the jacket at the park... we weren't really expecting it to be there, but we hoped. Lo and behold, it was still there, right where she left it, on the park bench. Oh, there are still sweet, honest people out there. Sister was SO happy to have her jacket back.

Anyways, on to San Luis Obispo: we found a free parking spot (which it rare in that town) and walked around some shops. We noticed that there were some streets being blocked off and so we asked a local what was going on. It was the Farmer's Market! There is just something about going to a Farmer's Market in a coastal town. It was an hour away so we decided to just chill out in this really cool toy store we came across. The kids were in heaven... for most of the time.

As we got out to the Farmer's Market crowd you could just see the anxiety flare up a notch on Brother and Sister. So I carried Sister while Marc carried Baby and Brother held on to my arm. We were able to make it up to the end and back again with 3 purchased apples, a picture with a person in a bear costume and the experience of being surrounded by hundreds of people in a Farmer's Market.

It was fun. 

It was stressful. 

But, our kids made it through and didn't even fall apart... 

at least not more than we were able to handle.

(Insert side note here: I don't want to hold my children back from all experiences in life just because they have a disability. I want them to have experiences that help them stretch beyond their comfort zone. We know when they can be pushed and when the shouldn't—sometimes it is a fine line, but I always feel good when at the end of the day they are able to talk about the things we did that were fun and sometimes those things were the toughest.)

Then we went home and got bathed and in bed... we were all completely spent.

Then we were off to Vegas!!! ...