Sunday evening at Zuma beach

Mr. Party All Night was, of course, the first one out of bed on Sunday morning, but he wasn't quite himself. He was drunk tired, and kept lying down on the floor at random times. We let him stay up for a few hours, got some food in him, and then put him down for a much-needed nap. It was a hot day in Pasadena, so a trip to the beach sounded like a great way to cool off and end the weekend with some fun.

We got laundry and some shopping done (by "we," I mean that Christine did laundry and I went grocery shopping), and got all packed up by the early evening, after our tired boy came out of his catch-up slumber.

Jonathan took to the beach like a pro. He begged to "swim in the water?!" I kept telling him that the water was really, really cold, but he would have none of that. He wanted to swim. In our back-and-forth exchange, we got to see a pod of dolphins swimming by. You can see their fins in the water beyond us in the picture above.

Jonathan had both a fascination and healthy respect for the ocean's waves. Christine said that he was just like his daddy in his love for water. Meanwhile, I was feeling anxious the whole time that he was going to get swept away. Now I know how my mom felt when I'd drift way out in the Puget Sound, loving the feeling of floating on the waves.

We learn in school that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but that's not necessarily the most fun way to get from here to there . . .

Mommy and Jonathan had fun letting the waves lap their legs.

The power of the waves and their dizzying withdrawal down the beach made Jonathan lose his balance more than once.

He was so happy that it was impossible to get a clear picture of him, especially given the major marine layer that covered the beach. On our drive, we saw the temperature drop about 30 degrees, but the beach temperature was still comfortable.

Waiting for the next wave . . .

You can't just get your feet wet. Eventually a bigger wave will sneak up on you and soak your pants, too! I made the mistake of changing into pants before going down to the beach, and I ended up paying the price. Jonathan's sandy butt is cuter than mine, so I'll go with his picture here. :)

What's this? He held it for about 10 seconds before its slimy texture made him drop it like a bad apple, or a stinky piece of kelp!

We ignored the big "Keep Off" signs and checked out the lifeguard tower. All the LA county lifeguard towers were decorated this year with Portraits of Hope paintings (on corrugated plastic panels that were screwed on to the wooden lifeguard towers). If the beach patrol came by, I had us covered. "Hey, it's no problem. I was a lifeguard at Pepperdine in 1993."

Hopefully this is the first of many more pictures like it. We love the beach!

After the beach, we stopped by Malibu Yogurt for some red velvet cake flavored frozen yogurt. Delicious! By chance, someone had left a grocery cart with a little car on the front of it right in front of Malibu Yogurt, so Jonathan got to "drive" around the parking lot with Daddy after we enjoyed our treats. Some youngsters saw Christine with the DSLR camera and started shouting "paparazzi!" One of them came running toward me, but then walked away when he recognized that, despite the resemblance, I wasn't Tom Cruise.