Here’s a quick little summary of a surf session shared with my almost 4 year old little girl Luna. Our surf sessions are about much more than just catching waves. We play, sing, dance, and have all kinds of silly moments in between riding some super fun waves together. The important thing about surfing with your kids is to remember to always keep it fun!
With two little ones it has been a struggle to get both down to the beach at times. We live a short walk away, but a short walk for us is still a long one for little legs. My husband Kim bought a wagon frame and wheels in the states, brought it down and added a wooden seat. Now walks to the beach are so much easier. The kids think it’s really fun to ride!
Luna is starting to get into riding a surfboard in very tiny waves and Soleo just loves running around in the sand and pointing at birds.
After saying goodbye to family in Oregon, we packed up and headed just a bit further South, just over the border into Northern California. Last Christmas we purchased a lot near Crescent City and were eager to see it in the summer. Continue reading Giggling in the Trees of Northern California
We spent a couple of weeks in Oregon between Bend and Portland exploring with the Obermeyer clan. I didn’t capture quite as much with the camera but here are a few fun video moments mostly through the eyes of Luna. Continue reading Adventuring with Family in Bend and Portland
Does anyone make baby books anymore? Probably.
And I probably should. But with everything digital these days and how much we move around between countries, having something as precious as a baby book might be hard to keep track of. This is something i’ve been meaning to do for 2 years, so the sooner I start the better – A little snapshot recorded in text and photos that we can look back on, to that time when Luna was just 3. Continue reading Luna is 3
They aren’t really babies anymore, but my almost 3 year old and almost 1 year old love camping. My husband and I had been a little apprehensive about camping with little ones just because we’d never done it before. We invested in a nice 6 man tent, and figured sleeping all together on the ground wouldn’t be that different from sleeping all together in a bed! Turns out we were right! Continue reading Camping with Babies
If you’re looking for a toddler friendly activity to provide hours of entertainment, here’s a great one!
Piñatas are huge here in Nicaragua. Every major holiday event seems to involve a swarm of kids swatting a hard stick at each other’s heads as they dive in the dirt for candy. Luna is still intimidated by the crazy scene and I’m not thrilled about the bags of disgusting candy we end up with afterwards. But piñatas are too fun to give up for those reasons alone.
Our family lives primarily in Northern Nicaragua, but we do spend several months per year in Costa Rica. We love our little house in the jungle, watching monkeys from the porch, walking across the street to check the surf, playing with the kids in the river, and catching waves ourselves.
I pulled out the GoPro on the last couple of days of our trip to capture a few scenes summarizing our life in paradise. Kid play, a lot of checking the surf, and even a bit of surfing.
Luna has been going in cycles of wanting to surf with me every day for a couple of weeks, and then showing no interest at all. I don’t push it. If I say, “want to surf with mama?” and she says “not today,” then it’s not today.
But on this day, I asked her if she wanted to surf and she said “YES!” I passed off Soleo who was not thrilled at hanging on the beach with the nanny right at that moment, but when Luna wants to surf she gets to go surfing!
The waves were nice and small with a big channel. We paddled out and relaxed on the outside for a while. We talked about the channel, the peak, the inside, the outside. She pointed out whitewash and green waves. We played on the board, jumping off and swimming back to it. We looked for turtles, pulled up small pieces of driftwood for inspection, sang songs from Disney’s Moana.
Eventually a set swung wide and we were in the perfect spot, so while still singing a song, I turned to paddle. She held on tight, looking around as I did some gentle turns, was smiling and happy, and even gave me a mid-wave high 5. Then we paddled out for another. It was probably my favorite wave ever. 
After this wave, she was talking about surfing non-stop for the rest of the day and even practicing popups on my hand plane.
Salt Water Mama 