A weekend of wonders (warning: PG-13 photo included)

We snuck in one last, long weekend of summer at the beach.


First stop: a zoo Max knows, so he felt comfortable exploring. He made a beeline for the train—the one he wailed about getting on a couple of months ago.


He rode the merry go round! He's never wanted to do that before.

He pointed at three pigs and said "Ax! Ohhmmy! Addddy!" Which made Sabrina wail in despair, "I waaaaaaaaaaant to be a pig too!"


We were all charmed by the giraffes. Max told me this one's name was "Ax," too. Max's ego seems to be experiencing a growth spurt.

And then, two gigantic tortoises. "Ax!" said Max, pointing to both of them.


They soon confirmed that they were, in fact, a boy tortoise and a girl tortoise as a crowd of us stood there, gawking. "They're just playing," parents told their kids. It was totally bizarre, like watching Animal Planet live—except with the stuff they edit out.


In other news, this weekend Max floated by himself in a tube for the first time.


Sabrina went surfing...on her daddy. Just in case anyone needed further proof that he lets her walk all over him.


One night, we went to a fifties style ice-cream parlour, where Max ate two scoops of chocolate ice-cream and met Elvis. (This place specialized in The Elvis Pretzelly, ice-cream in a pretzel cone.)


The kids loved the car booths.


Tonight, Sabrina and I went for a walk together on the beach while Dave and Max hung out and ate yet more chocolate ice-cream.


She made me a sand cake.


But of course, there's nothing like riding the car shopping cart at Best Buy.