My New Favorite City

If you look real close you can see a whale spray out there.

We ditched school Friday and took my parents and Justin's brother Paul to Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

(they were both in town for Drew's baptism)

This visit was awesome thanks to the multiple whale sightings, my dad's spotting scope/binoculars, some beach exploring, and a picnic.

 There's another whale out there.

After the lighthouse, we drove a few miles up the road to explore some more Pescadero.

Harley Farms is a goat farm that does tours and sells their worldwide award-winning cheese (they beat France!).

I don't always love goat cheese, but when I do it has cranberries on top and walnuts in the middle.

The ricotta was my favorite, but I couldn't think of any way to prepare it that would do it justice.

 Apricot pistachio, cranberry walnut, and "Monet" goat cheese.

 They gardens where they grow the edible flowers for their Monet cheese.

 Justin had to hold back the urge to milk those goats.

Okay not those ones, those are babies.

But their moms.

(his first job was milking goats and scooping poop)

 This room was so cute. They host private events and dinner parties there.

Next stop: Arcangeli Grocery for fresh garlic herb artichoke bread and olallieberry pie (not pictured).

Both were amazing. The pie was better than Gizdich, the usual favorite around here.

 On the way to the grocery store there was this pile of free stuffed animals.

 Just what Mom wanted.

Some fresh produce samples before heading home.

Had a lovely visit in cute Pescadero.

Home of the free stuffed animals and $18 pies.

Funnel Cake and General Conference

4/5

Saturday went like this:

General Conference
Good Ol' Days (street fair in downtown Pacific Grove)
General Conference
Monterey Museum of Art's 55th birthday celebration (just Sally and I went).

And then Sunday was filled with more General Conference and not much else.

After the Saturday sessions I was thinking how well the kids did.

And then Sunday came along.

So many great talks, though.

Oh and I lifted my self-imposed ban on Pinterest for some General Conference inspiration. Found this:

Those little pom poms have magnets on them. There was a printable for each of the 12 apostles and first presidency to decorate their tie and first letter of their last name. Sally spent a lot of time with this. And Drew and Owen even snuck a few turns. You're welcome for the half-eaten pretzel in the picture.

Sunday I also took Drew's baptism pictures.

4/6

Can't decide which smile I like better, so you get both.

Pigeon Point and Año Nuevo

 (note all the baby elephant seals in the background)

4/3

I am still happy about this day trip to Pescadero last week.

We visited the Pigeon Point Light Station and the elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Park.

I had never been on Hwy 1 north of Santa Cruz. It is amazing.

Like I just wanted to keep on driving. And I hate driving.

And like I wanted to go back the very next day.

Loved the Lighthouse a lot (except the pesky flies).

Año Nuevo was beautiful and the kids did awesome on the 3-mile walk.

I wasn't jumping out of my seat for the elephant seals, though.

There were hundreds of them, but we can get just as close (if not closer) to them in other places.

So yes, I'm just happy the rain went away so we could have one lovely spring break adventure.

April 2nd Day

I let myself down and couldn't come up with a good April Fool's joke for my blog.

My one and only joke for the day was planting these pickles for the kids.

And they totally fell for it.

Drew swore he never planted pickle seeds.

He wanted to pick them, but wasn't sure if they were ripe.

Owen finally picked them hours later after I told them it was a joke.

 We've been having a most rainy spring break so far.

It's cramping my style, but the kids are still having fun.

Sarah sent this watermelon cupcake mix over the other day.

Sally and Tes had fun making and frosting. 

August had fun eating.

The sun finally came out today just in time for our cub scout bike ride.

We rode 4+ miles round trip from Lover's Point to Custom House.

Custom House is the oldest government building in California.

Also, the site where the American flag was first raised and CA was deemed part of the USA.

Scouting the Lighthouse

The ocean makes everything better.

Especially scouting events.

Love that we got to join Monterey 1st Ward for a flag ceremony at Point Piños Lighthouse.

The views there are pretty awesome.

This was Drew's first event as an official 8-year-old Cub Scouter.

Which also included a quick romp in the field with some more wild callas.

3/29

Raindrops Were Falling on His Head

Also, it was fun to have my picture chosen for Photo of the Week on Blog Monterey.

And we kicked off spring break with sand diapers at the beach.

PS Have you seen this commercial?

August is obsessed.

Mostly Proud Moments

 3/13

So proud.

3/22

Picture Day: lined up shortest to tallest.

Drew is always first in line with that arrangement.

3/23

Oh blessed day.

First day of nursery was a success.

He literally ran in, didn't blink twice when we left, and didn't notice us at the end for pick-up.

Too busy going down the slide.

Afterwards he was more hyper than I've ever seen him.

Nursery high.

3/26

Today Drew's class had a field trip to the aquarium.

But Drew was more excited for the bus ride than the aquarium.

I was working for most of it, so Talen's mom sent me this cute picture from the ride.

(Talen is Drew's best friend here...which works out nicely for Sally, who has a crush on him)

I made it to the aquarium just as they were leaving.

Stayed another hour with August.

Then got to my covered parking lot to be hit with a $30 flat rate charge.

What the?!

I swear it said $3.

I normally park up the street for free, but it was pouring rain.

Bad news.