Last Park/Water Day Before School Starts

Love these kiddos and I am sure going to miss them when they go back to school.  We decided  We just had to squeeze in one last park/water day before school starts.  We invited some friends, brought a lunch and headed to the water park at Whitney Ranch.  The kids had a blast running between both the park and the fun water features.

Soccer Season 2012 Begins

Here we go again!  Seems like soccer season just ended and here we are again, ready to begin the 2012 season.  Daddy has once again agreed to coach both Grant and Loren's team (not sure what he is going to do when Morgan wants to join in the fun).  The kids were very excited and ready to go on the first day of practice.  Loren's team is the Belle's and she had several friends returning from last years team.  Daddy is excited to have Kevin Evers as his assistant coach.  Kevin's little girl, Rachel is playing for the first time and we know them from our ward.  Grant's team, the Cosmos, has many of the original players and then a few new ones.  Hopefully Daddy will have a parent step up to be the assistant coach.  It is a tough job to manage all those boys by yourself.  Looking forward to a great season! 

Happy Hour at Jamba Juice

The kids LOVE Jamba Juice, but we rarely go because it is so expensive.  It was so fun during the summer though, because they occasionally have their "Happy Hour" specials.  You can get any 16 oz. Jamba Juice for $1 between certain hours.  You certainly can't beat that, now can you?  We made several trips and even tried out some of their "secret recipes" including Skittles and Red Gummie bear.  Who doesn't LOVE Jamba Juice, especially on a hot summer day?

New Teachers/New School Year

I didn't take any pictures, but we anxiously awaited the day when the school would post the teachers that our children would have for the coming school year.  We kept checking and checking and could hardly stand it.  The kids definitely had certain ideas about who they wanted for teachers and I had my own ideas as well.   We were finally able to find out their teachers late in the day.  Grant got Mrs. Valtatie, which he was very excited about.  It was just who he wanted and we were glad there were a few familiar kids in his class (though he was a little bummed that his best buddies were in other classes).  Loren got Mrs. Cassidy.  I was nervous for her.  She had heard some things about Mrs. Cassidy and it definitely wasn't her first choice of teacher.  I was determined to see the positive in it and prayed it would be a good fit.  We happened to see Mrs. Cassidy there at the school while we were looking at the lists.  I took Loren, reluctantly, over to her to introduce her.  Mrs. Cassidy was super cute with her and was very nice and bubbly.  Loren liked her and I felt like everything would be okay.  We have been blessed in the past with some wonderful teachers and I hoped and prayed that this year would be the same!  Only time will tell!

Carmel

We had so much fun on our third and final day of our Monterey trip.  The hotel that was stay in there, The Hyatt Regency, is the host of the Mecum Auto Auction.  All week long, we had watched car after car be unloaded from trucks and car transporters.  Chris loved  look out our hotel room and see what car was going to be brought in next.  So exciting!  We checked out of the hotel that morning and as we were walking to our car, I told Chris the he should ask if we could walk out onto the golf course and look at all the cars that had come in over the entire week.  The folks of MECUM were super nice and told us we were welcome to come check out the cars.  The kids were almost as excited as Daddy.

We first walked through several tents of cars and then wandered out to the golf course where there were plenty more cars parked.  We enjoyed looking at them and wondering how much some of these cars would be auctioned off for!

They were also setting up the giants outdoor tents where the actual MECUM auto auction would be held later that week.  We would eventually see it televised a few weeks later.

We left Monterey and then headed to Carmel to look at some more cars.  They were having a big Porsche thing there so we couldn't pass it up.  It was packed though and difficult to find a parking spot on the streets of Carmel.  We finally found a parking spot and walked a short distance before making our way to where the car show was.  We passed this sign with Morgan's name and couldn't pass up the picture opportunity.

Gotta love Carmel!  This sing was on one of the trees lining the main street!

We promised the kids some more beach time so we headed to Carmel beach when we were tired of looking at the cars.  Truth be told...Daddy would never grow tired of looking at the cars, but the kids and I were done!  We spent some time playing at the beach again and the weather was perfect.

We even played cards for a while and also watched a guy practice his juggling skills on the beach!

The kids did not want to leave...there may have even been some tears.   It was lunch time so we hit the road, ate some lunch and then headed home.  We had a wonderful time in Monterey as always.  It has become a fun, family tradition.  Until next year.....

Monterey Day 2/Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Day two of our Monterey trip was spent doing the two things the kids love and look forward to the most....THE BEACH and DENNIS THE MENACE PARK!  We spent the morning at the park, got lunch and took it to one of our favorite beach spot, Lover's Cove.  The weather was perfect and the kids had a much deserved super fun time.  We brought a whole bunch of beach toys and they were entertained for hours.  It was perfect...well mostly...except for the seagulls we had to constantly shoo away from our chips and sandwiches, haha!

The Dennis the Menace Park is amazing...there is nothing more I can say about it!  The kids love it and there is something for everyone.  We definitely have our favorites, the suspension bridge, the Zip line, the spinny thing, the roller slide and the fast, steep yellow slide.  It is THE best park!

The kids really enjoyed climbing the various rock walls this year.  They kept saying, "take a picture of me," after the climbed up.  They were so proud!

 

 

As if the day wasn't crazy and busy enough, we decided to take a little adventure and take the kiddos to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.  It was a short drive (maybe an hour) and it was something we had never done before.  The kids were super excited.  Oh..and how could I forget.  We planned to have dinner at our favorite place, "Pizza My Heart!"  We had only been to the one in Monterey!  The kids thought it was hilarious that you had to get a coin from the cashier to use their restrooms.  I guess that's how they manage who and who isn't allowed to use their potties. 

 

 Grant couldn't eat his pizza fast enough.  He loves this place so much!

 We had fun at the boardwalk.  The kids rode a few rides, we ate some cotton candy and then played a few games on our way out.  The kids even won little stuffed animals and they were thrilled. 

 While we were enjoying our cotton candy, we realized that there were some large tide pools that had formed just by the pier.  We were going to take a walk down to the beach, but quickly realized that the water was all the way to the staircase.  We looked out to the tide pool and saw that there was a bride and groom doing a photo shoot in the water.  I had heard of the "trash the dress" type photo shoots, but never really saw one.  We were freezing cold and I can't even imagine what it must have been like in a wedding dress in the cold water.  Brrr!!  It was fun to watch though.

 Bye Bye Santa Cruz!  It was a fun little side adventure from Monterey.  The kids really enjoyed it.  Personally, probably not a place I would return to again and again, but we had a lot of fun that evening!