September

Some cute pictures of Ian from this month.

On Labor day we had a family picnic at Asilomar beach. My best friend Beth was with us! She and her baby Adele came to visit for a week. Her husband joined her after she had a day with us; he was in Monterey for work and she decided to come along. I loved seeing her again.

First day of school

Audrey (3rd grade) and Ian (1st grade) on their first day at their new school (Forest Grove).

 Declan on his first day of preschool (Hilltop).

Audrey's baptism

The last week of July/first week of August, our family came down from WA to celebrate Audrey's baptism. She was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by her dad. We enjoyed having so much family with us to celebrate her special day. The Egers came too! Here are some pictures from our adventures and from the baptism:

Summer Fun: July and August

Here's some highlights from the rest of our summer (see next post for first set):

Hiking with Meri at Point Lobos. Half the hike was in the forest, half along the shore. Love. 

Family hike to McWay Falls, Big Sur.

Audrey and Ian watching the Feast of Lanterns pageant, a longtime Pacific Grove tradition. The fireworks afterward were astonishing. 

At the beginning of August, our families descended upon us for Audrey's baptism. We had a lot of fun with them, especially our extra time with the Connors. Here we are paddleboating at the lake behind Dennis the Menace park.

We got Aquarium passes and took our families. Beautiful.

Lizzie and Audrey at the Aquarium.

Another paddleboating picture: McKenna, Ian, Audrey and me.

Declan and Lizzie, four year old cousins.

The kids have done a lot of bike riding here; all three can ride without training wheels now!

A bonfire with church friends at Carmel beach. Great sister time too!

Summer Fun in Pacific Grove: May and June

After moving in to our house, we got busy exploring the area. Also we did a fair amount of relaxing. Here are some highlights from May and June:

Eating in our backyard.

Loads of tree climbing happening all over Monterey and Pacific Grove.

Aunt Carly and her husband Spencer came to visit us one evening, passing through on a road trip.

Playing at Dennis the Menace park with a friend, Aneilla. This park is huge and has amazing, old fashioned, playing-hard wonders for children.

Lots of walking on rocks and enjoying the shore.

Our brave explorers.

Ponderous.

Playing in the sand. The water is freezing, but the kids got in anyway. There's also a small, heated pool just above this beach that we spent many hours swimming in this summer.

Natural History Museum, free for Monterey County residents: that's us!

Our backyard has a fire pit, but it doesn't work right. So, no s'mores. Bummer.

The Butterfly house in Pacific Grove; the man in the picture is the creator. He painted his house brightly and decorated with butterflies for his low vision wife. Pacific Grove is Butterfly Town! 

This was actually from our first trip to Dennis the Menace park. Love my kids.

Family picture at Lovers Point Beach, a mile's walk from our house.

Just down the street from our house is the middle school and there's a great park there we call the spiderweb park. We go all the time when school's out. Sometimes I walk or run the track adjacent while the kids play.