First stop: Ocean Shores!

After our visit to the Briens, we headed to Ocean Shores to meet my family for their annual beach trip. This was the first year we were able to join them! We had a great time at the beach, the pool, eating at Bennett's (twice), riding the bumper boats, and best of all, laughing with family. Unfortunately, Declan's illness took a turn for the worse with a fever of 105, and I took him to urgent care in Elma (an hour away) where we discovered he had a double ear infection. So he and I missed about half of the time there, but the trip was still nice. (Thanks to my sister Laura for all these pictures!)

Road trip to WA

As soon as my semester teaching Pathway ended (well a few days before...), the kids and I hit the road for an extended road trip up to WA to see our families. We spent the first day exploring Golden Gate Park (cut short by a sick Ian, poor guy) and driving across the Golden Gate bridge, then touring the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. We ate at Chick-fil-A and spent the night in Red Bluff. The next day, we saw the Medford, OR, temple, ate at Red Robin, and just drove. We stayed that night in Salem. We had fun in the pools at both hotels and then watched movies while eating popcorn and jelly beans both nights. Non stop party! Our last day of driving, we went to the Portland temple, OMSI, and Powell's bookstore. Ian got better and Declan got sick, but we all had a fun time road tripping together before ending up in Longview, WA, to spend time with the Briens.

July fun in PG

Date night to see Pippin at the outdoor theater in Carmel. Loved it! 

Family night game time!

Member night at the Aquarium!

Kelley comes to visit

Kelley came for the last week of June and we loved every second with her. Aquarium, beach, lone cypress, Lula's tour, river in Big Sur, walks, games, shopping, matching shirts, good food, and great talks. I love my sister!

Summer bucket list

The kids and I came up with a bucket list for summer and we had fun doing a lot of these activities!

Here we are exploring some Monterey history downtown.

 The boys attended a couple of camps and had a blast! Declan got his face painted one day.

 On a walk to the beach, Audrey found a painted rock--a trend sweeping the nation.

 Kite flying at the beach on a family walk.

One day we decided to take the trolley from the Aquarium to the Monterey farmer's market. The traffic was terrible, so we sat on the trolley for 45 minutes, when it should have taken 8-10 minutes! Poor Ian needed a bathroom, so it got a little frantic, and boredom was high, but we made it to the market (where Mr. B patiently waited for us), found a bathroom, and ate some yummy food, which made everything better.

Mr. B flew out to Missouri to attend his cousin Julian's wedding, and while he was getting some work done before I took him to the airport, Audrey and I left the screen-focused boys behind with Dad and had a fun beach date! We had to get back pretty quickly to take Mr. B to the airport, but we HAD to take advantage of the rare summer sunshine.

 Mr. B having fun with his nieces at the wedding reception.

  One day I took the kids bowling, which was fun until the boys realized that one of them would lose, ugh. Let's not go again for a few years.

  Summer is off to a great start!!

June family fun

As soon as school got on on June 2nd, we headed to the beach with friends to celebrate the start of summer break!

We spent a Saturday as a family picking berries--strawberries and ollalieberries. Delicious berries and amazing jam!

 Declan lost his first baby tooth!! This was a couple weeks after he also got his first set of stitches--the first Monday of summer break, he hit the back of his head on the fireplace and had to get stitched up at urgent care. At least the tooth was expected. Love this cutie!