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.

Our Pacific Grove house

Tour of our new house, most of it. Prepare for 25 pictures:

Audrey's room

Master bedroom (seems overly brown right now) 

Declan and Ian's room

Bathroom near bedrooms (Bonnie and kids share)

Linen closet, the game side. It's just to the left of the bathroom.

Kitchen. We're getting used to the orange.

 Dining Room

 Laundry "room" and pantry and you can see the back door a bit in the first photo.

 Living room and front door

 Den

Stairs from the den leading to the kitchen area bathroom (between the pantry and kitchen), which is Mr. B's bathroom. Not pictured is a room up those stairs to the left before going into the hall that connects the laundry/pantry to the kitchen, and this room is being used for storage, although it has a desk and shelves as well. Currently infested with ants and undergoing a long extermination process. And it's a tough room to photograph and ugly.  

  And that's our new house! Hopefully I will remember to do some backyard pictures. It's a fun place.