Our weekend in Monterey with the Morgans!

We had a great Labor Day Weekend in Monterey visiting our good friends, The Morgans! The Morgans moved there in July, and we couldn't wait to visit our friends!  We all miss them so much!  They were so welcoming.  We were only there a few days, but had so much fun!

Day 1: Arrived before lunch and headed to Dennis the Menace Park.  This is one cool park!  A real train that the kids can climb on...seemed a little dangerous to me.  Multiple playsets, rockwall, bridges, it went on and on.  It was so nice. I wish we had a cool park like that around me.  We enjoyed lunch at the park.

Then we headed to the BEACH...it was a sunny but breezy day in the 60's.  The kids didn't care... they LOVED it. They played in the sand, did some swimming, tried to body board.  I walked down to the water to teach Brooklyn how to body board (since they thought they were surfing and were standing up) and I put my feet in the water and I couldn't believe HOW COLD IT WAS!  FREEZING.  Way colder than I thought. I couldn't believe the kids were actually swimming in it. Kids will do anything. Not me..you couldn't pay me to swim in that water.  The kids had a great time, it was a great afternoon.  Cooper and the adults just relaxed and watched the kids play in the sand. It was very relaxing and I loved it. Eric took a nap. 

After the beach, we headed back to the house to change for dinner.  We went to a yummy pizza restaurant. It was really good and the kids were supper good too, thanks to the little muted tv in each booth. It was so nice.  I think we need to install a tv in the dinning room (muted of course). It would make dinner time so peaceful.

After pizza, we needed some dessert..so headed to Ghirardelli for some ice cream and of course some samples.  Yummy.  Eric and I had a brownie Sunday and the kids had a banana split.  So yummy!

Then we headed over to the aquarium.  The Morgans have a year pass and they get to take in 2 free guests. It was closing in 25 minutes so they asked if we ALL could go in to see the new Great white Shark.  And they said YES...the guy was so nice.  So we all went in for free and saw the new shark. It wasn't very big but it was cool to see it.  The jelly fish section was really cool.  We actually were able to see most of the aquarium in only 25 minutes.  It was awesome. My favorite part was the school of fish tank. It was really neat.  Dan said we saw as much as they saw in 4 hours before, usually it is so packed with people that you can't see much without waiting your turn.  It was empty when we were there...it was perfect! The kids even were able to touch the sting rays.

Day 1 was FULL of fun activities!  The kids all crashed when we got home. It was nice.  Eric did too!  I stayed up and visiting in the hot tub.  It was a great and busy day!

Day 2 Point Lobos Park

We couldn't wait to visit this park...all the reviews online said it was a MUST DO if visiting the area.  It was a first for the Morgan's as well.  We arrived around 11:30.  And of course, It was a foggy cool day (60's) in Carmel...everyday is like this, year around. Eric was in love...not me so much.  It was nice..we were prepared with sweaters.  Point Lobos is a National Park with trails to different coastal views.  We started off on the trails, and couldn't believe the amount of Poison Oak there was...it was everywhere.  All the ground cover on both sides of the trail was poison oak.  We have never seen so much in our life.  We threaten the kids with their lives if they didn't stay in the middle of the trails.  Everyone listened for the most part and NO one got poison oak. Thank goodness!  The trails were very easy and it was fun! Well they weren't hard but I guess not easy for someone like Eric who was holding a baby on his back.  And Dan who gave Liam piggyback most of the time.  We were surprised that we couldn't hike down to the beach very often.  At the very end we finally arrived at a point where the kids could go down to the water...and then we couldn't get them to come back up. They loved watching the water come in and crash against the rocks.  It was really fun.  We saw sea lions.  It was very smelly there by the water.

Cooper loved his ride on Daddy's back!  He was a happy boy until it was bottle time.  He was a great trooper.  We had a great time at Point Lobos. It was beautiful.  We all went back to the house and rested!  We were all sooo tired!

Family Pictures...well we got there too late and the fog rolled in, so we did the best we could with the lack of light.  We should have been there 2 hours earlier! 

It was a great weekend!  We loved visiting with the Morgan's. We can't wait to go back and see more of Monterey.  Thanks Dan and Kara!  We miss you already!

Our Sway Sway

This is a supper hard post for me...Sway was part of our family for over 9 1/2 years.  August 20th we put her to rest after having nose cancer for the last year and a half.  It was one of the hardest days of our lives.  It was so sad and hard to let her go.  There were lots of tears and heart break.

Sway's first 5 years where crazy!  She had sooo much energy and wanted to run, run, run.  I'll be honest, at times I didn't like her much.  She was so much work.  But after 5 years, she settled down and become this great dog that I grew to love.  She would lay on the porch and greet us when we came home. She loved walks. She loved kids and was always so kind to them, even if they were pulling her tongue,tail or trying to ride her like a horse.  She protected our home.  She was a true and loyal friend to all of us, but especially to Eric.  If Eric was outside or in the shop, she would be right there next to him. 

Sway started to grow a bump on her nose last January.  It has slowly gotten worse.  They couldn't take it out because it was on the nose.  In the last couple months it grew bigger and bigger and was affecting her teeth and mouth.  She was such a happy and normal dog despite her big bump, that I am sure was painful and uncomfortable.  She was always very playful and loved to play catch with the kids.  Even on the day we died she was her normal self.  It was very hard to let her go.  We know we kept her as long as we could.  We will all miss her very much...we already do.  We loved our Sway Sway!    

RIP SWAY! 

11/7/01-8/20/11

Eric's Facebook Message on Aug 20th

"Sway was put to sleep today after her tumor began hemorrhaging this morning. She was a loyal friend that was always there for me no matter what. When I worked on cars, in the yard, etc... she was always there laying within site. When I would enter a building she would wait by the door until I came out. Our friend came over to the house an hour ago and she peacefully went to sleep. She is no longer in pain. I barried her under a shade tree in the yard. I took her nameplate off of her dog house and made a grave marker out of it. Today was one of the hardest days of my life."

Little Coop!

9 Months old!