Highway 1

Friday, March 16th, 2012
Monterey & Highway 1, CA


Friday I packed up the kids, said good-bye to Nona and Papa, and we headed over to Monterey to pick up Arthur from his conference.   From there we would take Highway 1 south for most of our drive down to Natalie and Brian's place.  Here are pics from our drive down California's Highway 1.  It was a LOT of driving, but really beautiful.

Saying good-bye to Nona and Papa, and of course, Aunt Emma.

We stopped at Fisherman's Wharf to show the kids the sea lions.

And of course we had to check out this candy shop and got some treats for the drive.

We also stopped at Point Lobos State Park for a walk and a picnic lunch.

They had an old whaling cabin that has since been turned into a museum. 

Here is Dallin standing by a bunch of whale bones left over from the whaling days in the 1800's

A cool bridge south of Monterey

We took a little walk down a trail at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to see the McWay Waterfall.  It's kind of hard to see, but just to the right of us is a waterfall that is falling 80 feet right onto the beach.  Here are some closer shots:

What a beautiful drive!

Playing at Nona & Papa's

March 12-15th, 2012
Modesto, CA


The kids had a blast playing at Nona & Papa's house, especially since they have cousins who live so close by.  One of the days, we went park hopping.  I took them to feed the ducks at the Donnelly park, then we went to pick up Aunt Emma from work and visited Papa in his office, and then we went to the Graceada Park and met Aunt Amber and Uncle Mikey for a bit, and then headed home where they ate popsicles and jumped on the trampoline.  They slept really well that night!

Sydney LOVED the ducks!  She kept saying "kack, kack, kack!"

Dallin & Sean were put in prison by Jemma and Daphne

Daphne and Jemma in their fortress

Dad with the kids in his office

With Uncle Mikey and Aunt Amber

Hayden and Carter--these two boys are so funny together!

Sydney with her Papa

Monterey Get-Away

I was just re-reading this before I posted, and I thought that I should preface this post with this: that I love being a mother.  I consider it one of the greatest blessings in my life.  But it is very demanding and noisy and full of people who have needs to fill, and who whine at you if they are not filled on their timeline.  Sometimes at the end of the day when the kids are all in bed, I just stop and absorb the silence, and revel in my ability to hear my own thoughts, which are pathetically mushy by that time of day.  So getting a couple of quiet days with my husband felt rather splendid . . . so if it seems like I'm doing a lot of complaining about my noisy kids, I'm actually just trying to illustrate what a contrast this was from my daily reality, and it just got me thinking that "quiet" is something that I need a little more of somehow . . .

Monterey, CA
March 12-14, 2012


Right now, I am sitting in a completely quiet room.  Oh the luxury.  I got up this morning when I felt like it, not because I had to get anyone off to school and not because someone was so starving they might die if they didn't eat breakfast in 2 minutes, and not because someone crawled up on my bed with a poopy diaper . . .  I just lay in my gigantic, fluffy king-sized bed and listened to the silence until I felt like I wanted to get up.  It was beautiful.

Arthur is attending a conference for work held here in Monterey, CA.  Since Monterey is not far from where my parents live, we decided to bring everyone out.  Mom was wonderful to keep the kids for a couple of days so Arthur and I could have a little get-away together.  (Sometimes life gets so busy, that I forget how much I like hanging out with my husband!)  So thanks for keeping all our little crazies, Mom, because I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to hear myself think. 

When we got here Monday afternoon, we checked in, and then went for a drive along the coast and in particular drove the famous 17 Mile Drive which goes through several famous Golf Courses, one of them being Pebble Beach.  I'm pretty sure I caught Arthur drooling on the steering wheel.

Sneaking a peak of Pebble Beach Golf Course.  It was the hardest to catch a glimpse of. . .

Tuesday, Arthur had sessions to attend, so I slept in until 9:15!!! (angel voices singing in my head!)  I cannot tell you the last time I did that, if I ever have done that in my years of motherhood. And after I got ready without Sydney sneaking into my make-up while I'm doing my hair or pulling on my legs, or someone whining about something they need, I took a book over to the Fireplace Lounge and read next to the fire, while someone else made my bed. Then I checked some email, and read some blogs and got my pinterest fix, (all without Sydney climbing on me or pulling my hand away from the keyboard, or having to break up a quarrel.)  It was just quiet. When Arthur was done with his classes, we went out to lunch on Fisherman's Wharf--we ate at Crabby Jim's where we had a seafront view from our window seat, and watched some sea lions playing around in the water.

My fish tacos at Crabby Jim's

Big ole' pelicans sitting outside a restaurant window

Sea Lions by Fisherman's Wharf

Look at that lollipop--it's bigger than my head!
On the back, it says, "Don't touch--you break it you buy it, $100."
yowsa!

Later we went for a walk on the beach,  

A charming little seaside inn called "Green Gables"

Cannery Row

and another walk down Cannery Row, and out to dinner at the Aquarium where the conference had rented out the Aquarium for the evening and we got to eat dinner by a giant wall of fish. Funnily enough, we sat down by a couple who were drinking non-alcoholic beverages, and had raised 6 children. They noticed our non-alcoholic beverages and after awhile asked how many children we had. So it didn't take us long to figure out that we were both Latter-Day Saints. Funny how Mormons kinda stick out in a crowd, huh? 

    

Anyway, we've had a lovely, relaxing and quiet time, that was the perfect break we needed.  Thank you, Mom, (and anyone else there at home who helped look after our little Garietys) for filling lots of extra needs for us!

February Quotes

Sean:  I had a good day at school day, Mom.  Wanna know why?

Me:  Yes I do.

Sean: I found out that a girl is in love with me.

Me:  Really?  How'd you find that out.

Sean:  Because I'm so cool.

Me:  Awesome, but how did you find out? Did she tell you that she loves you?

Sean:  No. She was watching me while I work out.  I work out at recess.

Me:  Nice.  What kind of work out do you do?

Sean:  I work out on the monkey bars.  I do exercises for my arms and hands.

Me:  And she watches you?

Sean:  Yep.  Her name is Jayden.  Rhymes with Hayden.

Me:  Cool.  Do you like her too?

Sean:  Yeah, I like her.  But she LO-O-OVES me.

(during quiet time) Sean:  When is it gonna be LOUD time?

Hayden:  (completely surprised) Mom!  I watched too much TV and my brain didn't get rotten!

Here is a conversation between Sean and Hayden that I wasn't there for, so I'm probably not quite getting it right, but here was the jist:

Sean:  We're not allowed to watch PG-13 movies because they are too scary.

Hayden: But one time we thaw a PG-13 movie on Netflikth.

Sean:  Oh yeah, well one time I saw a PG-17

Hayden:  Well, one time I thaw a PG-100

Sean: Well one time I saw a PG-100 million!

Hayden:  Oh yeah, well I thaw a PG-INFINITI!

Aunt Natalie:  Wow, that must have been really scary.  You guys are crazy.

Hayden:  Yeah, it wath really thcary.

Daphne:  Come on, Sean.  Take it like a MAN!

Sean:  Girls can marry girls but its not following God's orders.  And their babies will be ugly. 

 (????  I told Sean that 2 girls together or 2 boys together can't make babies.  He gets the boys,  but he figures girls grow the babies, so why couldn't 2 girls have all the babies they want?)  

Hayden:  MOM!!!  I'm telling on Daphne because she's preparing to tell on ME!

This one requires a little bit of a preface.  In our family, particularly around the table at mealtimes, it's not uncommon for someone to ask a question like, "Who likes pancakes?"  and everyone shouts with their hands in the air, "MEEEE!"  Well, it didn't take long for Sydney to catch on and join in the "Me" chorus, which the rest of the kids think is super adorable.  So they started making up ridiculous questions just to get Sydney to raise her hand and shout, "MEEE!"  So now it goes something like this:  

Who likes whipped cream on their waffles? 

everyone:  MEEEE

Who likes to eat worms?

everyone, including Sydney:  MEEEE

Who likes to smell skunks?

Sydney: MEEEEE

Who likes to wear diapers?

Sydney: MEEEE 

Well, one day, after Sydney had discovered that she can pull chairs up to the counter (to wreak havoc in a whole new territory of potential messes,) I found that someone had dumped out my miscellaneous basket and the pencil jar, and the coin jar, and the bead container, and when I saw it, I yelled, "Who made this mess?!?"

Sydney raised her hand and shouted, "MEEEE!!!"

Daphne:  (while practicing Irish Step Dance)  Mom!  I just did that whole dance while I was thinking about what I would wish for if I ever met a Leprechaun!