Beaches, Boardwalk, and Elephants

You have no idea how disappointed I am that I couldn't fully alliterate this blog title. I sat here for a good three minutes trying to figure out how to make the alliteration work. I could have said "bears" since we did see bears at the Monterey Zoo today, but when I'm 90 years old, the only thing I'm going to remember is feeding the elephants so they get first billing.

Still, I wish I could have alliterated it.

Anyway, elephants!

Well, lets go in chronological order. We'll start with beaches.

A few weeks ago, Judit & I took the kids & the dog to the beach to play. It was chilly (Asilomar is rarely very warm), but we had a lot of fun. By the time we left no one could feel their toes.

They like to hold hands and run away from the waves

Harley-Quinn LOVES the beach. She'd play in the waves until her heart gave out if we let her...

Playing in the waves!

Remember, this water is COLD

This one just amuses me

Watching the waves

Not long after the beach trip, we went to a series of parties for friends. It was a fun, but exhausting, weekend. I tried to get some good pictures, but it was hard to take pictures AND socialize. So I just captured a few that I really like.

See, you CAN take a selfie with a fancy camera!

Penelope took this one :)

Griffin took this one of our friends Patrice & Sascha

Having fun dancing with her new BFF

After the weekend of parties, I left for Pasadena for a few days. While the conference I attended was both informative and productive, I was very happy to be home. I get a few days of vacation before the school year gears up and we're taking advantage of the time.

We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk this weekend (as well as the Aquarium), but I didn't take as many pictures. Penelope went on a dozen rides and Griffin finally discovered his bravery shortly before we left.

Today we ran some errands and then went to the Monterey Zoo, where we got to get up and close with some animals AND we got to FEED ELEPHANTS. This was the coolest thing I've done in ages. You can actually take tours there where you can bathe the elephants. I desperately want to give an elephant a bath. Desperately.

Sissy feeding the elephant. She was SO brave. Other little kids, her brother included, were terrified, but not my little Miss!

Griffin didn't want to get near the elephant, but consented to be held while I fed her.

Judit & the elephant!

The whole tour was neat, but the elephant part was awesome.

In other news, Griffin is pretty much night potty-trained. We haven't had an accident in almost a week and he's really proud of himself for not wetting the bed. I'm pleased as well, hooray for less laundry!

We're still working on sleeping all night in his own bed. This is going to be harder because he really does hate to sleep alone and he is such a mama's boy. We'll keep up with the sticker chart and hopefully he'll be in his bed mostly full-time by the end of the year. It would be nice if it happened sooner, but neither one of us is ready to really push it (sticker chart aside). This too shall pass and one day I'll look back fondly on all the extra snuggling.

Tomorrow I have some work to do, but the agenda for the week includes a trip to SF, swimming, beach time, and a baseball game!

Happy 4th of July!

So I took home our super fancy yearbook camera in order to attempt to learn how to use it. I have been mostly successful. I still have a lot to learn, and it's a good thing my students know more than I do and will be taking the pictures for the yearbook.

But it's fun to learn and try it out. And at today's 4th of July parade I was able to take a few pictures of students that might possibly make it into the summer section of the yearbook. I won't post pictures of the SHS students since I don't have parental permission, but I will post a few of the pictures of Penelope and Griffin that I love.

I haven't retouched these in any way. I don't currently know how to work photoshop. That will, again, be something my students will handle. Maybe one day I'll learn.

This was the first time we headed to Spreckles (the town just south of us) for their 4th of July parade. We got there early so Penelope could participate in the mile fun-run. She's been asking to be in a "race" for ages now, the child loves to run.

All dressed up and ready to race!

So the night before the race/parade we went to Target and picked her up some new shoes, shorts, and a shirt (it says: "winning looks good on me"). I couldn't help myself, it was all too cute. She loved it so much that she's going to do the kids Turkey-Trot on Thanksgiving - and any other run I can find for her age group.

Warming up for the race with Daddy

She "won"!

 

 

 

After the race we explored the park, made a few new friends, and hung out until the parade began. We have a guest with us for the next few weeks, she's from Barcelona and this was her first 4th of July. We have a lot planned while she's out here and we're excited to be able to show her some of our favorite places.

Me, the kids, and Judit

The day was fun. Penelope got her face painted, we ate hot dogs, the kids cheered for the parade, and almost everyone took a nap. Penelope - who got up at 6:30, ran a mile, ran around with friends, and spent an hour in the sun cheering for the parade, was the only one who didn't sleep. Instead, she sat on the couch and read books while the rest of us napped.

More pictures of the day...

Butterfly face painting

Waving the flag during the parade

After naps, Judit and I took the kids to the park to play some more and then we all went out to dinner. We wrapped up the night with a movie and the kids were in bed before fireworks began. There's no official fireworks show in Salinas, and Bubs still gets super cranky when he's sleep deprived - so we skipped out on the fireworks this year.

Of course, our neighborhood sounds like a war zone right now... and it will for the next few days (and has in the weeks leading up to the 4th). If it was just on the 4th then I wouldn't mind. It is Independence Day after all, I'm ok with fireworks. But the month long explode-a-thon gets old fast. Especially since our dog is terrified of fireworks. Next year we're getting her a tranquilizer for the 4th. Poor thing.

Anyway, I hope everyone in blog-land had a lovely 4th. Happy Birthday America!