Aquarium #1

As a surprise Christmas present we took a trip to Monterey and went to the aquarium. Megster and I haven't been in many years so it was exciting to go back.

The jellyfish are just so fun to watch. It is like a real-life screen saver. Very relaxing.

Brielle loved all the touch tanks they had there. She said that the starfish were "slippery-bumpy".

You can't see from this picture (but I just love Ellie's smile so I had to post it) but there is a wave that crashes over the top of the glass roof in this part of the aquarium. The kids were a little afraid of it at first, but grew to like it very much.

Don't Forget the Elephant Seals!

A spot of beach about 3 miles up the coast from Hearst Castle is a favorite hangout for Elephant seals. We went and watched them sunning themselves on the beach.

The elepahant seals flip sand on their back as a form of sun screen. The pup next to this female is a few days old.

Here is some of the crew as we were waiting for a female to give birth. See video below.

Trip Up to Monterey

As a family Christmas present Megan and I got for ourselves a trip to Monterey, CA including a day at the famous aquarium. We traveled up Highway 1 through Big Sur. Some of the rest of the crew tagged along part of the way up the coast. Here we are about 1300 feet above the Pacific Ocean at one of the many look outs.

This is again along Big Sur at the look out near Bixby Bridge. No people in the pics since all the kids were napping in preparation for the park below.

Probably one of the best parks we have ever been to is in Monterey. Dennis the Menace park has about 10 full playground structures including a huge red rolly slide which was made up of several hundreded rolling pin-like pieces. Megan and I really got some good speed going down that slide.

Here we are in Monterey at the El Torito (which is Spanish for The Torito!). Our table was right over the water. The food was pretty good, but the view of the otters playing the the water below made up for that.

Morro Bay Trip #1

We drove up to Morro Bay on Christmas day (very late at night) to get away from LA for a little while. There were some huge wave breaking outside the bay and we went to go take a look...

It is a little hard to tell from this picture, but if you look at the green wrap around Ethan you can see two tones. That was all thanks to a huge wave crashing over us on the break. Whoops!

On Sunday we took a walk on the main drag of Morro Bay and took this little photo outside a fresh seafood restaurant. The smells outside were very tempting.

This time we stayed a very safe distance from the waves, which were even bigger the next day! 15 to 20 foot swells.

The BIG Day

Ellie was super excited that Santa came and ate the chocolates that she left along with the carrots for the reindeer Both her and Ethan's stockings were filled to the brim with goodies and toys. A merry Christmas indeed.

Ethan loved all is presents! He was particularly excited about the paper that was around them. He must have eaten a whole roll of paper that morning!

Ellie with counsin Gavin sitting with their loot. Spoiled little buggers!

Megan stayed up until 2am making the walls and roofs for the gingerbread houses which we then docorated. A fun family tradition!

Pre Christmas Fun

As you can see Ellie is clearly very excited about the cookies that she and Gavin are making. They are decked out in their Home Depot aprons to keep things a little clean. Those cookies did not make it to give to Santa. Round two came a little later.

Ethan and Elise wanted to get into the fun cooking times so that pulled the pantry door open. They had a great time rolling cans across the floor. A mix of refired beans and sweet and condensed milk sounds delicious.

Brielle wrote a nice letter to Santa asking for "Big Legos". Santa delivered and got her a box of Duplos.

Brielle entered a free raffle at the local library and won 4 tickets to Disney on Ice. She took Gavin along with the two moms. This was the only picture of the kids' faces as they were glued to the arena the whole time. Those are real cars from "Cars" driving around on the ice.

Random Update

Hmmmm...Christmas is next week and we haven't posted since Halloween. I think I might be a bit behind. With Thanksgiving, my sister's wedding, Ethan crawling, choir performances, parties, Disneyland, museums...all things that have been going on the past month that I've missed.


It hasn't rained much since we moved to California. The umbrella was still a novelty for Brielle.


The 4 cousins digging in the dirt at Kid Space Science Museum. Brielle told James that he was going to 'Daddy Space' while the rest of us went to Kid Space.


Visiting Santa


Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah


Oquirrh Mountain Temple, South Jordan, Utah


Oquirrh Mountain Temple, South Jordan, Utah


Our ward party had the children do a live nativity. It was quite eventful. Here are our cute little lambs.


The dessert table our neighbor's Christmas party. (She is a professional food decorator and makes all the treats herself).