A Journey to Love

We went camping up in Big Sur for the first time this week. What a beautiful area...truly, some of God's best work can be seen from the Pacific Coast Highway. It's a perfect spot for Nathan and I, since he loves the redwoods and I love the ocean. It may have been our first time, but it won't be our last. Headed for the trails! Brayden had the best seat in the house. Less than 5 minutes in and Benjamin already needed a break. We did both trails and no, we did not see any mountain lions. Ben loved going over the bridges. Hiking is exhausting work, you know. We made it to the falls. It was a very pretty spot. We snacked and rested here for a bit before continuing on to the Valley View trail. I highly recommend going to Pfeiffer Beach...beautiful! After I snapped this picture, I realized what I was seeing...Ben walking through the water with his shoes and pants still on! He wasn't pleased when I pointed that out to him! The rock formations in the water were j...

With fall rapidly approaching, Nathan and I decided to try and fit one more camping trip in a few weeks ago. So we threw some food, clothes, firewood, and homemade cookies (yes, you must have cookies when camping) in the camper and spent four days at our most favorite place, Hume Lake. Some people ask why we always go to the same spot, year after year. Here is my answer: aside from the fact that it is just stunning in its beauty, there is a huge list of things to do there. At one time or another we have: walked around the lake rode bikes around the lake fished paddle-boated swam shopped at the three (three!) different stores...and these are not your run-of-the-mill general stores, either. slurped up amazing milk shakes while chowing down on great burgers and fries warmed our bodies with peppermint mochas from one of two coffee shops shopped for our dream cabin among all the great ones in the area rented a golf cart to peruse the area at a slightly faster (and more fu...

We went on vacation to Monterey last week...sort of. It would be more accurate to say that 3/4 of the family went on vacation while the remaining 1/4 worked. Brayden, Benjamin, and myself enjoyed all that Monterey had to offer while Nathan went to class each morning. However, by 4:00, he would join us back at the hotel for dinner and evening activities. Some highlights of the trip inlcluded the children's museum, the aquarium, and a great park. We skipped the beach due to the cold and foggy conditions (that's the coast for you), but had some good water play in the hotel's giant jacuzzi. Some lowlights, if you will, would definitely be sharing a room with they boys (causing us all to have an 8:00 bedtime) and having nowhere to escape to when Brayden was crying it out in his crib. The best solution we could come up with was to wheel his crib into the bathroom, turn the fan on, and close the door. He was asleep in three minutes. Hmmm...I wonder if that would work here at hom...

Last month Nathan and I took Benjamin to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Though we had taken him as a baby a handful of times, it was his first chance to really explore and verbalize what he was seeing. We loved watching the excitement on Ben's face as he checked out the sea turtles, penguins, and sea otters. Touching a bat ray was especially thrilling, as was the toddler "Splash Zone" where he climbed a play structure, played with boats, and "controlled" the tides. It was a fun day, one of the last ones we will have together as a family of three. :)

If I had to pick a character for Benjamin to be in love with, I guess Thomas-the-Train would be high on the list. I would much rather prefer the hard working little blue engine than the fighting superheros, such as Spider-Super-Bat-(fill in the blank)-Man that seems to be so popular with little boys right now. Yes, the movies are quite bland for my taste, but Benjamin just can't get enough of them. However, when I've had my fill of them (which is rather quickly), I insist that we switch up the movies a bit and insert a little Elmo's World or Baby Einstein into the mix. Afterall, a mom can only take so many British-accented children's songs about trains and rail roads. Sometimes a little classical music is in order, or at least a cute, fuzzy puppet giggling about Big Bird and Cookie Monster! :) Anyway , because Benjamin is infatuated with the spunky blue train and all his friends (his actual favorites are Percy and Henry) Nathan and I took him up to Santa Cruz yesterd...