Dennis the Menace Park

There is a big park here in Monterey called the "Dennis the Menace" playground. The last time I had gone, it had rained. Today it was a sunny and the girls had a blast. This is the type of playground where it was impossible for me to station myself in one location and see all of it. Good thing I was following them taking pictures :)

Jessi stepping in the train

Kaitlyn modeling the train

Bethany on top with a couple of her friends
(she didn't jump around like them though! phew!)

All of the girls going down the "roller" slide

Jessi not so sure about the roller slide

This was a favorite (obviously)

Jessi up on the bridge

Kaitlyn and Malia on the big bridge

Kindergartners and the Aquarium

Back at the beginning of March, I had the opportunity to chaperon Kaitlyn's class the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I had gone as a chaperon with Malia's class and thought it was only fair. However, in Malia's case, with a class of eleven, I only had to take care of her. Not so in this field trip! I had decided to save gas and parking money and ride the bus with Kaitlyn, my first mistake. Also, I had to watch three other innocent looking girls from her class. (HA!!!) I spent the majority of the time chancing the little buggers through the crowded school-age child infested aquarium wondering if their mothers had installed ear plugs in their ears to perhaps protect their delicate hearing systems from hearing their frantic chaperon's pleas to stay with me and to not lean so far over the edge of the ray tank! I am happy to say that I managed to come out with the same amount of kids that I went in with and they were relatively unscathed from their adventures. I, however, was very glad that I brought an Excedrin.

Kaitlyn's Kindergarten class

My group as barnacles

Kaitlyn mesmerized by some anemones

A view of some of Kaitlyn's school mates across the "touch the ray" pool

Kaitlyn being hoisted up to see the otter and the pup she is playing with.

A cool school of sardines....they let them into the large tank since theirs was being cleaned.

My group of hoodlums! Don't let those cute faces fool ya!

Cousins at the Beach

Arnie's brother Josh and his family came to visit us last weekend and we had a full house, a full weekend and a blast! The girls woke up at 5:30am on Saturday to find the power was out and watched the sunrise. After a wonderful breakfast of biscuits and gravy provided by Anna, we were off to Carmel beach to play in the sand while Arnie surfed. We also went to the tide pools of Asilomar and got nice and wind blown. Our girls enjoyed introducing their Minnesota cousins to the beaches and educating them about the wildlife that they have come to love. Because of the high wind and waves, we weren't able to see any sea otters, though. Maybe on another trip.

Kids watching hermit crabs at the tide pools

The huge waves against the rocks at Asilomar

The whole gang at the tide pools of Asilomar

Kaitlyn and Eli goofing off on the rocks

Josh and Luke watching Arnie surfing in Carmel.

A Bethany sugar cookie

Malia, Jessi, Bethany and Henri daring the waves to mess with their sand castle.

Big Sur Half Marathon

Arnie ran the Big Sur Half Marathon this morning. After being diverted all over downtown Monterey, the rest of us were able to park and get to the finish line right in time to see him run to the finish line at around one hour and thirty eight minutes of running. Way to go Arnie!!!

Arnie running into the finish.

Jessi and Kaitlyn admiring Daddy's finishing medal
The Girls helping Daddy to recover by eating some of his snacks.

Great Gifts for Halloween!

My Aunt Catherine came down from Sacramento to enjoy the Halloween festivities. She added a little extra cheer with cute little bags of goodies for each one of the girlies. It was really fun to have her here along with my parents and sister.

Jessi is so excited about the Playdough in Halloween colors!

Malia loves her notepad to write secret notes!

Great Aunt Catherine gets a great big hug for wonderful gifts!

Kaitlyn was only too eager to help Jessi with her bag!

Bethany had a little trouble managing all the fun things AND keeping hold of the cute little bags!

Santa Cruz

On Saturday, we took a road trip up to Santa Cruz to check out the Natural Bridges Beach Park, which is famous for being one of those rare places that Monarch Butterflies migrate. As things happen sometimes, we didn't arrive to the park until 3pm and there was a $10 day-use parking fee that discouraged us from that. However, all was not lost as my mother had seen a lighthouse down the road and wanted to take some pictures of it. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened as that lighthouse turned out to be a surfing museum, had wonderful vistas in which to take pictures, a whole armada of surfers for my husband to watch AND free parking! All's well that ends well, as they say.

One of the natural bridges made by the ocean along this stretch of coast.

Papa Connelly and the Little Women

Gramma Connelly and three of the girls outside the surfing museum.

Look how tall she is getting!

The Mark Abbott Surfing Museum Lighthouse

In Monterey

It's been a while since I blogged. We have moved from the East Coast to the West Coast since then. Here is a movie of my girlies enjoying the Pacific Ocean here in Monterey, where the weather is always a moderate 60 degrees or so. I will post some more later from the laptop computer where all the pictures from our trip across country are stored.

Enjoy!