Monterey, California

We are back from our two weeks in Monterey, California. Michael had to go for some training for work, so we decided to make a vacation out of the trip. The kids and I spent most of the weekdays in our hotel room at the Hyatt. We got to know the housekeeper pretty well. She was super sweet to my kids and was always sure to give us extra water bottles and towels. She even remembered my kids names. We also got to know one of Michael's co-worker's family. His co-worker, Mike, brought his wife Emily and two kids Addie and Sam. Their kids are the same ages as our kids, so we had a really good time with them!
Here are Sam and Zach at the hotel.

Samantha spent a lot of time sitting on the only chair in the room!

Out side of our room there was a pool, hot tub, fire pit, ping pong tables, and a giant chess set!

It was really nice weather most of the time, but we did have to keep jackets on the kids most of the week.

We forgot Samantha's jacket this time, so she wore mine. She thought that was pretty cool!

The kids really did well considering the fact that they were cooped up in a hotel room most of the time.

During the weekend we were able to walk along the coast. When I first looked at this view I thought, "Wow, that is a lot of big rocks." Wrong. That was a lot of seals!!! They were pretty funny flopping around. This was the first time that we had all seen the ocean. It was pretty...and big!

We were also able to go to the aquarium on Saturday. We were told that was the place to visit in Monterey. It was really cool! Samantha was afraid of most everything, except the Nemo fish and the play area.

They had some funny little dress ups in the play area. Here is Samantha the sea horse!

The jelly fish were probably the coolest things that we saw. There were a bunch of different kinds and they all glowed in the dark!

Here is Samantha with some Nemo fish!

On Sunday we took the three hour drive on highway one along the coast. It was beautiful, but very windy. We went down to San Luis Obispo to see my Great Grandma Hawthorne. I hadn't seen her since the summer of 2004, so we decided that a few hours was worth it!

It was so fun to see her! Not many kids get to have their picture taken with their Great-Great Grandma! I just wish I had a better camera. Some of the pictures are a little fuzzy, but I'm still glad we got them.

Grandma was so excited to see us. Samantha took a little while to warm up, but when she did she was dancing and singing while Grandma clapped along. It was super cute!

I think this was the best part of the trip!!!!

The second week we were a little less adventuresome. We stayed at the hotel and played most of the time. We did trade babysitting with Mike and Emily so we could have a date night one night. Micheal bought me a beautiful necklace and some earrings with tiny origami turtles on them!

Addie and Samantha got to be really good friends!

By the end, we were all tired and ready to come home.

Our last night there we went to the beach and took some pictures. Emily is a photographer, so she got some family pictures for us. When I get them from her, I'll be sure to post them!