Spring Break 2012 Day #6 San Francisco

Friday we spent all day in San Francisco.  Meagan and her kids got to come spend the day with us too. 
We parked near the piers are headed towards Pier 39 to get some clam chowder in sourdough breadbowls for lunch.  The kids had yet another peanut butter sandwich.  They didn't care though. 

Then we went to see the sea lions. 

Kate, Brooklyn and Jack got a great spot to see the sea lions.  They stayed there for a while watching them.

 

Sweet Jake...

I loved watching these girls take pictures of Jake and Emma...

 The kids listened to a volunteer tell them all about sea lions (and about not throwing garbage in the ocean).

 Trying out our zoom lense to see Alcatraz.

 Kate loved all the sourdough animals that they made at Boudin.

 Jack loved seeing this ship.  He took lots of pictures of it.

 Ethan and Uncle Dave...

We went to Ghiradelli and got a piece of chocolate.  Ty was sweet and shared his piece of chocolate with me.

 Then each family ordered an $8 sundae to share.  Patient Dave only got to eat the hot fudge in the bottom of the cup.  The kids ate it fast!  It was good.

At dinnertime we headed back to San Jose and met Derek for dinner.  We loved staying with Derek and Meagan.  Our kids loved playing with their cousins. 

Spring Break 2012 Day #5 Big Basin Redwoods State Park

Wednesday night we drove to Derek and Meagan's house in San Jose.  We spent the next few nights at their house.  Thursday morning all 9 of the cousins played together.  Dave and I took all nine of them on a walk to see Brooklyn's school.  It was quite the parade of blond-haired kids. 

Thursday afternoon we went to Big Bason Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz to go an a hike.

 The kids loved playing in the base of this huge tree.  There were at least four holes in it. 

 Eight of the nine cousins -- Jake was on Meagan's back. 

Jack, Ethan, Brooklyn, Ben, Kate, Jack, Emma, Anders

 Ty didn't want to ride in the backpack, so he walked with Dave most of the way.  Then he decided to sit down in the middle of the trail and not walk anymore.  

We ate a lot of snacks on our trip.  We dried apples and jerky at home before we drove to CA.  It was all gobbled up fast.  The kids ran around a lot and were always hungry.

 

This waterfall was our hike destination.  It was a couple miles from the vans.  

Dave, Melinda and I ran down the road and got the cars and then picked up the kids who were hungry and cold. 

After our hike, we went to Sunnyvale to visit my aunt Diane and her family.  Her son, Ewan is the exact same age as Jack.  They hadn't met before. 

Spring Break Day #3 Monterey Bay Aquarium

We spent our third day of Spring Break in Monterey at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

We got to watch two live feedings of lots of fish in the huge tanks.  It was really neat, but I have no pictures because our camera was having issues.  Ty fell asleep when we first got there and were waiting for the feeding to begin.  I guess the sharks weren't interesting to him.

 We went outside and looked through the telescopes on the deck.

 We made short work of the jerky that I made.  Hungry kids. :)

 We went down to the beach next to the aquarium and had a picnic lunch.  We told the kids not to get wet.  That's funny...It was a beautiful, warm day and we were by the ocean.  They couldn't help it.

 They tried to not get wet...for a little while.

Then they got caught up with chasing waves and forgot.  We tried to wring their pants out.  They had to go back to the Aquarium after lunch with wet pants, but they didn't care.  They had so much fun! 

 Ty and Ben took their pants off and dug in the sand without getting wet. 

I loved this leafy seadragon that we saw in the Aquarium (it's one of the few pictures of the fish that turned out that I took). 

 We saw this look from Ty a lot.  Not a happy boy. 

 The crew (minus Norm the photographer).  One of the things that I loved about being with Norm and Melinda and their boys is that our kids were always entertained.  Wherever we'd go, if we stopped for a minute, the kids were usually happy because they were chasing each other around.  The got along really well too. 

 Do your kids do this to you? 

 Right before we took this picture, Kate and Jack were holding hands...

 Two seconds later, the push... Ah, siblings.

 Along the sidewalk in Monterey...

 Kate and Ethan at the end of the day with almost dry pants. 

Spring Break Day #2 Driving and Monterey

We drove from Bakersfield to Monterey the second day.  I loved seeing all the fruit orchards and big trucks full of vegetables.  Not something that we see in New Mexico.
We stopped in Cambria and bought stuff for lunch at a grocery store.  The ladies at the store told us where a park was by the ocean.  So, we went there to have a picnic.

The kids loved seeing the ocean!  Ty didn't eat lunch until we were back in the car.  He sat down on the sand and started digging.  A local lady gave the kids moonstones that she collects from the beach. 

I wish Dave would take more than one picture, so I don't have to look like this...

 We drove up the coast on Highway 1 from Cambria to Monterey. It was a beautiful drive. I loved watching the ocean the whole way. Luckily no one got car sick on the windy roads. The kids all fell asleep along the way.


We were stopped for some construction on a bridge, so we snapped some pictures. Ty was asleep in the car.

We met Norm and Melinda and their boys (who were on spring break too) in Monterey.  We checked into our hotel and then went to Dennis the Menace park for dinner.  I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the park.  It was a super fun park, but I only got pictures of Ty and Ben.  The other kids were running around too fast.  They loved being with their cousins!