Monterey Family Vacation!

How does one narrow down over 100 pictures from a family vacation into a blog post? Here's the best I could do....
Here are Sadri and Mattie at the 18th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Course.... I have never seen Sadri so excited in my life! We drove to the golf course twice to look around and he wanted to go a 3rd time to look again.... I must admit it was very beautiful....We spent the afternoon at the white sand beach in Carmel, and walked to the end where it meets up with Pebble Beach golf course.... of course.... Mattie was on to Daddy's sneaky ways ;)

The famous "Lone Cypress" which just happens to be the logo for Pebble Beach...

We also stopped by Poppy Hills and Spyglass and Spanish Bay golf courses... here is a picture of Sadri and Mattie reluctantly leaving Spanish Bay

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was pretty cool and pretty big... we spent the whole morning there... and look, in the back you can spot some seals lounging on the rocks...

This is Lovers Point Beach.... more seals and squirrels.... lots of squirrels that Mattie wanted to feed and pet...

More Lovers Point Beach... cool rock formations...

My family vacationed to Monterey a lot when I was a kid... and we always played at this park... so we had to take Mattie to check it out!

The Fisherman's Wharf... where we sampled "the best clam chowder" at about 5 different locations... I don't want to see any clam chowder for at least 6 months!

Hiking at Point Lobos.... another spot my family always went when I was a kid... so beautiful... really, everywhere along the coast is beautiful....

Pismo Beach and Solvang didn't make it to my favorite pics pile, but we had some fun there too, on the way up to Monterey and on the way back down.... now I need a vacation from that vacation!

More Disneyland!

We headed back to Dland on Thursday... Mattie was so brave to give the big chipmunk a hug!

Then Mattie's BFF Tatum finally arrived after being stuck in traffic... The first stop was the carousel and boy were they happy!

The cuties held hands and were very excited to go on rides together!

The jungle cruise is always a hit... lots of fun animals to see! Mattie can't wait to go to Dland again with Tatum!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mattie woke me up on Mother's Day morning to show me what she and daddy had created with her favorite blocks.... how cute!

After church we headed off to brunch with Sadri's parents, where the moms enjoyed some champagne with breakfast...

And Mattie took a moment to stop and pose with mommy by the fountain... wow, has time flown, I can't believe this was my 3rd mothers day! Each year just keeps getting better!

Mattie's 1st Trip to Disneyland!

We finally got season passes to D-land! Mattie was really excited when we got there, even the tram ride to the entrance was fun....

However, our first ride was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Mattie was not so fond of it... she kept saying no and all done.... so we quickly headed to the carousel which cheered her up....

But this was the look on her face for most of the rides, even the "calm" rides like Small World and Jungle Cruise.... we'll have to gradually introduce new rides to her, my wild child has finally met her match... more posts to come, I'm sure we'll be going back at least once a month for the next year and hopefully Mattie will grow to love the kid rides ;)

Hot Park Day

We needed a park with water since it has been hot the last few days... Mattie and Alyssa started the day scooping and pouring water and sand very nicely....

Which quickly turned in to Mattie climbing into the water table to have the best access to the refreshing fun...

Sitting got boring after a while and climbing all over the water table seemed more up Mattie's "monkey" alley....

Sylvie sold Mattie on a rest in the wet sand, but it didn't last too long, Mattie headed back to the water table until she had to go home.... Too bad there wasn't an adult sized water table, I would have climbed in too!

Kiddie Gym

Mattie has been going to "Kiddie Gym" since last fall on Tuesday mornings. I decided to finally bring the camera to document for daddy what she has been doing. I got some cute pics so they are ending up on the blog....
Mattie's newest thing is hanging from the swinging bars like a monkey, and she is even trying to hang upside down by her knees, but she hasn't mastered it enough yet for me to let go and take a picture....

She walks the balance beam with little help from mommy....

And her favorite part of class (and of the week) is the trampoline. Whenever we even drive near the site where kiddie gym is held she points and says jump. I just call it "jumping class" now since she has gotten so good at her trampoline moves... she is even doing pretty well at waiting her turn while we go around the circle and give each kid a turn. Last fall, she would have tantrums while waiting her turn, now she cheers on her classmates!

Make-over moment...

How does Mattie go from this....

to this.... in the span of one hour?

I guess a little bath and a little hair brushing goes a long way ;)

Mattie's version of water play...

So I really like Alma's idea of a cheap water table (see Sydney's blog), and thought, hey, Mattie loves playing with water, I'll just get a small storage container, fill it up, give her some measuring cups, and she'll have fun on the patio.... I started mopping the kitchen floor in peace and peaked out to see Mattie playing nicely with her new water toy... then I peaked out again, and she was in it.... she went from standing in it, to sitting in it, to drenching herself in it...... yowsers, the shoes are still drying two days later! Well, that was a fun 20 minutes and at least I got to mop the kitchen floor ;)