Monterey reunion

We arrived at our hotel in Monterey Thursday afternoon and met up with Grant's parents and 3 of his siblings (we were only missing Tim's family). The weather was a stark contrast from the 80s and 90s we had at my parents house and I realized that I probably did not pack enough warm clothes. We made it work though :) I knew it would be cold, but it was colder than I remember it being, haha. We played in the little playground at the hotel for awhile while the kids got acquainted with one another.

That night we all headed to Phil's Seafood Market for dinner...a must eat when you're in that area! Grant dreams about the cioppino and was excited to share it with Rowan who is also a seafood lover. It was a little crazy with digging everything out of shells with crazy kids all over, but Rowan was so cute and loved preparing and eating the meal! I tried to manage Boden while they enjoyed this enormous bowl of goodness ;)

On the way home, we stopped at the beach right next to our hotel just to check it out in hopes we'd get to play there in the coming days, and to our surprise, there were SO many whales out spouting and breaching, it was amazing! I had never seen so many whales, especially in such a short period of time. We probably only stayed 10 mins max because we were freezing :)

The next day we hit up the aquarium first thing. I haven't been since probably junior high and Rowan loves aquariums so we were excited to take them.

The wave area was one of our favorite spots. They were a little spooked the first couple of times and then they couldn't get enough of it!

My favorite are the jellyfish! Just so cool looking!

We grabbed lunch at a nearby grocery store and then headed to Dennis the Menace park where we played for HOURS and totally wore the kids out. It was a lot of fun and very scenic, just across the street from the marina. It was a slightly labor intensive park for the parents since it is huge and you had to follow the kids around, but it was really fun and the cousins had SO much fun together.

The next day was just as cold, so we decided to head out to 17 mile drive along Pebble Beach, so we could enjoy the beauty from the warmth of our cars, with short little breaks where we got to hang out and sightsee. It was a great event for the morning. We drove the coast of Monterey and then took 17 mile drive into Carmel.

Here we are freezing at Asilomar :)

"Team Work" they chanted

Checking out bird rock

The Lone Cypress, one of the 5 most famous trees in the world :) Even though the sun wasn't out, it was still a gorgeous drive.

Once in Carmel, we again grabbed food at a little market and headed to a grassy park to eat. A few of us were lucky enough to walk by the fire station at the exact right time, and there was a fireman outside who brought out hats and stickers and opened the garage so the kids could have a picture on the truck! Pretty awesome.

And then there was a little bit of eating and a LOT of wrestling that went down at the park. I think Rowan's biggest takeaway from this trip is his new found love of wrestling (not sure how keen I am on that, but I realize he is a boy).

It was great to be reunited with a majority of Grant's family. Wish we could have all been together but with Tim's kids in school, Trisha due in June and me due on early Sept, logistically it was just too hard! But we're shooting for a full reunion next summer for his parents 50th :)