July with Justin and Laura!

It was kind of a cloudy day but this is one of the stopping points when you're driving along Highway 1 heading down to Big Sur. It's crazy because there's no fences or anything that stand between you and the ocean!


Down below is a picture of all of us at Lover's Point. It was too sunny! A rarity in Monterey so we kept all of our sunglasses on.

Laura got some great shots of the girls. The one above is Haley scaling the large rocks. We looked up and that's where she was. She loves a challenge.

This is Addie obviously but it's so hard to take a good shot of her because she NEVER wants to smile for the camera. You have to get the picture before she realizes it. With this one, Laura asked her to turn around and it was great.

There were massive rocks down by "sandy hermit crab beach" as Haley likes to call it. Laura and the girls and I took a picnic down to the beach and just hung out all afternoon. We found a great rock ledge that ended up being the perfect picture spot for the girls.

Random pics

Here's Addie showing me the cool fish from the Aquarium. She loves the "tot" room though she's quickly outgrowing it. This day we went and saw the new traveling seahorse exhibit. Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best aquariums in the world.











Addie was pretty excited to get to hold baby Claire.

















Claire was so content in Haley's arms that she ended up falling asleep that day. Haley can't get enough of holding babies. Hmm, who does that remind you of?

















Addie and I did pedis and manis together the other day while Haley was on the computer. It's so funny that these girls fight over computer time. Addie is growing up way too quickly. She absolutely loves to get her toes painted. Who doesn't?

My girls know how to cuddle. They remind me very much of cats the way they curl up on each other and they just get so comfortable when they get settled in to watch one of their "programs".

After Berry Time

After picking berries, we had a picnic lunch outside followed by some ice cream. In the back of the barn, they have bales of hay that the kids can climb on, through or in the case of our girls learn to jump off of. Their faces here are priceless.















Addie actually figured it out first and then of course Haley had to have her turn. You can't be shown up by your baby sister after all. It must have felt very freeing because the did it about twenty times each. Poor Jamie, his arms will be tired tomorrow.













I don't think I'll ever regret taking this picture. Addie's still in the stage where it's cute if your bum shows. If it's Haley, we're always yelling at her to pull her pants up.

















Haley with Ella walking back and forth on top of the hay bales. The girls had so much fun today.

These girls have so much attitude sometimes it kills me. Look happy for the camera. You're eating ice cream! They have some of the best pies at Gizdich. We brought home an Olallieberry pie which is kind of similar to a blackberry but four times as sweet. It's amazing.

Strawberry Fields Forever

For those of you who don't know, Saturday is Family Fun Day around the VanDyke household. This morning we went to Gizdich Farms in Watsonville, CA which is about 45 minutes from Monterey. It was worth the drive though. The girls (and mostly me) had an awesome time with our friends the Beaches picking some of the best berries I've ever seen (or tasted).







Here's a cool pic of Addie showing me what you can do with an empty bucket. I wonder where all of her strawberries went too. It was either in her mouth or in Hallie's bucket.



















Here's a nice group shot. Well not really, no one is looking at the camera in this pic, but if you can see Haley's face it's priceless. I think she got ahold of a bad strawberry. "Honey, if it's on the ground you shouldn't eat it!"









All total, we ended up with about 13 lbs of berries today. We basically have been giving them to neighbors all afternoon and evening. Of course we can freeze some, but we might as well share the wealth.








The girls really did enjoy their time with each other today. I'll highlight some of the events after berry-picking in our next post!

Summer in April

We've been outside pretty much all day for the last 3 days. It's been beautiful here, actually making it to 87 degrees! It's never this warm in Monterey so we're taking each day as it comes.

Jackson taking a drink from the Slip 'N Slide. Addie watching in the background while enjoying a snack, oh wait that's her hair.














Haley's decided she rather enjoys sunbathing. Don't worry she has SPF 1000 on. It's so think sun cannot penetrate her skin.



















One of Addie's best pics ever. The kid just never lets me capture her beautiful smile on camera. Maybe if Aunt Kenzie came out for a visit she might be able to get it out of her.

Haley and her friend Ella having a ball.

This is a snowcone record for the neighborhood. We were able to have all these children sit by each other for a total of five minutes and no one screamed, kicked, whined, well you get the picture. I screamed, but it was because I had a brain freeze. ;) Them's the breaks.

Easter Sunday

One of the girls' favorite things about church has always been the donuts afterwards. Heaven help us if we ever find a church that doesn't do this. I guess then we'll have to find a Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme, oh how I miss Krispy Kreme.

In their Easter bonnets from Nana and Papa, we made it to St Thomas Aquinas this morning. It's wonderful to be surrounded by our friends from preschool and Jamie's curriculum.

A rare family photo. It was a gorgeous day this morning. 65 degrees with very little wind. Perfect for their little white sweaters and bonnets.

Me and my girls. This one will get framed. They're both looking and no one is scowling.

We hope you all are having a wonderful Easter with your friends and family. We miss our family today, but they know that we're thinking of them. Praise God for this country and our family and friends.

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is an amusement park on the boardwalk about 45 minutes from Monterey. We stayed about 6 hours and it was an absolutely beautiful 70 degree day right on the beach.
The cars seemed fairly mild at first, but it really whipped around on the corners. The girls LOVED it! Everytime they'd hit a corner they would light up. It was pretty fun to watch.









Haley did the Mini-drop thing. I thought she was going to cry everytime she came down, but she had a huge smile on her face when they went back up. I attempted to do it with Addie, but we got kicked off before the ride even started because Addie was near tears already! They said if she started crying on the ride, they would have to stop the ride for her to get off. No thank you.














There were about 20 ride that the kids could do together and only a few (like the swings) that Addie couldn't do. My favorite was getting to go on the Skyline, but Jamie said he was too nervous to enjoy it. You can't go wrong with corn dogs, cherry slushies and kettle corn.

We rode the carousel probably 10 times. It's just one of those rides where you can get off but get back on quickly because it takes so many people. If you're on the outside of the carousel, you can grab a coin from the arm and try to throw it into the clowns mouth. With my coordination, I didn't even attempt it.