New Years in Monterey

I decided back in November to take a little trip to Monterey for New Years.  I just wanted some time away to relax and found a great deal on a hotel.  Then I decided that I wanted to take Thomas with me.  I haven’t taken him on a vacation since our last one in March (to San Diego) and knew that we would have a great time going to the beach.  I was really hesitant once the trip got closer, something just didn’t feel right but in the end I decided to go.  Thomas and I had a fabulous time.  He is such a great traveling companion.  We went to the aquarium, we played on the beach, we took a long walk and we played the Wii in the hotel.  It was great. 

When we went to the Aquarium, I gave Thomas his own camera and told him to take pictures of everything that he liked.  Seeing his pictures and what things “impressed” him was fun.  Although a lot of the pictures didn’t turn out, I knew what he was trying to capture and he thought he was a great photographer!!! 

While we were there I bent down to tie my shoe and when I did my camera fell off my shoulder and hit me on the forehead.  It hurt really bad.  At the time I didn’t think that it was that bad though.  When we got back to the hotel I looked in the mirror and I had a huge bump and a small scratch on my forehead.  The bump is almost gone, a week later.  The whole point I decided to share was because when I was downloading the pictures that Thomas took he captured a great one.

  

I knew from when Kelly and Dave took the kids to Monterey a couple of months ago that Thomas loved the ocean and playing on the beach so we planned to spend a whole afternoon there.  We took a picnic but Thomas couldn’t sit long enough to eat before wanting to get in the water so he took his sandwich with him! He had a blast just running from the waves and playing in the sand.  I think we spent about 3 1/2 hours there and he ran just about the whole time!  

We had a blast and I can’t wait to go back.       

Noelle the model

I woke up one Saturday and I decided that I wanted to go play with my camera.  So, I packed up Noelle and a few changes of clothes for her and drove around Stockton trying to find places to take pictures of her.  We ended up at the University Park campus and at Oak Grove Regional Park.  I was lucky that Noelle was in a good mood that day and was able to get some really cute shots of her.

 

   

 

View Full Album

I think I spend to much time with my camera....

We were pretty busy last weekend which meant that I was able to get a lot of cute pictures. Saturday morning Thomas and I made breakfast for Kelly and Noelle. I had bought Thomas what I thought was a totally cute apron and hat. Everyone made fun of it but Thomas loved it and I thought he was cute in it. Kelly was worried that if Julie hated the chicken costume she was really going to hate the apron and hat!

That afternoon we went to Gary and Sandy's 25th Wedding Anniversary party. It was a Hawaiian Luau and everyone came dressed in their Hawaiian gear.

Grandpa and Noelle

We had a great time at the party. Noelle did what she does best... ate everything in sight. She loved everything on Kelly and Grandpa's plates. She always makes us laugh because she will eat as long as you let her but you would never know it because she is so tiny. She has a great metabolism. She can thank her dad for that!!

Neither Kelly or I felt like cooking dinner that night and it was getting late so we decided to go to Carl's Jr. and pick something up. We got there and went to order and we couldn't think of anything we wanted to eat. We thought about leaving before ordering but we didn't. We should have! We decided to have a picnic on the front yard except no one wanted to eat. I think we threw away almost everything we bought!!! What a waste. After our failed dinner we decided to play a game of croquet. That was a lot of fun. Noelle didn't participate instead she entertained herself with the Carl's Jr. cup (all it had was ice in it). Noelle doesn't appreciate it when you take her food or drink away from her. She will throw a huge fit and even though she can't walk she can "run" on her knees!! It really is about the cutest thing ever. Her knees have huge calluses on them. She doesn't like the grass so she "runs" on the cement.

So when we decided to clean up and get the kids in the bath. Thomas helped us clean up and I think that is when the camera got lost. Tuesday evening I was going to post these pictures but I couldn't find the camera. The rest of the week I turned the house upside down trying to find the camera. I can't tell you the emptiness I felt not having it. As you can tell with all of my pictures, I have my camera with me all the time. My Mom came over on Thursday evening and had dinner with me and helped me go through the entire house and garage looking for it but no such luck. By Friday I was in panic mode because I'm leaving for San Diego in a few days and I can't go without a camera!!!! I knew if I went and bought a new one I would find the old one and then I'd be mad. But something told me to look in a bin where I keep my gift wrapping stuff in the garage and at the bottom of the bin was my camera!!! Thomas must of helped put things away, just in the wrong spot. The relief I felt was amazing! As I write this I'm thinking that I may need to spend less time with the camera....