The Gunnell Family: October 2009

If you ask anyone in Brad's family where their favorite place to visit is- I can bet they would all say Monterey, California. When Brad and I went to San Francisco in August he came home with the itch to go to Monterey. So here we are in October back in central California!

I was nervous how the kids would do on the long drive, but they did surprisingly well. Brad mapped out parks and rest stops along the way and we would stop and stretch every 2-3 hours. Since Monterey is the Gunnell family favorite when we were planning our trip we asked his parents if they wanted to come along. They were good sports to caravan with us along the way never complaining about all the stops! The kids would talk to Grandpa in the walkie talkie and get excited to see them at all the stops.

They kept busy coloring, watching movies, and dancing to their favorite song "Eye of the Tiger!"

Monterey is a really low key town with kind of a slow pace to it. I love it! You don't ever feel like you have to hurry and go anywhere... unless you're the birds trying to eat our lunch! The kids made the mistake of feeding a few pigeons some bread and then got bombarded by dozens of birds. This is them clearing them out!

We stopped and played at some kind of park EVERY single day. It truly was a kids dream vacation! The weather was perfect and there were plenty of parks.

This was the kids first time at the ocean and they loved it. I don't think Ashlyn could decide whether she liked climbing on the rocky beaches or playing on the sandy beaches better. She loved them both!

Tanner loved exploring the rocks and collecting sea shells- many of which we discovered were hermit crabs that were still alive (his bag of shells suddenly started moving)! I lost count of how many shells I emptied out of pockets when I did the laundry!

Ashlyn mastered the art of rock climbing right away and made me nervous with her confidence. Thank goodness we always planned for wet shoes! Tanner however was a little apprehensive... thank goodness. He was okay with holding our hand and being carried.

Here is Ashlyn and Grandma watching a sea otter riding the waves.

Brad was ALWAYS on beach duty! He was such a good sport. One thing we didn't plan on when we booked our vacation was that I would be 7 weeks pregnant and miserably sick. So the time at the beach I could sit on a blanket take pictures and rest.

This is how Ashlyn felt about Tanner ruining her big sand mountain. Tanner lived up to the requirements of being a pesky little brother- every sandcastle or mountain Ashlyn and Brad would try to make Tanner would inevitably knock down!

Here is the mountain before that cute innocent boy demolished it and laughed as his sister cried.

Brad's parents were SAINTS on this trip. They just did whatever the kids wanted to do and were content watching them play. Paula's leg started bothering her the day before we left and she thought it would get better, but it just got worse. We ended up having to rent a wheelchair for her because the pain was so bad she couldn't walk on her leg. We found out when we got home that she had a 9 1/2 inch blood clot in her leg... OUCH! Thank goodness it didn't break off and they were able to dissolve it pretty quickly when we got home.

Here is Tanner with his buddy Grandpa warming up!

Tanner gave up taking naps about a week before the trip. This actually worked out nice so we didn't have to plan around naps, and then he slept wonderfully at night!

Tanner and Dad watching the big water waves at The Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The Seahorse exhibit at the aquarium was incredible.

I am one lucky mom!

It was so fun to not have the distractions you have at home so you could sit in bed and read stories without thinking about dishes and laundry.

The kids loved hanging out at the hotel. We brought along "Grandpa's blocks" to play with. (Leigh made these wood blocks for all the grand kids last year for Christmas)

The most entertaining thing at the hotel though was this storage thing. The kids would shut themselves in the cupboards, but their stuffed animals in there, stuff each other in there.... the possibilities were endless. They played in it all the time!

Ashlyn finding a starfish out on the rocks during low tide.

Tanner not afraid to hold the starfish either.

Exploring all the tide pools for fun little creatures.

Tanner trying to figure out why the starfish was so hard to pull off the rocks.

There is a GIGANTIC park in Monterey called Denis the Menace Park and they have an old train there the kids can climb on and explore. My kids thought they owned the thing. Tanner played on it for hours examining every last bit of it. He would pretend to fix all the different parts of it.

Ashlyn really felt like she owned the train. She would yell that there was a fire to all the other kids so they would get out of her way and she could take over. Brad's brother Todd and his wife Kristine live in L.A. so they came down for a few days to vacation with us. I don't know how I didn't get any pictures of them with the kids... oh ya, this day at the park I was particularly sick and spent most of the time with my head in the bushes while Todd and Kristine so nicely followed my crazy kids around this park. Again.... SAINTS!

Ashlyn had Kristine on top of the train and following her everywhere!

Don't worry everyone Tanner took care of any maintenance needed on the train. He put sand in every wheel and tried to move every lever on the train!

My fearless rock climber!

The month of October the Monarch butterflies have a massive migration to Pacific Grove (the little town we stayed in right outside of Monterey). They have this Grove where millions of butterflies come every year. We were hoping to be there when they came, but only a few had made it this year- were about a week too early. Bummer!

Making great memories as a family!

Eating Ice Cream on the Wharf.

When we would get ice cream Ashlyn would try it to see if she would miraculously end up liking it now... she would take about 5-10 licks and decide she still didn't like ice cream and throw it away!

Ashlyn trying so hard to build something without Tanner destroying it!

And you can't have a trip to the beach without someone getting burried!

Any little boys dream... to get as dirty as you possibly can!

Brad making sure the waves don't knock them over completely.

Tanner getting restless in the car... yes that is marker all over his feet, clothes and carseat and a pinecone inbetween his toes! Just as long as they stay quiet right?

My parents had my brother's kids for the weekend and ended up spending most of the time with them at our house so the kids could entertain each other- I think it worked to both of our advantage! One afternoon we took the kids to see the witches at Gardner Village.

Ashlyn and Graycee ringing the bell~ the boys were afraid of the loud noise and being up that high, but it didn't phase the girls!