Last "hurrah" as a family of 4...

We were able to head to Pebble Beach for a week after school was out. It was such a a treat to just move into the house for 6 nights and do everything we love to do there.

On our way to Pebble we decided to make a stop at Casa De Fruita. We quite often stop here for a quick break, but this time we decided to enjoy a little bit more of what it has to offer and ride the train Ethan has so desperately wanted to ride every time we stop.

Posing on a caboose before the ride started. The kids LOVED it. This was Ethan's first train ride and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Waiting for the train to start...choo, choo! (yes we are on the train, it is that small)

We spent a lot of time just hanging around the house, relaxing and playing as a family.

Ethan learned to climb the tree by himself, and Morgan had some help:)

Lots of golfing practice in the back yard!

The first day we were there it was such perfect beach playing weather. It was cloudy, but fairly warm and no wind. The kids had a great time getting reacquainted with the beach.

Ethan has now gotten into telling me what he wants me to take pictures of. Here he instructed me to take a picture of him throwing a rock in the water...there you go son.

The second day we were there we took advantage of our Aquarium passes again and headed into Monterey. We tried to get there right when the doors opened so we had some of the exhibits to ourselves for  a while.

Morgan added some more words to her vocabulary while we were away. Fish, beach and deer. Here she was quite excited to see all the fish in their new tropical fish tank. There were a lot of little Nemo's and Dori's swimming around in there.

Here is another Ethan set up picture, posing with the giant penguin, also part of their new exhibit. This wasn't nearly as traumatic as the picture with the sea horse.

Day three brought us to the beach again. This time we had some more sun and Kevin even got into the water for a while.

Buried in the sand by daddy!

Another favorite thing for us to do when we go to Pebble is to check out the bag piper at Spanish Bay. I've blogged about that experience before. We hadn't taken both kids yet so we thought we'd try it out. It was a gorgeous night, it is usually freezing cold there by the water, but it was actually a little warm!

Day four we headed to the Dennis the Mennis Park in Monterey. The kids had a great time checking out all the fabulous playground equipment.

Probably our most favorite thing to do when in Pebble is to head down to the "rocky beach" after dinner and just unwind. It is amazingly peaceful and relaxing to just hang out on the rocks for about an hour, look for sea glass and crabs and throw rocks. Even the kids totally mellow out when we're down there. Kev and I agreed that it is a very therapeutic activity. If only we lived closer we'd be there every night.

This is one of the few places our "ever in need of a playmate" son will just do his own thing.

Mo checking out the birds.

Hunting for crabs, it's the newest adventure on the "rocky beach."

That night they were able to find a pretty big crab.

This was the perfect vacation to start off our summer. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather, better behaved kids or a more beautiful setting. It was a great time away and a good refresher before life turns crazy in a couple months. Thanks again dad and mom for the use of your house!

Happy Father's Day

 We are blessed to have such a fun, patient, playful, wise and present daddy. In the picture above Kevin just spent about 15 minutes looking under rocks at the beach until he caught a crab for Ethan and Morgan to see. I know he enjoyed it too and that's part of what makes him such a good daddy. Now that summer is here we get to spend more time with him and that means a lot more wrestling and giggling and sports playing. Both kids adore him and it has been especially fun to watch Morgan and him bond this summer. Kevin had been coaching a sport since last October which meant he would only see Morgan for about an hour and a half each night. She has really enjoyed "getting to know daddy" on a whole new level. I now have two kids who ask when daddy is getting home!

I am especially grateful for Kevin's willingness to help with the kids and work around the house. With this pregnancy, in the last couple weeks I have been restricted as to how many activities I can do around the house and with the kids. Kevin has stepped up and took over everything, all the while encouraging me to "just sit down." It sure makes this difficult time that much easier. So all three of us thank God today for our daddy and husband.

Adventure Race

On June 5, I (Kevin) and my buddy Keith took part in the Gold Rush Adventure Race near Chinese Camp, CA.  A friend of ours from church convinced us to sign up for the race after he had participated in the race last year.  This is not your average start-to-finish race.  The three parts to this race each proved to be a challenge.

After arriving at the start at 6:30, we hung out till the start of the race at 8:00.  We took two other friends who served as our crew.  These guys played a huge part in getting us through the race.  The best advice they gave was not to bring any beer on the mountain bike portion of the race.  They got our bikes ready for us, unloaded our kayaks, and provided us with our own personal two-man cheering section.

The first leg of the race was a 6 mile orienteering run.  For those of you who don't know what orienteering is, it is simply finding markers or signs using only a compass and a map.  The race organizers released the marker locations 15 minutes before the race began so Keith and I had time to plot our course.  Any marker which wasn't found would add a time penalty to the team so we were careful in making sure we plotted our course carefully.  The run went pretty well for us.  We managed to keep up with this team of hard core racers for exactly 5 minutes.  They were insanely fast and good.  We couldn't find one marker (I swear it wasn't even there!) so we were given a time penalty.  Overall we were happy with our run.

The second leg was the biking section.  This 18 mile trek wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be except for the ten mile section where we took a wrong turn.  Ouch.  Luckily we were in the same situation as probably twelve other teams so we didn't lose any time to them.  The final mile and a half was probably the fastest I have ever gone on my mountain bike.  Keith's speedometer on his bike topped us off at 33 miles per hour.  Nice little end to the saddle sore inducing bike ride.

Final section: 6 mile kayak.  Because the river was dangerously high, the race director moved the kayak portion to Don Pedro Reservoir.  We had two locations to find.  We hadn't trained for the kayak portion so this proved to be a challenge.  We found the two markers and then booked it to the finish line.  We crossed the finish line in 7 hours and 7 minutes.  We were hoping to be under seven hours but seeing as we were still alive at the end of the race, we'll take it.

Coming up to the finish line.  Phew...it's over.

Posing for our adoring fans after the race.

The racers and crew.  (Keith was obviously in need of serious hydration after the race.  I was already well hydrated when this picture was taken.)

Blueberry Picking

A local farmer opens up his blueberry farm every year for people to come and pick blueberries. My MOMS club usually goes every year and this was the first year we joined them. Picking blueberries was fun, but the best part (for Ethan) was the jump house. The owner also sets up a jump house and has a couple putting greens, sandboxes and koi ponds. A little kids heaven. The kids had a great time and we have some yummy blueberries to enjoy too!

Even though I showed Ethan what the blueberries should look like before he picked them and put them in his bucket he still asked after each blueberry picked, "Is this one ok?"

I showed Morgan which ones she could pick as well. I wanted to make sure she knew which ones to pick because I knew where all her blueberries would end up.....

....yep, right in her mouth. She loved the fresh berries!

Hockey Night

Morgan LOVES to play in our closet and wear my shoes, mess up my basket of stationary and occassionally pull my clothes off the hangers. This night it was Daddy's turn and she found his old Dordt hockey jersey. Of course Ethan didn't want to be left out so he's sporting the Team Canada jersey.

This picture was taken after I left for my Pampered Chef party, Kevin assures me that is a smile on Ethan's face.....

And one more just because it's kinda cute. It shows Morgan's wild hair and Ethan's big scrape on his chin. He fell while riding Uncle Eric's skate board. Never a dull moment in our house:)