We’re having Field Trip Week at Pacific Christian School.

See, Alan is out on Fall break, so the timing is perfect for maximum family fun.

First, let me tell you about Abalonetti! This place has an exciting local’s menu, food that every single one of my children like (as in yes, they have pizza), and delicious sea food.

I’m the kind of person that picks a favorite restaurant and then stops going to all other places. I have now picked my place. Every time I get to eat out in Monterey, this is where I will be.

But you didn’t come here to read about where to find the best calamari, so let me show you what else we’ve found.

We had the sweetest family evening. After eating at Abalonetti, we walked around the wharf gawking at seals and sea lions. John David was so delighted with it all. I didn’t think we’d get him home without a struggle. However, we managed to just stand around and soak it in long enough to satisfy even J.D.

It is a pet peeve of mine for people to call seals “sea lions,” and vice versa, so let’s review:

The plain brown ones with long flippers and ear flaps are sea lions.

The multi-colored (mostly gray) ones with short flippers and no ear flaps are harbor seals.

Now that we have that settled, I have so much more to show you!

JD was so cute about it. One seal popped up, and he pointed and said, “Mama”, then he pointed at the next one and said, “Daddy”, and then the next one, “Baby.”

Now onto our day at sea! This was a different day, and we left the two small boys with Nonna.

Monterey Bay is eaten up with humpback whales right now. I’ve never seen so many in one place. Everywhere we would turn around, there was another couple of whales either nearby or in the distance. We probably saw 20 different humpbacks.

We boarded in Monterey, but then we had to ride the boat 45 minutes (ish) to the water off Moss Landing, where all the whales are.

There was a mega-pod of long-beaked common dolphins out in force, and watching them made my day. I have never seen so many dolphins at one time, literally over 100.

Good-bye dear Pacific!! In the spring, Daniel will turn five, and we will be back out there for another ride.

The post A Day at Sea with the Dolphins and the Whales appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Do you like our grass? How about the kid by the road with a toy gun? haa!

That’s quite a claim to make isn’t it? THE BEST? Is it really the best? Surely something is better. I said it myself that Destin, Florida looks like this:

I mean wow.

Well, you know, you gotta love the one you’re with, and Northern California IS 70 degrees.

70.

In July.

I’ve decided something. “I ain’t leavin’!”

No, I’m only kidding, but I do get to live here for a solid year yet. We have been doing the whole ‘lazy days of summer’ thing lately.

I can’t take too much of it. Isn’t that ridiculous? We so badly want to have nothing “to do”, and then when I have nothing more pressing than “laundry” and “Clean the bathrooms” or even “take the kids to the pool” on my to do list………..it’s dull!  I have no stress-strain on my heart, and I don’t know what to do about it!

It’s so ridiculous to feel that way. Right now Daniel and JD are playing together in their tiny sandbox. Joshua and Caleb are playing with their neighborhood friends. All I have hanging over my head is a kitchen that needs cleaning.

That’s actually something to be thankful for. A part of me does enjoy it, but this weird thing happens. When I only have a small, manageable amount of things to do, I don’t feel like doing ANYTHING at all.

What is that about? Am I the only one? Have any of you felt that way?

This morning I was out walking, and it was 70-something degrees and BREEZY, and all I could think was, “This is the best place ever.”

I hope you’ll all join me in praying for rain for this state!

Ha! I can hear Alan inside explaining to Caleb why we “don’t tell our friends the end of movies they haven’t seen yet.”

Daniel and JD are bringing me buckets, asking me to pour water in them.

No.

We have taken so many pictures this summer that I’d like to share. I will just have to do these in several parts. Here’s what we’ve been up to!

JD always has a hand full of cars.

Daniel learned how to build his own train tracks.

I happened to remember that when Caleb was 4, he was already building his own train tracks. Dan always has his older brothers and me to do that for him. I finally had to just tell him, “Daniel, you are big now. You can build these yourself,” and he can!

Sea otters

Seals at Elkhorn Slough

A seal pokes his head up to check out Alan and Caleb .

Chocolate pudding.

He saw an old photograph of himself, as a baby, making a mess eating chocolate pudding. Daniel took it upon himself to “do that again.” I wasn’t so happy about it, but I took a photo for you.

Plants Vs. Zombies……because he found it at a friend’s house, and I was just happy he was reading.

Little kid jump time

Southern biscuits. You can take the girl out of Bama, but you can’t take the Bama out of the girl. I’ve been baking these since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.

Playing Uno is fun, except when JD tries to play it with you, and then it’s not fun at all, so you HAVE to keep a sense of humor about it.

Joshua took my camera outside with him and took photos of himself and his friends.

the kids’ hideout…..Actually, Joshua said this is the girls’ hideout.

the boys’ hideout

We signed Caleb and Joshua up to play for the same soccer team. Daniel BEGGED to play too, so we will have THREE soccer players this fall.

the preschool hideout

Daniel made this. I thought it was cute.

what I look like right now

We have gophers! Or moles. They live in holes in our front yard. Just please don’t tell me they are just rats. I will be so disappointed!

That’s right! Even Dan got to kayaking. He’s a daring one. I just caught him standing on top of our patio table, ON A SCOOTER. Don’t worry. He put the scooter back on the ground.

dead sea lion, washed up on shore. We see a lot of this. I think there must be 1 sea mammal per square foot in this bay. There are so many!

I thought this looked like a sweet father-son moment.

Bird Island, Point Lobos

I got some ADORABLE photos of Xavier and Zoe reading to Daniel and JD, but I didn’t post those because big kids get embarrassed easily about being seen in their pjs. Well, Joshua does anyway, so I’m extra careful, but here’s one good photo of Xavier. We enjoyed their visit so much. The boys are still talking about it and wishing to see them again.

I had the best time hanging out with Amy too. It’s a great reminder that I need to become more social. I was way too much of a hermit last year.

Joshua’s BFF

Playing cars in the dirt: this is what we do the most of this summer.

JD is Joshua made over. They all enjoy reading with mom, but Joshua and JD LOVE reading.

our book corner

me and my faithful sidekick

Do you like the tiny sandbox that Alan built? JD LIVES in it now. I need to vacuum every single night. Actually, since the 4th boy arrived, I always need to vacuum every night. I’m not saying I do it. I’m saying that I NEED to do it.

I hope that you are all having a relaxing summer.

Check back with us this week! I have two giveaways lined up!

The post A California Summer is THE BEST kind of summer! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

While my parents were here, we wanted to be sure that we all got the full California experience…..soooooo we went hunting for movie stars….

Ha!

No, that’s not us at all. We don’t even know who any of the current stars are, really.

Nah, we figured a more authentic California experience would be if we…….all got Marijuana prescription cards….NOOOOOO just KIDDING!!!  We took our guests WHALE watching, of course!!!

You didn’t really believe me, did you? I got that prescription idea from a conversation we overheard yesterday. We were at the library, and as we parked our car, I told Alan, “I don’t know about this space. There are an awful lot of youths (high school kids) hanging out back here..”

We laughed, locked our doors, and as we got out, we overheard one girl tell her friends, “So my mom is always going to the doctor because she hurt her f****ing neck, right? So I told her, ‘Mom, why don’t you let me have your marijuana card? I mean that’s money just f****ing sitting there.'”

Ah yes, young lady, aspiring to a life of selling drugs, noble idea….

The things you hear from back alleys.

THANKFULLY,  we really and truly did manage to go whale watching!!!

We called up the whale tour people. We thought we’d take my parents, and reserve a whole group of 8. We were a little disappointed to learn that actually, children must be at least 5 years of age to ride the boat. We had to split into two groups. Alan, Joshua, Caleb and I rode out on the morning tour. My parents boarded the afternoon tour. A wonderful time was had by all. Both go-rounds were hugely successful in finding humpback whales and tons of sea lions. Mom and Dad’s boat even found orcas!!!

Sorry, we only have humpback photos to share.

I highly recommend this activity. It was especially fun to watch Joshua and Caleb seeing it all for the first time. Alan and I had done this one time before, in Boston. We saw at least two humpbacks there. This tour was even more exciting, as we saw herds of sea lions swimming along with FOUR humpback whales.

Four!!!

We saw an additional one, way off in the distant literally jumping out of the water. It was a spy hop move, where they push their whole upper body straight out of the water, vertically! No, I didn’t get a photo of that either…..I was not on a roll with my camera. In fact, I finally gave up altogether and handed Alan the camera, so Alan took most of these pictures. I am not overly steady at sea.

These are in backwards order of our trip day, but rearranging this many photos is way too much work, so here we go. 🙂

I love Joshua’s outfit: Alabama sweatshirt, Boston hat, touring in California. That’s a military kid for ya.

“Where are you from?” they ask us.

“Um, uh, uh…” Such hard questions!!!

Yep, that’s our humpbacks.

Notice the blow hole spray.

All those little things you see in the water are the tops of a sea lion herd, out hunting for fish with the whales.

Caleb said, “Those whales sure do like to eat those sea lions.”

“No, no,” I reassured him, “Those whales only eat little fish.”  Blue whales only eat krill, but humpbacks are less picky. I think they are in town for the anchovy buffet.

I love how these sea lions LEAP out of the water. I’ve seen a this few times from the shore too.

There’s something extra fun about managing to get a tail picture!

Here’s a better sea lion herd photo. I just love these guys.

My FAVORITE of all these sea mammals is actually the sea otters. At one point and time, these guys were believed to be completely extinct, but thanks to the protection of countries around the world, they are staging a come back. We saw about twelve of these on our kayak trip today. They make their homes in the kelp. More on that in my next post!

Did I mention that sea otters are my favorite?

Things were so exciting this week with the grands here. I wish they could always be here!!!

Pssst! Don’t forget to “like” my Facebook Page: Stories of Our Boys.

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