Family Vacation 2011

 The three of us took a little vacation up the coast.  We'd been watching everyone else go on vacations and it gave us the desire to do one of our own.  We all got sick the first day- so pretty much the whole trip we weren't feeling like ourselves.  Our first few days were spent in Monterey.  We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was a lot of fun.  Great exhibits and BEAUTIFUL location.

This was one of Elliott's favorite things. The anchovies.  I would have never guessed.  He liked how funny they looked with their mouths open and how they all swam together.

 

We got caught up in the touristy things and did the Mirror Maze and Lazer Maze that is right on Cannery Row.   It was crazy.  You could see yourself in ever direction.  Elliott's favorite was the lazer maze.  He was so excited to do it.  They have you pretend like you are robbing a bank and you need to get through the lazer maze.  He was so stoked to try it over and over.  He wanted to go back.  I'm pretty sure this was the biggest highlight of our whole trip for him. 

Going into the lazer maze.  Look how into it E is with his crossed arms- he was soaking up every single word she said.

Next on our stop was Santa Cruz.  We specifically went there to do a little train ride to see some of the redwoods on the coast there.  We met up with Shelly and Trevor (so, so glad we did) and spent the morning and afternoon with them there.  It was really fun and the boys loved the train ride.

Had to take a picture of how Trevor wore his shoes all day.  Silly guy. We were hoping to head all the way to San Francisco and see Trevor's house and show Elliott San Fran- but I wasn't feeling well and Craig wanted to get in some surfing before the week was through.

We did the 17 mile drive on the way home and then took the 1 the rest of the way.  Long whirley drive- but BEAUTIFUL and full of things to see.

Nice huh?  Craig and I were both getting car sick on this long drive and E is in the back seat playing the ipad.  I'm glad he has to motion sickness issues.

E took this picture for me.  This is one of my reasons for the drive.

These blue birds.  I was excited to show them to E and he found them before I did.  I just love them.

Big Sur- BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL is all I can say.  (Thanks Players for telling us about the seats in the river, it was a BIG hit!)  You can walk down to the river and sit in these chairs and put your feet in.  I was all about this- so relaxing.  It was getting dark, so we didn't get to spend as much time as I would have if we'd had the time.

 To finish off the week the boys went surfing at Doheney.  It was a super tiny day so it was perfect for Elliott.  He had a great time, as you can see- especially paddling around with his shovel.

We had a nice week, it went by way too fast!