California, part one

The kids and I went to California last week to see one of my best friends from graduate school. Michael had a trip and a busy work week so it was a good time for us to be gone.

We had to leave our house at 5AM! It was an early morning after a night of being woken up every 30 minutes with Isabella crying. The only thing she ever said was that her legs were hurting. Growing pains? I don't know, it was terrible. Anyway, the kids were amazing travelers which I was so thankful for and proud of them! I was able to take my car seat on all the flights which helped a lot as Benjamin was able to go right to sleep in his seat.  We had really nice people sitting by us, one lady played my little ponies with Isabella for a while, and another mom talked to us for a long time and shared bubbles with us. It was so nice to have friendly, engaging people to sit by! Our flight in to California got canceled, but it turned out to be a good thing as we got changed to an airport that was a shorter flight and an hour closer to Emily's house!!

First stop: In and Out for lunch.  I was standing on snow and ice in the parking lot when we left OKC, and the weather in CA was nice enough for us to eat outside. That was perfect so the kids could eat and then run off some energy.

After getting settled and naps for the kids we went to a farmer's market in downtown Monterey for some fresh produce and dinner. There were all kinds of food trucks and stalls with great food. It was a really great market!

Loved seeing our girls become friends again quickly after being a few months since seeing each other!

Wednesday we headed to an aquarium right on the ocean in Monterey. The walk there was really pretty and Isabella had a lot of fun there. There was an outside part of the aquarium that you could walk along to look at wildlife in the ocean. There was a sign with all the sightings for that day. It was really neat!

That night the kids made their own pizzas, and Emily made a delicious gourmet pizza for the grown ups.

Thursday morning we headed out to Point Lobos to go hiking. It was sunny and clear on the drive out there but as we were getting out of the car a fog rolled in. So it was hard to see in some places. But we still saw an otter swimming, some seals, and several different birds. The mountains, rocks, and huge waves were incredible!

Isabella searched for animals with her binoculars.

 Benjamin went to sleep...

It was a fun morning! We went home for lunch and I got really sick with a stomach bug. Terrible to be sick while on a trip. :( But Emily took care of all of the kids alone so I could just sleep and rest. I finally started feeling better late in the evening. I was back to normal the next day, thankfully! And it was my favorite day of the trip! More to come later!