Monterey Bay Part II

Firefighter Larkin at the Children's Museum in Monterey.

Larkin's favorite skill right now is climbing. She is getting really good at it too! She climbs everything! Other moms at the park freak out when she climbs to the tippy top of the ladders, but she loves it, and I let her have her fun ...

A close second in the favorite-thing-to-do department is "driving". Larkin has to "drive" our car before she will get in her seat. She pushes all the buttons and turns all the nobs. The Children's Museum had lots of vehicles to drive. Larkin was in automobile heaven!

mini golfing ... and we mean mini!

We couldn't get to the beach due to the pouring rain, but we chartered a private boat and managed not to even get sea sick!

I will admit that I was disappointed that our day at the beach got washed out. I had all these dreams of fun photos and memories to be created.

The theme that runs through my life right now is that sometimes the plan B can be just as fulfilling as the plan A. I guess I need to learn how to let go, and go with the flow!

Lesson learned!

Monterey Bay Part I

Slippery fish ... slippery fish ... swimming in the water ...

Oh no! It's been eaten by a ...

Octopus ... Octopus ... swimming in the water ...

Silly Toddler ... Silly Toddler ... running all over the aquarium ...

Oh no! It's been eaten by a ...

Great White Shark ... Great White Shark ... swimming in the water ...

I loved:

the rain
the jellies
the smell of the ocean
the way every fish caught your attention
the way you ran and ran, but paused for snacks
the seahorses
the way your dad lifted you up to see everything
the way your dad was so brave when he got shot in the arm by a bb gun
the way you kissed the glass to get close to the fish
the way you tangled your fingers in my hair while we looked at the otters
the way you loved every moment until you passed out in the stroller
the look in your eyes
the silly shark hat that was way too big for your tiny head

Pumpkins Please

I love autumn! It is my favorite time of year. The crisp mornings, the scarves, the soup and the sweaters. Yeah ... not so much this year. It was 90 degrees outside as we slathered on the sunscreen and grabbed our water bottles for our pumpkin hunting adventure.

Bishop's Farm ... the petting zoo was a big hit with our little animal!

Larkin loves animals ... check her out signing "bird"! Sign language is amazing!

Working hard at digging!

Pausing for one still sweaty sweltering moment in the pumpkin patch ... and there really was only one still moment all afternoon!

The animals, the pumpkins, the train, the shops, the slides, the strange chicken puppets ... it was an afternoon of great fun!

I sense a family tradition in the making!

What a Crazy Month!

While I was packing boxes, and unpacking boxes, and then packing boxes again this past month, here are some other things that were happening at our house ...

Apples are the new favorite fruit, but they cannot be sliced, peeled, or sauced. Don't even think about it. Larkin takes her apple like her momma ... whole.

Larkin cracks me up right now with her cheesy camera face. She loves to "write". She will ask to "write" all day long ... so I hooked her up with a chalkboard in her room ... can you say cloud nine ...

(This one's for you Grandpa Rice!)

We took a much needed break and played at Fairy Tale Town. Larkin loves being outside. It was a treat for everyone.

It was a crazy month and I'm glad we all survived ... just barely!

The Parable of the Microwave

(No Emily, not that microwave parable :)

We used to have this microwave ...

it was big without being too big. It popped our popcorn. It worked like a charm. One day we decided to move and our new apartment came with a microwave, so we packed our little microwave oven into a box and put it away in a closet ...

The microwave sat on a shelf in our closet for a long time. One day we decided to have a garage sale and the box with our microwave was sold for a few dollars. We were so proud that we had turned our unused microwave into a few dollars to use for something else we needed and would use ...

A few weeks after our garage sale we moved. We packed all our junk into boxes and moved ourselves into a new apartment. As we unpacked and set up house we looked high and low for a microwave, but none was to be found ...

And that was when I realized what a fantastic microwave I had sold to some stranger at my garage sale. I didn't appreciate that microwave while we owned it. It was a good little microwave and I didn't even give it two thoughts as long as it was there when I needed it ...

How often do we do this? Have something wonderful in our life that we only appreciate when it is gone? I think the key is gratitude. I have so much to be grateful for. A new microwave is just one of many blessings I am counting tonight ...

Do you have a "microwave" in your life you could be more grateful for?