Pebble Beach "Photo Shoot"

The title of this post is Pebble Beach "Photo Shoot", but I use the term "photo shoot" VERY loosely with these pictures!

While we were in Pebble Beach, one of my "goals" was to go down to the beach & take some family pictures. I have an empty frame sitting in our closet for about 2 years. The frame holds 3 pictures & I really wanted to get some family pictures so that I could FINALLY put up the frame in our bedroom! And, I wanted to get an updated family picture since Claire is changing & getting bigger each month!

So, I asked my younger sister Rebecca if she would be willing to snap a few of 4 of us. I set up my camera & the settings for her & told her how to use my camera since she had no idea how to use it. Bless her heart.
This task was a lot harder that I thought. It is hard trying to pose your family with 2 kids under 2.5 years old & telling them to look at the camera. The whole time I am barking orders at my sister, telling her what to do, telling Kevin to look at the camera & also trying to get the girls to look at the camera (and smile!).
Thanks for putting up with me (Rebecca AND Kevin!) I know I wasn't the nicest person during the 10 minute "photo shoot" :)

We were able to get a couple family pictures that I was *somewhat* happy with.

I think these next 2 are my favorites and I might make one of them my new facebook profile picture since I haven't changed it since Easter!

After the 10 minute family session, I took a couple of the girls:
The above picture is the only one where they are both looking at the camera!
The sand was too distracting & fun to play in! Looking at the camera is boring! Sand is fun!

Now I just need to decide which ones to frame....

Snaggle-tooth

Claire has been using this a lot:
It is the First Years Vibrating Star Teether. I got it at Safeway for $8.99 last month when I noticed 4 of Claire's top teeth coming in. It vibrates/massages the gums when the baby puts it in their mouth. A very, very odd teether, but you know what? Claire LOVES it! She giggles when she puts it in her mouth. This is a much better alternative to Tylenol or Motrin, in my opinion! I highly recommend this teether!

Claire's new nickname is Snaggletooth. Her right fang tooth came in before the front teeth, and it looks so funny, see for yourself:

Her poor gums! Ouch! She is still happy even though she is getting all those teeth at once!
Luckily, the top 2 started to break through over the weekend, so now she doesn't look *as* funny! I wonder when the top left fang is going to break through?

We love you and your snaggly-tooth grin!

Beach Babies

We are back from Pebble Beach!

It was wonderful & relaxing.
Kate did not want to leave, in fact, she cried as we drove back home saying, "I don't want to go home. I want to stay at Pebble Beach".
I couldn't agree with her more. I wanted to stay at Pebble Beach also!
We had a great time with my parents & sisters. The house we stay at is amazing, right off 17 mile drive. We are so lucky to stay in this house (We get to stay for free because of a company my dad does busniess with hooks him up with this house!) And, the best part is, there is a fully stocked fridge, gift basket & wine! This is our 2nd time staying there. The first time was in November, you can read about that trip HERE.

The weather in Pebble Beach was COLD! It didn't seem like the middle of summer! It was foggy & in the 60's the whole weekend. We wore jeans & hoodies the entire time. The weather reminded me of the Fall, which is great since Fall is my favorite season. It was nice to have cooler weather there, since it was in the 90's at home.
We honestly didn't do that much during our time there. We stopped at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the way there. That was the big outing we did!

The rest of the time we.........

hung out at the house & let the girls run around the awesome backyard




went to the beach for a "family photo shoot"
(which was kind of a fail, here is a sneak peek of what I was dealing with, Kate & Claire both not looking at the camera, or Kate was trying to choke-hold Claire. ugh!)
I am still editing the pictures, I got a few that are decent.
ate yummy food,
drank good wine (and opened the chocolate covered wine bottle that our neighbor gave us when Claire was born),
went on walks to the beach

hoped to see the sunset, but since it was so foggy, we were out of luck
(but that didn't stop me from doing an impromptu photo shoot of my girls!)
Of course, I couldn't get any of them together, but here are some individual ones:



searched in the tide pools for ocean life:
We found a little crab!
watched movies & played Mexican Train Dominoes
(I was the overall winner, thankyouverymuch!)
As you know, the girls don't sleep well when we travel. I am happy to report that the magic pajamas worked very well for Claire & she slept awesome! Kate on the other had was a different story...she ended up coming into bed with us both nights at about 1am. (FYI, this was the first time we have ever let us sleep with us in our bed, but we let her because we didn't want her to wake up the rest of my family!)

Kate has been talking about Pebble Beach non-stop since we got home. Every few hours she says, "Can we go to the beach?" or "I want to go back to the Beach."
She is such a beach baby! We miss you Pebble Beach, can't wait to go back!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Today we went to the Aquarium on our way to Pebble Beach!

I was surprised how crowded the Aquarium was, there were people (and strollers) EVERYWHERE! We even had to wait in line about 15 minutes to get in!
The first exhibit we went to was the sea otters:
Kate was a big fan of the otters, she didn't like it when they came right up to the glass.
Then we went outside to check out the view!

They had a special sea horse exhibit going on. I thought sea horses were about 2 feet tall. I was surprised that they are only about 6 inches tall! Guess I should have paid more attention in science class....
This is a leafy sea horse:
Next up was the Outer Bay Tank. Kate and Claire LOVED watching the fish, stingrays & sharks swim around!

The jelly fish exhibit was next. I think they were my favorite!

While we walked over the the Ocean Edge's section, there were lots of random fish exhibits to look at:

This was on the ceiling:

Kate was tired at this point & since Kevin was carrying Claire, Kate insisted on getting in Claire's infant seat. I got a lot of strange looks as I pushed her in it....

The Kelp Forest in the Ocean's Edge section was pretty amazing also.

Next up was the penguins. We were there during feeding time. All the peguins lined up while they waited for their fish. The penguins were Kate's favorite exhibit!

Next we went to the touch pools where you could touch Bat Rays, star fish & sea urchin. It was very crowded, so we waited until it was our turn. As soon as it was our turn, this guy moves Claire's stroller & cuts in front of us. So rude! Then, this is the view we got of him after he cut in front of us. He was so rude & that is why I am posting this picture of him! haha!

Warning: This next picture shows crack. Cover your eyes!!
Say NO to Crack!!

Kate wasn't quite sure what to think about that guy.....HYSTERICAL!

Moving on...
Our final stop at the Aquarium was the tide pools.

Then we went for a walk on Cannery Row to get some lunch (a very late lunch!)

We had clam chowder bread bowls for lunch from this cute place on the pier. Yum!

We had a great time playing around on the pier looking at the awesome views of the ocean.

We had a fun time & it was a great way to kick off our weekend in Carmel!