The Mystery Spot and Santa Cruz Boardwalk Beach

Day 4.  Nels kept the babies with him which helped our day go a lot easier!  The rest of us drove to Santa Cruz.  Our first stop was the Mystery Spot.  

A little cloudy/rainy.

It was a pretty odd place!

No one really knows why, but in this area you naturally lean at a 17 degree angle.  When a ball is rolled it goes the up instead of down.  And things that are level appear slanted.

It was interesting and it made me a little nauseous.  haha.  Isak had to go potty during the 30 minute tour and Kira was super whiney.  But I still found it fascinating.

The Judson's were craving Chinese food.  So we ate lunch at Yon Flower.  I enjoyed the orange chicken.  Then we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk Beach.

I didn't bring any toys.  I was a little worried about what Isak and Kira would do.  But they found sticks and drew in the sand...all their idea.  It was so cute.

See Kira's stick person? :)

They also liked throwing rocks into the ocean.  They loved our time there.

The Judson's liked it too.  Even if it was a bit chilly.

Then I drove them along the coast on Cliff Drive.  We saw the lighthouse and Natural Bridge.

Then we drove home.  Traffic was terrible and it took about an hour and twenty minutes to get home!
Nels grilled some yummy burgers.  We ate ice cream and bathed the kids.  Then after the little ones went to bed, we played Telestrations.

The last day.  :(  Sunday morning we made pancakes, sausage and eggs.  Then we went to sacrament only.  Nels made it home in time to watch the kids.  So I drove the Judson's to the airport.   It was such a fun week.  We loved having them here.

Thanks for coming Judson's!!!

Tech Museum, Cement Slides and More

Day 2 - We went to San Jose and spent from 12:30 to 5 at the Tech Museum.  We watched an IMAX movie called Extreme Weather.  Kira fell asleep.  When I asked her what her favorite part was she said the movie.  I said, "but you napped."  She replied, "Yep, it was a good nap."  haha.  

The kids liked building this robot.  The head even spins.

They also liked just building with different blocks.

Tyler with his robot.

They also enjoyed a program to build rollercoasters and dropping balls through a maze they made on a huge magnet board.

Day 3 - We had a slow morning.  Then we dodged the rain and had a lovely time at Brigadoon Park.  They have 3 cement slides and the kids had a blast going down them.  It was fun to watch.  

Isak loved to hold Tyler's hand.

The babies were pretty good.  We took a few pics of us holding the babies.  I love their hats!

I even let Sofie explore a little.

Noah was happy where he was.  :)

I was surprised at how much Kira loved the slides.  She became an expert and loved to show off.  Especially when some older girls came to slide.  She would say, "watch me!"  :)

Then we enjoyed ice cream at Baskin Robins!

At home, Abi and Tyler just played with the kids.  And Melissa and I talked and talked.  

See how helpful they were?!

After our kids went to bed we played Telestrations and uno.  That was a fun part of the day.

Monterey Bay with Visitors!

My sister Melissa came to visit us at the beginning of February 2017!!  She brought her daughter Abi and her son Tyler.  They are awesome and we had a blast.  We spent some time driving places and enjoyed talking and talking.  We explored quite a few places in the 4 1/2 days they were here.

Our first outing was to Monterey Bay.  I picked them up from the airport in San Jose and then we drove straight to Monterey.  Here's some pics of our time there.  

That's Abi pushing the double stroller.  She was awesome helping with the kids.  

The big kids attached themselves to Tyler.  :)  We went to Louie Linguine for lunch.  Here's Tyler and Isak waiting patiently for our table.

And Abi with the babies.

Noah was pretty excited to sit up at the table.  

While we waited for the food we took some pics.  Our table had a great view of the bay.

Tyler ordered popcorn shrimp and shared some with Isak.  I was surprised Isak Loved it!  We checked out this fountain after lunch.

The aquarium was awesome.  No one was there!  So we got to see a lot and just take our time.

Melissa and I tried taking a selfie with the penguins.  We got to see the penguins get fed and at another exhibit we watched scuba divers feed fish.

Around the aquarium there is a balcony.  So Melissa and I took some pics.

There's a cool "waterfall"  tunnel.

The egg is always fun to sit in,

The kids loved the jellyfish-I did too.  We also liked the "open sea" with huge turtles and sharks.  And I loved the octopus.  They had just fed the octopus so it was moving around instead of hiding in the dark corners.  We bought an octopus Christmas ornament to remember it by.  :)

Sweet little Kira.

Then we walked up and down Cannery Row.  We went into every candy store!  We ate chocolate samples at Ghirardelli's and I bought the kids some taffy.  

There were all these different flavors of taffies and Kira chose vanilla!  haha.

It was hard to resist these little faces!  Luckily they were happy with the piece of taffy that we bought.  :)

We drove back to Morgan Hill and met Nels for dinner at ModPizza.  Fun filled day!