Just some more funny stuff!!

                          So…we had to change the rules completely of the slug-bug game…don’t worry, I still get to ‘slug’ (cause we don’t hit, “thank you Keegan!”) Mark when we see them…in fact Mommy changed a rule too…I get to ‘slug’ daddy when I get a bug AND when any of the kids get them! Yeah mommy!!  But we had to change the main rule because ELLA took this game totally too serious and too much to heart!  We were in the car and I heard something I never hear now a days, peaceful giggles and fun times…kindness.  What was the cause of this?  As it turned out Ella had tons of ‘slug-bugs’ and Keegan only had 2 (because he’s just not that into finding them) anyway, Ella wanted life to be even so she gave Keegan just enough to make them both have the same number of slugs…now things are even – AWESOME!!  U-N-T-I-L Keegan pipes out of nowhere to find 3 slugs IN A ROW!!  Holy dysfunctional family comes out.  All of a sudden I have whining and crying, and not just a little crying…I’m talking throwing themselves on the floor pushing out the screaming and crying!!  Again this was all going on without me really understanding what had happened to the joy from earlier…it took almost 20 minutes to calm Ella down just enough to understand what in the world had just tortured and killed her very soul!  It had everything to do with Keegan ‘WINNING’ (thanks to you Sheen I can’t EVER hear this word and NOT think of your low-sorry life!)  And Ella said, “and…when…I…asked him to share with me so we could be even again…he…said…noooooo (back to screaming!)”  So needless to say we’ve now taken ALL competition out of life with the Wortley’s…where does this come from you ask…do I have to answer??  My way is more like Keegan’s – lets share and have fun altogether…I’ll just tell you this much…it’s MARK!  So now the new rule is that no ONE gets their own slug bug…we now have a counter (thanks to Carlie downloading it to my phone) and we count all the bugs we find as a whole…then every time we hit 100 we get to go out for ice cream!!  SWEET!!  We are close to 200!!  We took the competition out for Ella so now she’s all in without the fear of losing and we added the ice cream aspect for Keegan and now he’s all into helping – ha!!

  We were standing on our hill I was holding Grissom and talking to Mark.  My back was turned form the road and Grissom yells, “SUG-UG!!” then proceeds to ball his hand up and whack me with the back of his balled hand!!  I cracked up when I turned around just in time to see a cream slug bug driving up our hill/road!  We’ve even poisoned HIS little eyes! Ha!!

Wednesday:

We woke up to the SUN!!  Yeah!!  The day before I was on the couch most the day with a terrible headache…it was strange.  Everyone else ended up getting one by the end of the day.  I think it was the cold front coming through cause everyone’s head felt better after the rain was over.  Anyway we got up and took off for a new area to see.  We found ourselves parking at a local sightseeing spot in Pacific Grove.  We climbed down to a small beach area mostly covered with rocks.  It wasn’t until we got down by the water that we were amazed.  All of a sudden we forgot we were at the ocean…it felt like we were at the lake.  There were NO waves.  No joke.  The ocean was still and calm.  The water had small humps here and there but you saw NO white caps…it was astonishing.  And I wanted to know why (there’s a shocker).  There were only 3 other folks around; an older man, his wife, and a little boy who looked to be about 3-4.  So I asked them what the deal was with the waves…this started a good 1 ½ hour talk with this couple.  But let me first tell you that this is the time of year here that the ocean is still and quiet...HOW COOL IS THAT!!  I never thought I'd see the ocean look like a lake!!  And here Mark thought the apocalypse was upon us! ha!! They wanted to know everything about our being out there.  Then they told us their story.  He was retired from the military; they’ve come up here from San Diego to retire.  They had 3 kids and they were so sweet and such an encouragement.  It totally lifted us up from where we were!  It left us wanting to be closer to our friends and family but it also reminded us that we are making the right choice to be together…even If that means out here…we are together!  It was cute cause the second their daughter came up (she’d been running which was why they were there) they told her ALL about us and it almost got embarrassing cause they kept telling their daughter, who was visiting, how awesome we were.  I think we really reminded them of their lives way back when and it fueled a flame of memories that got them excited!  It was just a cool morning to have.  Thank you God for hidden blessings!  And thank you that I’m SO like my Papaw B and am not afraid to talk to random people – ha!!

We grabbed our favorite Subway for lunch…I REALLY think we are keeping them in business out here it’s the ONLY place we can go and all eat healthy without breaking the bank…we try to hit a different store every time we go, but I think some of the workers are recognizing us in some of the stores! Ha!  Anyway, we took it to a park to eat while the kids played before Ella’s gymnastics.  We were going to stop at a different park but we noticed that the daycare kids were all over it.  Now STOP!  I’m not diss'n the daycare kids…I just saying things get rough when you don’t have enough of the right kind of…overseeing…responsibility…workers…please do NOT take this personally…its just a fact!  Anyway, we decided to go onto the next play place cause we knew it would be less habituated.  But as we passed by Ella said, “Why aren’t we stopping here?”  I said, “Because the daycare kids are out…and we want to eat lunch and well, sometimes Grissom can get run over by the bigger kids…” Keegan interrupted with, “the bully kids mom?”  “Yes, Keeg the bully kids.”  Then Keegan says, “Mom…we gotta go there, I wanna shove those bully kids over!!”  I turned around and looked at him and said, “Keegan!  If you do that then you are being just like the bully kids!!”  Then there’s like 30 seconds of quiet a.k.a. Keegan’s thinking then we hear him say to himself, “Great…I’m already a bully kid!  Now what!!”  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!  How cute is that…at least he can see he needs to be careful NOT to be a bully kid!!

                Later today I took the kids to the play set down the road after Ella’s gymnastics’ class.  The sun was still out so I laid on a bench reading while the kids played like monkeys.  We’d been there all of 25 minutes when I glanced over and saw Ella under the slide pulling at her shorts…I’d thought she’d pulled clothes to the side and was relieving herself under there!  I said, “El…what in the world are you doing…come here!”  She came right over as I was sitting up to talk to her.  As soon as she came up she said, “Mom, it’s ok…I’m fine.” But I smelled something not good…I asked her if she tooted and she looked at me and said, “No…great…I’m 6 and I just pooped my pants!” then we BOTH started cracking up!!  Good thing home was just up the hill cause by the time we got there Grissom had gone in his diaper…and Keegan’s holding himself yelling, “But Mom…I have to poop too!!”  I have always said life only gets hard when everyone has to poop at the same time and you only have 1 potty!  Ok…so I’ve never said that until this happened…but I’m saying it NOW!!  (Cause you can only slap a monkey SO many times!!!)

Blues Sunday...

              We finished our weekend with a great Sunday church service!  It was Blues Sunday…Now something you gotta understand is that Blues Music (a.k.a. bluegrass in some areas) is VERY the thing here!!  Monterey had their major blues festival over this weekend…shoot, we missed it oh well.  So as we walked into the sanctuary things didn’t look really different, they had a very small choir which we’d seen before and they had lots of fun instruments added to the normal band on stage.  A harmonica station, banjo, stuff like that…then they started playing…HOLY BLUES for Jesus!  All I could think about was how much my father-in-law, yes you Scott would have liked it…it was loud and happen.  They did a good 3-4 songs this way, then slowed it down but what I found to be kind of funny was as you looked around you noticed all the moms and dads and grandparents jamming while the younger generation just stood there with their mouths wide open with a shocked look upon their face.  It was what I’d call an ‘OLD-ER’ folks jam party!  It was a fun time…I’m SO thankful that God created music…I wouldn’t be able to live without it, and I’m also SO thankful that this kind of jamming music finds its way into churches…God gave us the hearts to jam and sing and listen and dance…I just love that no matter how old a person is…music moves!  We left church feeling more homesick then ever…I left with tears in my eyes and Mark just felt an overwhelming sensation of depression.  See we had a guest come to preach, Randy Frazee.  This man mentors and is the boss of another man I adore and follow in life, Max Lucado!!  Randy’s from Texas!  He got up and preached about Crowded loneliness…’Making Room for Life – Squeezing Living Out of Live’  It was so much how Mark and I have been feeling about life for a few years now.  He basically talked about how people are suffocating themselves socially thinking that if we JUST had this other thing to do (to add to the millions of things/groups/programs we already do) then we’d be happy and make friends and life would be better…but this is pulling us away from contentment…living life the way it was meant to…enjoying the people that you are living life with.  He told us that a while back when they were in the midst of family everything (their kids were young and playing tons of sports, they were involved in Small Groups, Bible Studies, play groups, etc) they had an “Ah-ha” moment…they decided to stop and stay at home and live life with the people around them…their neighbors…and the family that was within close proximity to them…and stop being super involved in everything.  And they have full lives without any regrets!  It made us miss our wonderful neighborhood and amazing neighbors more then we have ever missed anyone…it made us long for summer cook-outs and blow-up pool parties…and THE GREAT AMERICAN CAMP-OUT…and fun family gatherings…it also gave us a peace about life and that before we came out here we felt like we were very much limiting the activities that we were involved with.  It makes us want to come home and do NOTHING with all the people we love!!  I’m going to try to attach this sermon…I’m asking you from far away California…Mark even adds his plea…listen to this!  Not only is Randy entertaining and funny but he’s got one of the best points about life that I’ve ever felt to be true!  WE ARE TOO BUSY and it’s KILLING US!!  

                                http://www.shorelinechurch.org/2011/06/june-26-2011-sermon/

I picked Keegan up from his class and he was very excited to give me a neat card he'd made during Sunday school to tell me that he loved me.  It was made out of love on a blue construction piece of paper.  He'd colored it and put stickers all over it.  It had a little note of the outside that read, "I love you because..." then obviously the teachers wrote in what each child wanted to say.  I read Keegan's and about fell over!  His read, "I love you because...YOU GIVE ME FOOD!  Love Keegan'  

THIS IS MY BOY!!  So involved with food that this is MY (the mother's) sole purpose in life to make sure I give him food...so now I know...Keegan feels loved when he gets to eat...what a big job I have to make sure he eats good! ha!!  But what a funny card - one that I will keep forever!!  

"I love you because...YOU GIVE ME FOOD...Love Keegan!!"  

We took our Sunday afternoon to the same beach that we took Carlie and A too…except this time we were ready to get wet…suites and all…

We miss you and love you all…you are more important to us then you’ll probably ever know…thanks for living life with us, missing us, and being there ready when we DO finally get home!!

The Cope's Visit...

Can't remember if I posted this...the boys meeting in the airport!!

Thursday:

                We had an earlier start this morning.  Carlie and Mark went running while I got breakfast for the kids and got them ready for the day…doesn’t seem like a fair trade, but it worked.  We hung out until Keegan’s gymnastics class then on the way there we thought how fun would it be for Aiden if he got to do the class with Keegan?  So when we got to the gym we got it all set up and can I tell you boy oh boy they had more fun than ever before!  We did give the teachers nice warning about the boys (that they might want to wrestle/fight rather then gym…and it was preferred by us that they were made to focus on the gym part not so much on each other!) They did great, there was only 1 time the teachers had to turn into referee from teacher but the boys responded and focused well.  They ran…jumped, rolled, flipped, ran, walked the beam, ran, jumped until we thought they would fall over…but that energizer Aiden wasn’t fazed, ha! 

                                           After class we came home for a quick lunch and then back out again to show A Denise the Menace Park and the beach close by.  These kids went crazy!  The boys ran off together playing…Carlie and I were so glad that they’ve gotten to the age that we don’t have to follow close behind protecting and refereeing…my only issue was I still had to do that with Grissom…or did I??  I got this brilliant idea.  I told Ella I’d pay her $1.00 if she’d ‘babysit’ Grissom.  This worked out great.  Carlie and I got to hang out on the sidelines watching all of them meanwhile Grissom got to play wherever he wanted cause Ella was his shadow and Ella was so busy with Grissom that she did think twice about the boys playing without her!  Everyone won this day!!  After a few hours of playing we noticed the boys; Keegan mostly and even Aiden was starting to show signs of stopping or at least slowing down (Yes…another goal met for the day!) so we decided to walk down the street just a little to the McDonald's (Yeah…my favorite place…she says REALLY sarcastically) to stop for ice cream!  It wasn’t a super hot day, but the sun was shining and it was a nice 63 degrees so the ice cream was a real need!  After that we crossed the street and walked about 2 minutes and found the beach.  One Mark and I wanted to go to at one point we’d just not thought about it.  As we walked towards the water on the sand I knew it was over…I knew the ride home was going to be a nudie one…and I cracked up when I heard Carlie tell Aiden in all seriousness to just get his feet wet and that was it…it made me think about the many times we went to the water’s edge with that thought in mind!  Carlie and I sat in the sand enjoying the nice sunny day it only took a good 3 minutes before Grissom fell over in the water…

then Ella came running tattling on the wave that got her wet…we glace out to see both the other boys pretty much laying in the water and splashing each other…there was NO stopping that funness!  So we sat back and laughed at them!  We were thankful that our kids stayed in the freezing water until it was time to leave unlike the little boy next to us who got out of the water he fell in and then rolled his entire body in the sand…I laughed at him and looked right at his mom who was trying with all her might not to lose it with her sand covered son!  What was really funny was Grissom with his diaper.  Because we weren’t planning on letting the kids get wet in the ocean we had nothing to help us which means no swim diaper for Gris.  As you watched him go from dry to wet you noticed he’d gained significant poundage in his back end…in fact it looked at one point as if his diaper still completely attached to him was dragging in the sand behind him as he walked!  I told Carlie it reminded me of a huggies swim diaper commercial awhile ago.  When this family is at the beach and the baby goes into the water all of a sudden the entire ocean is sucked up leaving the other families there without any water to play in.  Then it goes back to the baby walking out literally dragging the normal diaper behind him just like Grissom was! Ha!!   It didn’t take the kids too long to be too cold to play any longer so we started the long wet walk back to the van.  This is the busiest and one of the main crosswalks in Monterey…what a funny sight yet entertaining to see Keegan and Aiden walking together to start our circus crossing…like boys bumping into each other then laughing when the other almost falls.  Next seeing Ella walking close behind singing as loud as she could not paying much attention to anything…Carlie and I holding Grissom’s hands on either side to help him walk faster…we basically held him up so we could book it across but Grissom thought it would be funny to ‘air walk’ the entire time and at this whole event Carlie and I about wet ourselves!  So did the people parked along the crosswalk waiting for us to pass, Ha!!  Imagine it…its funny! 

                                 So we’d crossed the street so now the only dilemma was how to get the kids home without soiling their seats for our next outing.  Nudie was the only way!  When we got to the van we came up with a fast system all clothes off except for undies until you get IN the van then the boys took off undies got buckled quick and covered themselves (well at least that what we told them to do).  Ella kept her panties on cause she was sitting on the leather…Grissom got a new diaper but otherwise sat nudie too!  Check it out:

                                After this dinner was actually a nice and quiet one…the kids rested to a movie and went to bed a little early!!  Yea!!  Carlie did a great job staying up with me until 10:30 or so!!  Way to go Carlie!!  It was SO nice to just relax with her and chat about life! 

                                                     Friday was our ‘BIG’ planned out day! 

Mark was off work so he and Carlie started off with a run.  Then we headed out for the day…we walked past the Seal Beach.  It’s funny both Mom and Carlie had the same reaction as they walked up to the fence they both didn’t see what the big deal was until they saw the ‘rocks’ on the beach had tails that moved!  The seals blend into the sand so well that you can’t really see them until they move then when you finally see them you notice that you can’t see that much beach because there are SO many seals! We stopped long enough to check them out then walked onto show Aiden and Carlie the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The kids got a kick out of showing Aiden all the things they love there…and I got a kick out of teaching Aiden and Carlie (and re-teaching my kids) different facts and tid-bits that we’d learned while we’ve been out here.  We also all really enjoyed watching the huge Kelp feeding.  Aiden liked seeing the diver with all his gear on in the water feeding all the fish!  We had lunch here…then headed to the Nestlé’s store for ice cream…but wait it gets better…onto the movie theater to see, Dat, Da, da Da….CARS 2!!  Oh what fun we had!!  The kids were SO exhausted that I think they would have fallen asleep during the movie but the movie was just too fun!!  We ended our day taking Carlie and Aiden out to our favorite Pizzeria, Me & Ed’s!! 

What a fun LONG end to our fun time together!!  Carlie even put the kids to bed while Mark and I went on a Date!!  AWESOME!!

                Saturday we woke up just in time to get heading to the airport!  It was sad to say good bye!  Grissom cried for quite a long time…Mark and I knew we needed to do something fun…so we hit a nearby mall and had some ‘Mall Hiking’ time!!  I even slipped a few birthday gifts under the stroller before Keegan had a chance to know what happened behind his back, Oh Yeah!!  Go Mom and Dad!! 

Carlie & Aiden ARE HERE!!! YEAH!

                                         So I thought for some reason we picked Carlie and Aiden up at like 10:30 P.M. at the San Jose airport which is a nice 1 3/4  hours away…so I thought that would give me all day Monday and Tuesday to get prepared…I WAS SO WRONG!  Their plane came in at 4:55p.m. Which was fun cause we got t o see them for awhile but that meant I had lots to do in not a lot of time!  But no fears…I got it all done!

Monday and Tuesday were 2 of the most beautiful days we’ve ever seen here…we ended up at the beach for awhile on Monday because it got up to 80 degrees AND the sun was shining! Let me tell you it ALMOST felt like we were home in Indiana having a 90+ degree day!  And Tuesday wasn’t much different.  So before we left for the airport and daddy for work we hung out at the pool for a few hours!  The water was still TOO cold for me but Grissom jumped and jumped and jumped and swam around a little…then went back to jumping and jumping and jumping!  Ella and Keegan had a blast as well!!  Mommy loved the WARM sunshine…so I read!  It was funny and ironic cause I had just told Carlie that she needed to bring layers and not to both bringing a tank of anything of that sort…when we got to the airport it was only 94 degrees! Ha! 

                           I did get a call from Dana right before we picked them up…man oh man, it’s ALWAYS good to hear her voice which made it even more exciting to go in and find Carlie and Aiden! 

                 Ok, so we got to the baggage claim and found some seats to wait in.  This area was pretty empty and Carlie had text me that they had landed. 

                                           Now…go back to the car ride.  Before we left I got gas (for the van funny guy!) and grabbed a bag of peach rings for the kids.  Each kid got 6 each to last them the long ride.  Ella and Grissom totally swallowed them whole.  I noticed Keegan playing with something after about halfway of our trip.  I asked him what he had. He answered, “Mom, I’m going to save this last candy of mine to give to Aiden, I think he will really love this and I can’t wait to see him mom.”  He smiled and held onto that silly ring that whole entire ride…carried it into the airport and gave it to Aiden!  Now this sounds cute…but if you stop and think about MY Keegan and how important food (esp. candy) is to him then you’ll also understand just had sweet and sacrificial this was.  I think I’ve never felt more proud of Keegan so far in his life.  I was surprised by this and completely thrilled to hear his thoughts.  Thank you Jesus for working in this boys life!!  Praise YOU! 

              OK…back to the waiting area.  I decided the corner was the best place for us to wait out of the way.  This also gave us a great view to watch for them.  Carlie and I saw each other and had the same idea…they grabbed their one bag and started towards us and we started towards them.  I WISHED I would have had my video camera…it was SSSSSOOOOO cute…everyone stopped to watch.  Aiden is running towards us…Keegan is running towards him and they are both screaming out the other’s name…Ella’s right behind Keegan and Grissom is running behind her trying to keep up and yelling just because his brother is…they met with the biggest hug ever!  It was a cousin bomb!!  Then Carlie started screaming for me and we ran to each other…we figured the kids are doing it…why not! YEAH!!!!!!!  Friends/Family!!!!!

Once we got the kids in the van our ears ran like NO other…I can’t tell you the feeling of totally thrillment (is that a word?  It IS now!) that I had.  We didn’t get too far when we decided we needed to get dinner.   So we found a beautiful mall with CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and we ATE up!  We also HAD to go into the Lego store…Aiden’s ½ Lego and Keegan is now in love with these little pieces of…plastic that stick together, yea……………….more little pieces to step on….organize…..and store somewhere!!  Yeah….thank you Aiden for turning my son into a Lego kid!  We got home just in time for a late bedtime…and even with Aiden’s time change they hung out, giggling, laughing, and giggling more until at least 9:30-10 p.m. which is super late when you think about Aiden’s time being 12:30-1 a.m.!! 

                        Carlie even shocked me.  I told her I’d be cool with her going to bed (she’s NOT a night gal like me!) but even she held out until about 10:30 with me!!  Crazy girl!  It was SO nice and relaxing just to have her hang with me…which is already got me a little homesick.  I’m having to work hard not to get stuck in a rut with her here cause I really do want her to see that we are having a great time.

Wednesday:

                       What a day. 

    Woke up to more fog then we’ve had in awhile!  Go figure cause I couldn’t show Carlie how great it can be here!  And back to cold…it was a high of 78 today…but the fog never left so we got up to 63 which isn’t bad in the sunshine…but no matter.  The boys were up and crazy by 7 a.m. so I did what I do best as a mom…I tossed them on the couch…laid with them while they watched Mickey Mouse Club and I dozed off and on until Carlie got up!!  We had a pretty restful morning.  Then we bundled up and went to show them Ft. Ord!  Where Aiden got to experience the sand walls/dunes…and boy oh boy did the kids have a ball.  My kids couldn’t stop showing Aiden what to do meanwhile Aiden quickly picked up on things and was all over the place.  Carlie and I walked down the beach a little way and just hung out.  It didn’t take Mark very long to join the kids playing…so cute! 

                               We then headed to a New Mexican restaurant.  Carlie asked for queso dip and the lady had NO idea what we were asking for…I think when I get back home we will be LIVING off of queso for awhile!!  Oh, I love cheese and chips!  It was a little hole in the wall and it was super yummy too!!  They also won by having normal looking RED salsa to dip our chips in.  Everywhere else we’ve tried had given us different colors salsas…so strange and just too scary for me or the kids to try.  Yummy lunch! 

          Then off to Ella’s gymnastics class!  Carlie was excited to watch her and Ella was pumped to show off!  I was ok with skipping the class but Ella wasn’t…so we all went!  After class we let Grissom take a nap while the other kids rested to Tangled!  Then I got to fix dinner ALONE while Carlie took the kids out to the play set with the kids!  It was SOOOOOOOOO nice…prolly the nicest thing I’ve even been given.

After dinner we HAD to hit Cold Stone Creamery to end our fun night!   

Father's REAL Day

Father’s Day was another too good to be true day weather wise!  After church we grabbed a picnic and headed off to Carmel Beach.  It was SO funny because everywhere was sunny…except for this part of beach! Ha!!  Go figure.  But we were determined to have a great day.  Even though it was very foggy it was warm – which was pretty strange.  But not long after we’d been there for awhile the sun burned off the fog and it was amazingly clear, big surf so was watched the many dads spending their time on their boards; meanwhile Mark spent his time building a fabulous sand castle.  I know he enjoys the building part but I have a feeling he enjoys ALL the attention he gets from building them as well and today he got TONS of attention and people taking pictures of it!!  Even the dogs walked past glancing and not jumping on it!  When the castle was done he was warm enough to play IN the water with Ella and Keegan!  What a fabulous day!  We went home and had dinner Daddy’s Style (steak, corn, potatoes on the grill) mmmmm!! 

Next up…preparing for Aunt Carlie and Aiden’s visit…we pick them up Tuesday!

Ready to go to the beach!

can you see the golf course?!?

Nap time...today he came to me! LOVE IT!

Daddy's famous castle...it lasted until we were almost ready to go:

Playing IN the water with daddy

Grissom Loved the castle to...Mark too this really well, ha!

Tug-a-war with Kelp? hmmmm...ok...

More fun!

Hiking

We ate our lunch and were all ready to go.  Mark was checking the map preparing our route.  Because of the 2008 wildfires most off these trails were still closed.  We were sad BUT we want nature to heal...so we didn't cry'bout it!  We decided to do a long hike...wait, the kids decided!  So up the mountain we went...5 miles!  Enjoy our pictures!!

Grissom was so determined to eat his goldfish that he bit through the baggie to eat them...ha!

READY...SET...HIKE...

Redwoods R huge!

this was the safe bridge they made to cross the river...oh, thanks...I feel like I was just given the  pinkie cause I didn't deserve the best...ha!

A little rest on the way up

Beautiful!

THE TOP!!

YES!! We made it!

Mommy did it TOO!

Love this picture.

Love these troopers.

Thank you Jesus for YOUR beauty.

Even when it's small!

We almost stepped on this little guy! Keeg cracked up cause when he took caution it looked as it he was doing push-ups! ha!!  It was pretty funny.

The kids kept seeing the trees that had fallen over and they'd laugh hysterically.  When asked what was up, Ella said, "Mom...they are ALL showing their bottoms!!" hahahaha!!So now we have a pic of this tree's bottom!

Watch out - Sasquach crossing!

We had a great hike..but it took ALL we had!  We ended up taking Daddy out for a nice dinner...we'd been in the car headed out for all of 3 minutes and this is what happened:

this picture shouldn't be rotated!  He passed out!

But dinner then a little ice cream helped give us just enough energy until bedtime!

Big Sur Hike

For Father's Day we wanted Mark to choose what we did all day Saturday.  He wanted to go hiking again!  So we took off for the famous Big Sur.  It took a nice 45 minutes to get there because we drove the coastline which was BREATHtaking...and nerve wracking.  Breathtakingly BEAUTIFUL...yet nerve wracking because in some area's you have no shoulder...it goes straight down into the ocean!  In fact some of the pictures you will see are of the big Highway 101 - it fell into the ocean because of a mudslide.  This happened just before we got out here...so they've temporarily fixed it by just making it a 1 lane road...funny as we drove over this part how you could see where the road just broke off...they tried to hide it but not too well!  These pictures are not from our hike...just the ride down there!

We loved this sign.

these cows just hanging out next to the ocean.

AHHH, beautiful!

This is the one lane 'fix'

I felt totally save with the wall there, thanks Cali.

This is one of the famous bridges...build in the 1930's I wanna say?  I'll check and get back with you...very spooky knowing you'd plummet to you death if you went over the side...Mark drove great!

This was a stop along the way...looking back at the other bridge...this is my favorite.

this is government property...it was neat to see the lighthouse on this land.

So...watch out for mother's and their children crossing...where would they be crossing? hmmm...this was funny!

This was a neat find.  We stopped along side of a pull-over spot and I found this cute home with my big'ol lense!  How cool is that house? I want to build this around our house and a few of our neighbors! ha!!

Well, duh!!  Yes, Scott...I got carsick! 

And WATACH OUT for pigs crossing the street in single file manner!  ha!!  Mark did get serious after we saw this so we descussed our 'what if we run into a wild pig plan...'  I didn't know they had plans like that!  So my plan was to run and for Mark to save the kids...but he said, NO...you don't run...so I think I'll just throw bacon at the things...you know threaten them! ha!!

Yeah...we made it!  Now a picnic lunch and ON we go!!  To be continued...