Feather Collection

I thought this looked so funny. Parker was really excited about collecting different types of feathers that he found while we were camping--he insisted on always having at least one feather in his hand at all times. I downloaded some cartoons to my ipod for him to watch during his antsiest times in the car, and while on our drive home I turned around to see him so carefully clutching a feather in each hand while delicately balancing the cartoon-playing ipod on his knee. Now that's multitasking!

Sailing Monterey Bay

On our last night in Big Sur, we drove up to Monterey to take a cruise around the Bay on a 47' sailboat. The weather was pretty nice, with a little bit of sun and a little bit of chilly fog; likewise, the sea conditions were pretty nice, with some calm patches mixed in with some bigger swells. There were only two other people on the boat with us (along with the captain), so we got to play around on the boat a little bit--Jared was SO happy to take the helm for a little while, and I had fun bobbing along with the boat up on the bow :) I'd say that Parker went through a roller coaster of emotions while on the boat--he sort of vacillated back and forth between having fun and being nervous! We went out for dinner in Monterey afterwards, which made for a nice way to end our last "real" day of our trip before we headed home.

Big Sur

We spent three wonderful nights camping at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Although we had reserved a camp site along the river, when we got there we discovered that our site was tightly surrounded by poison oak. Luckily, we were able to choose a different site, which ended up being huge and perfect for Parker to play in--plus, we were still able to hear the sound of the river in the stillness of the night! This is a perfect place to camp with kids--the river was an awesome place for Parker to play in, he could have splashed in there all day long. We had more beautiful weather, with just about no clouds or fog and warm days. We were surrounded by other quiet campers, so the nights were lovely and quiet for sleeping. We did a couple of easy hikes with Parker, although while I think he has quite a bit of Mountain Man in him, he certainly lacks hiking skills. He protested against walking on his own so much that it made me miss the days that he was small enough to carry in a front pack or backpack carrier! This is definitely a place that we'd like to come back to for more family camping in the future.

San Simeon

Our second stop on our camping trip was San Simeon State Park. We got there early on a Friday, and were able to choose a great campsite with lots of space and privacy. We only had one night here, so we relaxed and went for an evening bike ride since it was way too windy to walk down to the beach. Parker enjoyed more marshmallows here, too!

Montana de Oro

We headed up to the Central Coast area for about ten days of camping at the end of May. We loved our first stop at Montana de Oro State Park--the location is amazing. There are many easy biking/walking trails that are right along the bluffs over the ocean, making for a wonderful location to ride our bikes with Parker in tow. The views were amazing. The park still had lots of wildflowers blooming, which made for a beautiful contrast with the blue ocean. We had really nice weather here, which remained true for the rest of our trip!

Quote of the Day

"When you eat a fish, after you catch it and you eat it, what do you do with his eyeballs?" 06.02.10

Lego Builder

Parker is absolutely obsessed with Legos--he LOVES to build Lego ships all day long. In fact, tonight he said, "All I wanna do is make Lego ships, make Lego ships, make Lego ships." He has skipped over all of the age-appropriate Lego sets and sets his sights right on the age 7-14 year old sets! I always have to build the sets for him (although I admit that I actually enjoy building them), and then once they fall apart, he just uses the pieces to construct his own amazingly creative ships, which makes him just as happy as a new set built all perfectly. I ordered him a Lego catalog that came in the mail, and he has looked over the pages so many times that it is literally falling apart; he even often browses Amazon on my computer looking at sets. I'm going to try to take photos of his ships from time to time--here is his current favorite.