Santa Cruz

We decided to get out of the neighborhood a couple weekends ago and drove for 2 hours to Santa Cruz. It was a lot of fun. The Area itself I couldn't call my favorite, but it had the beach and you couldn't go wrong with that. I was nervous it was going to be cold because we froze at San Francisco the first week of July. The morning was foggy and I actually wore a sweater, but by noon it was beautiful and sunny. We actually got a little sunburned.

Santa Cruz has their "boardwalk" which is basically a mini theme park, with theme park food (and prices) and lots of rides. It is right along the beach. We spent an hour or so exploring and letting Anna's big eyes try to soak it all in. She rode on a ride all by herself (See below) and couldn't have been prouder. We were also smiling ear to ear and laughing at how cute our BIG girl is.

Just before the ride started. She chose the dragon ride because she is really into princesses, castles, and magical things...

I LOVE this photo. We were laughing so hard because she has pulling the handle that lifts the dragon off the ground and she kept bouncing crazily rather than moving up and down. She put her hand out as if to say, "I don't know what I am doing" and I caught it on film. I am still laughing.

Just after the ride. My two cuties!

I LOVE THE OCEAN! The water was FREEZING, but some managed to get in.

I think this was after Dave put Anna's feet in.

CHEESE BALL!

Of course, what is a photo shoot without the silly face.... it is EVERYWHERE!

We spent quite a while running away from the water and getting Anna used to getting dirty in the sand.

Family photo, I'll have to see how I can crop it.

Prego Pants and crazy girl. Man I love those hugs!

We walked down the beach, stopped and watched a ton of volleyball players (there was a whole set up of about 15 courts), heard some crazy things by "beach bums" (one conversation we walked by ended with a girl saying, " I only take it to open my mind...."- see why it isn't my favorite spot?) hmmm? Then we walked down the wharf.

On the way we saw Spiderman playing the guitar...makes perfect sense right?Many little shops, but our favorite was the sea lions!

They were all laying under the wharf, this one was trying his hardest to get up. It was very interesting to watch them jump. We never actually witnesses a successful jump, but definitely saw some bloopers!


Then we headed down the coast (or up?) a little to town called Capitola. It had much more of a quaint beach. We watched surfers for a little bit, walked through the mini town, found some delicious pizza for dinner and ate it by the beach.

Dave captured the one beauty of Capitola in this photo.

We had a great day! We have learned and try to avoid the sentence"Modesto is great because it is close to everything," simply because it implies there is nothing in Modesto, but we definitely have reaped the benefits of a city like it! We don't know how long we will be here so we are trying to live it up!

This is for my own recollection....

So far since June we have been to Yosemite, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Yuba City, Fairfield, Santa Cruz and Capitola (not to mention Utah and Colorado.. and a couple cities Dave has driven to), and this weekend we are headed to Monterrey Bay! We also have plans to visit Palo Alto sometime, head back to Yosemite, and see the red woods... and I hope southern California, but that might have to wait. So in about 13 weeks we have been on about 9 adventures! Not bad. I love traveling!

Exploration of Nor Cal

Dave has had many meeting all over the place.
Last Friday we came along for the ride. We went up to Yuba City (sounds exciting - huh?) where Anna and I found a fun park to play at for the hour of Daddy's meeting.

Then all three of us headed down to Old Town Sacramento. We had fun exploring the town for a little bit, including Pizza at Round Table and free candy samples at a nearby candy store.

Then we headed to Fair field where we explored the Jelly Belly Factory. Anna and I went on a factory tour while Dave had his meeting. (Dave had gone on the tour when he came out to interview so it worked out perfectly). It was amazing to see how each Jelly Bean is made (over the course of 3 WEEKS!). Then we all headed home. There was quite a bit of driving, but it was fun to be together and get to explore our surrounding areas.

Our very own!!!

When I worked as a Nanny in Michigan, the families I nannied for always introduced me to treat I never thought about buying.

Two of our favorites that I have been buying lately are Nutella and Snapea Crisps! LOVE THEM ! (Especially the first part of my pregnancy I couldn't get enough of Nutella!) So today we celebrate opening our FIRST container of Nutella... and our probably 10th bag of Snapea Crisps!






While I was taking the photo of the bag Anna was at my feet asking, "I want some!!"



This face actually reminds me of one I took of Fiona, one of the girls I Nannied! Made me laugh!