The Beginning...

Im late posting this… Im pretty sure it happened mid October, but Im not positive.  This was the trip that started it all...

 The Mallory's took us to the dunes at Pismo to ride our quads in their big trailer.

 Everyone had so much fun, that we decided to buy the trailer and make it our new pastime.

 This was Jaden's first time riding his quad by himself somewhere other than just around the property.  I was quite frantic, but it was great to have Dave there to help us out.
                                                
 Tony and Jaden had a great time riding around and there were no injuries.  Then… we found out that kids can't ride with adults, they must ride alone and so my stress level went through the roof as I realized that Baylee and Aubrey would also be allowed to drive the quad by themselves.

 I tried to not think about that, and have fun playing on the beach with the little 3.  They loved running from the waves.

 I love this picture of my girls.

 and this one of my little man.  :)

 Here is Jaden, ready to go out for a ride.

 Jaden was fortunate to be able to use the Mallory's gear, we didn't have anything yet except helmets.

 This one turned out to love the beach more than anyone!  He told me on the first evening that the day was the second best he had ever had.  I asked him what the first best was, and he told me that he was pretty sure it would be tomorrow, so he was saving it out. :)  That made me feel a little better about letting him ride by himself, although I still lost years off of my life.  I'm glad he loved it so much.

 They also loved roasting marshmallows, I'm pretty sure this was their first time.  No one even got their marshmallow warm, much less roasted it, but they enjoyed putting it on a stick and eating it.

 Noah had a blast!  He loves the "wads" and was fascinated by all of the vehicles on the beach… motorcycles, dune buggies, "monster trucks".  He is very much a boy.

 Livie loved Zeus, the Mallory's dog who tagged along.

 When I took this, I had no idea that within a month it would be ours.  Although I suspect that was Tony and Dave's plan all along.

 Mr. Mallory was very helpful and the kids learned a lot from him.  Well… lets face it, we all did!

Noah wouldn't nap, but I enjoyed snuggling him after he crashed everyday late afternoon of sheer exhaustion. 

 Now, as of this writing, we've been on 3 more trips in the trailer, and it has been so much fun.  I will try to blog the other trips, I just didn't want to forget to do this one first, it was such a big turning point for our family.  We have actually been leaving the house and doing some really fun things, its been awesome, and hopefully we have many more memories to make

Morro Bay

We finally got out of town for a few days!  Despite my morning sickness, we decided it would be worth it to take the kids to the beach and have a little end of summer fun before school started.  It was great!  Here are the kids on our way out of town.  They are so excited.

Aubrey didn't last long, and I had to snap a picture of him sleeping peacefully with his little hands folded.  He is such a good boy!

This is at dinner the first night there.  We loved getting out our sweatshirts!  I love this look of determination on Baylee's face.  (She is trying to unwrap her straw.)

Always happy when food is on the way!

Feeling much better after he was carsick on the way there.  :(

Sunday afternoon, we went to our friend's home to visit.  They live in Paso Robles, it was much warmer there!  They blew up a bounce house and a little pool and the kids had a blast!  Here are Jaden, Tanner and Baylee dancing to some praise music Jaden learned at VBS.   They loved it!

Of course, we had to hit up the aquarium.  That was a big hit and the kids just wanted to go back there the whole rest of the trip.

This was Morro Rock on our first day at the beach.  Cold.

It didn't stop them though, they were determined to have fun.

It was cold.

They ran and ran and got wet and more wet...

Aubrey took some snack breaks to hang out with Mommy.  :)

Eventually, they lost their outer layers and were having so much fun didn't even notice the temperature.

I think people thought they were crazy.  I thought they were crazy.  But they had fun.

Baylee spent a lot of her time running around looking for seashells.  She loved it.

Here was their pile of treasures that we had to leave there when we left.  They each chose one special thing to keep, if it had been up to them the whole beach would have come home with us.  (And when I did the laundry, I thought it had!)

We decided that Pismo might be more fun, we went to the pier and watched the fishermen...

They really liked it on the pier, Jaden ran to every fisherman and asked him if he was getting anything.

They especially liked spying on people with the telescopes.

Jaden most of all.

And because Tony is an infinitely more fun parent than I am, we hit a few of these places.

One day in Morro Bay, we went to this really neat museum.

It was a museum of natural history, the kids loved it.  Here is "Rocky" telling Baylee all about Morro Rock.

They had little exhibits the kids could control to explain weather and natural processes.  They even had all sorts of stuffed animals (Real animals that were stuffed) that the kids were amazed by.

They got to go out on the deck and look at the seals and birds with binoculars.  They even had a giant seal skeleton out there and some other little animal skeletons.  It was very cool.

Our second day at the beach, we decided to spend at Avila to enjoy a little more sunshine!  It was perfect.

The kids had a great time, the temperature was just right.

Aubrey loved making sand castles.

We even turned Baylee into a mermaid.  :)

Our last day we just walked around town and enjoyed the local shops and sights.

We stopped at Morro Rock again to snap some nice pictures.  It was a much nicer day, the sun was out and the weather was perfect.

Aubrey-man.

Baylee-girl

and my little boy who is getting just way too big...

and for some proof that I was there :)

It was a very nice trip.  I'm glad that our kids got a little fun in before school started, even though Tony had to work over time taking care of them and me.   He was a trooper though and we are glad he planned such a nice little break for our family.  Thanks also to my mom who watched the girls for us!  It would have been a lot less relaxing sticking to a baby schedule, so we were very thankful she offered to take that on.