Monterey Bay Aquarium!

 Charlie's first drink from a sippy cup. I love the "future astronaut" cup from Mom/Dad Gabe!

 He always gets so happy when we take him outside!

 Grace finally planted the fennel seed she got at school. We've been watering it for weeks and the teacher said  no one's are sprouting, so we don't have much hope for it.

 Cute little gardeners.

 We're trying to complete our bucket list before we move in 2 weeks. The aquarium was a definite must-do, so we borrowed family passes from ward members, and drove an hour down the coast yesterday to Monterey!

 We all LOVED it! The girls loved all the life-size whales and dolphins hanging from the ceiling.

 We got there right when it opened and headed straight for the touch pool before it got too crowded. Alice wasn't into it.

 Watching divers wash the windows inside the kelp forest.

 Hatching from a penguin egg.

 All 3 kids loved the penguins best out of everything there. We watched them get fed. Even Charlie lit up and giggled when he got to see the penguins. It's so much better than a zoo, where you sometimes have trouble seeing the animals from far away or even hiding in their dens. Here, the clear walls go down far enough that even kids can get inches away from a swimming penguin! Charlie loved watching them!

 One of my very favorite things were the jellyfish. I actually teared up in a couple of the exhibits because they were so dramatic and amazing. This was one of them.

 The other was the giant clear wall of the Open Ocean exhibit. Wow. It's bigger than all the other tanks in the aquarium COMBINED. You could sit there forever and watch giant sea turtles (Paul's favorite), schools of anchovies, huge tuna, hammerhead sharks, sunfish, dolphinfish, etc. It was really awesome. Charlie liked watching that feeding, but then he wanted fed!

 So we went outside to eat our lunch. Alice did some whale watching - no sightings.

 We were all really enjoying the aquarium.

 Most of us.

 After lunch, we changed our strategy and avoided crowded feeding times. We saw this tiny octopus that did a dance just for us.

 I liked these colorful eels.

 Inside a clam. There were lots of places for kids to play.

 Charlie was really interested in everything, but did sleep a little.

 LOVE those jellyfish!

 Grace and a seahorse daddy giving birth. We were there for about 4 hours. The first 3 hours were really fun. The last hour, we all were tired and grouchy and just trying to make sure we saw everything we'd missed. So it goes.

 Then we walked down Cannery Row on our way back to the car and home. Tiring but fun!!

Charlie hopes they call him on a mission!

Grace Quotes Doctrine and Covenants Section 4

Paul helped Grace memorize D&C Section 4 for Mother's Day - great gift! (Grace will be 6 in about a month.)

Exploratorium and Natural Bridges

 Poor baby crying about something.

 Grace took a picture of the clay fish she made me for Mother's Day.

 As well as the mutant lemon someone at church grew.

 Grace loves "helping" make blondies. Her favorite parts are eating brown sugar and licking the bowl.

 On Tuesday, the weather was nice, so we drove 10 minutes to Natural Bridges State Beach. The weather wasn't as nice there - super windy. It made for nice waves.

 We loved the tide pools. We saw crabs, sea anemones, sea urchins, and tons of mussels.

 Crashing wave.

 We had a hard time finding places to walk that weren't covered in mussels!

 Alice loved picking up rocks.

 Paul tried to protect Charlie from sand blasts.

 Cool rock patterns.

 Grace and what remains of the natural bridge.

 Cute sisters.

 They tried to escape the wind by hiding in a big sand hole.

 When it got to be too much for us, we made our way to the visitor's center. Alice liked the magnifying glass.

 Then we walked the stroller-accessible route to a monarch butterfly observatory, but they aren't in season now, so we just danced on the stage.

 We had a great time, all so close to our house!

 Me and my baby.

 He's so happy and cute! You can kind of see his one bottom tooth in this picture.

 Grace had friends over for a playdate on Wednesday. Charlie joined in the dress-up festivities.

 On Thursday, Paul's class got to go to the Exploratorium, newly relocated to Pier 15 in San Francisco. He asked if he could bring his family, so we kept Grace out of school and we all got to go for free! (Of course, parking was $20.)

 Paul had meetings for 3 hours while the kids and I explored. We tried to count the rings on the giant log.

 Discovering a termite colony.

 Learning about light.

 Fun with mirrors.

 Scary!

 We ate our lunch outside. The weather was perfect, along with the view of the Bay Bridge.

 Charlie was loving it all. He got his second tooth while we were there.

 Alice enjoying the lunch we brought.

 Then back inside for robot animation.

 The room that turned everything, including people, black and white was AWESOME!

 When Paul got out of his meetings, we had 2 hours until the place closed. I fed Charlie while Paul took the girls to the outdoor part.

 They loved climbing around.

 Then we showed Paul our favorite stuff.

 And went to see so much more. Capturing a water droplet.

 Fun with magnets.

 Giant, medium, and tiny chairs.

 Toilet drinking fountain.

 Obvious photo op.

 Cool mirror. We looked/played with stuff for a total of 5 hours until it closed. We didn't get to see/do everything we wanted to, but we had tons of fun, and wore ourselves out.

 Cute boy.

 I can't get enough of these two.

 Paul and Grace like to wrestle.

 Grace can hold her own.

 We found Paul's old music from that semester he took tap dancing. Grace was inspired and danced and danced.

 Three cute siblings this morning before church.

Do they look alike? They all have the same size head!