Monterey Bay Aquarium and Dennis the Menace Park July 19, 2016

On Tuesday we met Terri and the boys at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The kids had a great time exploring some of the different exhibits and playing in the kids area.

Beautiful view of Monterey Bay.

 Hailey and Leah

The sun was really bright!

 Another view of the bay.

 Brady is looking a little worried with the water crashing down behind him.

 Cousins-Brady, Nathan, Hailey and Leah.

 Looking at the Bat Rays.

 Colin loved the water area. He got pretty wet even with the bib on!

 I think it is impossible to get a good picture with these three looking at the camera!!

 Leah and Hailey. 

As you can tell Hailey was not happy at the moment!

 After the aquarium we headed over to Dennis the Menace Park.

The kids loved playing here.

 Yoli and Hailey at the climbing wall.

 Nathan

 Hailey

 Brady

 Leah and Brady

 Corey and Leah

July 16 - 22, 2016 Corey, Yoli, Leah and Hailey came to visit

Corey, Yoli, Leah and Hailey came to visit and we had a great time. Here are a few pictures from the first couple of days they were here just hanging out having fun.

Hailey and Leah being silly playing the piano.

Cousins-Leah and Colin

 Cousins-Hailey and Colin

 Playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Leah, Brady and Hailey

 Watching the homemade strawberry ice cream being churned with their stuffed animals pinky monkey and trunky.

Nathan and Brady - June 25 - July 1, 2016

On the way back from dropping off Aidan and Liam with their parents we stopped in Santa Nella and picked up Nathan and Brady for the week.

They both desperately needed haircuts (and so did Allan) so I buzzed all of them.

Our handsome grandsons, Nathan and Brady!!

I also signed both of them up for swim lessons. I have some great videos of Nathan and Brady that show how far they came in five days of lessons, but I haven't been able to download them to the blog. I will keep trying to get them on the blog.
I finally figured out how to get my videos to download. Please see below.

This was the first day and Brady hung on tight to Laura his teacher but by the end of the week he was letting her hold him out in the water to move his arms and kick his feet.

 I ended up having Colin for three days while Terri helped at cub scout day camp in Los Banos. Dave dropped him off in the morning and picked him up after work.

 On Friday we made homemade strawberry ice cream. The boys loved watching the ice cream churn in the ice cream machine.

We had a fun week together!

Aidan and Liam's visit. June17 - 25, 2016

Aidan and Liam came and stayed with us for a week. We meet them in Tehachapi, CA on Friday, which is halfway between Las Vegas and Hollister. We had lunch at Kohnen's Country Bakery which we all enjoyed. We loaded the boys up and headed back to Hollister. It made for about a 7 hour day of driving but that was ok to be able to have the boys here for a week.

Aidan found my little box of butterflies so we got out our animal/insect identification book and identified them all. He asked me if he could take the broken wing pieces home and I said yes.

 We went to this park a couple of times and the boys loved running around and playing tag. 

 We headed over to Santa Nella so the cousins could all hang out.

Aidan, Brady, Nathan and Liam.

 The boys really wanted to see the movie Angry Birds so I took them. They really loved it. 

 When Aidan found out it was my birthday he wanted to make this cake for me. We had to get the instructions from his mom. It was from one of his cookbooks.

 When spent another day with the cousins and this time we were able to hangout at a pool.

Nathan

 

 Liam

 Liam, Brady, Nathan

 Liam, Aidan, Brady and Nathan

 Nathan, Liam, Brady and Aidan

 The boys also wanted to see Finding Dory and this movie I was looking forward to seeing. We all enjoyed this one.

I signed the boys up for swim lessons and I have some videos to share but haven't been able to get them to load correctly. As soon as I figure it out I will have some video on here. If anyone has any helpful hints I would appreciate it.
I figured it out, see the videos below.

Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve - June 4, 2016

Allan and I took a little hike at the Elkhorn Slough which is only about 30 minutes from Hollister. It is an inlet from the ocean.