Monterey/Camping/4th of July

***Warning- this is the world's longest post with a ton of pics attached! :-) ***

Hi Everyone,

I know I'm getting a little behind on blogging again- just so busy with the end of summer school this week and my two photography classes and my child :-) But, I'm definitly loving all of it- especially the end of summer school!!! I wanted to fill you in on our little trip that we took to the coast 4th of July weekend and give you lots of pictures too :-)

Our trip started out on Thursday afternoon when we headed to Monterey for a night. We had a pretty uneventful trip getting to our hotel and then we decided to get dinner on Cannery Row... bad idea. We got hit by a motorcycle when we were trying to park! Can you believe that? There was a big race at Laguna Seca that weekend and there were bikers EVERYWHERE! Well, we had our flashers on to get into a street spot and this stupid biker decided to be impatient and drive around us. Well he clearly wasn't very good at judging his distance and he scraped our bumper with his saddle bag. All this man did was turn around and stare at us as he drove by- UGH! Now our car has a HUGE black mark on it all because of someone's impatience!!! Obviously we weren't hit hard enough to hurt any of us- which of course is a praise- but still it was a bummer to start off our mini vacation in that manner... Anyhow, we did go get dinner at our favorite resturant, Fish Hoppers, and then I got some fun pictures of our surroundings. The bottom 2 pics in this section are from the Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey and the Portola Cross in Carmel- I had to visit these sites for a class...









After we left Monterey/Carmel on Friday, we headed over to Watsonville to set up for camping for the next 3 nights. When we first got there we got to meet up with our friends who were just married... they had just got back from their honeymoon and we got to see them for a few short hours before they headed back to SoCal- it was great to get to see them after the wedding as they were so relaxed and happy! While camping, we had beautiful weather there all weekend- fog in the morning/early afternoon and then sun in the afternoon and evening. We got to see the sun set every night and had clear views all the way to santa cruz and monterey! It was wonderful!!! I was a little worried how C would do at night as he is a creature of habit, but he did GREAT! It was cold at night but we were able to have a fire in the fire pit and C listened to us about not going near it!!! I don't have a lot of pictures below from camping and unfortunatley I didn't get any pictures of C when he fell in the dirt... he did the funniest thing every time he fell though- he wouldn't allow his hands to touch the dirt to pick himself up! He would figure out another way to shimmy himself out of the dirt... he hates the feeling of dirt on his hands or feet right now... cracked us up every time he did it!!! :-) Below are just a few pictures. The old barn is actually on the road that leads to the campgrounds we stayed at- I love this old barn and just couldn't get enough shots of it!









When I set camping up for us I knew we would be gone 4th of July. I also knew that we would probably end up at Mission Springs for the afternoon that day as we had worked there when in college and we knew they had an awesome day for families set up. We were lucky enough to get to actually go to Mission Springs for the afternoon to meet up with our friend, Amy and a few other old camp friends. We got to swim in the pool, visit and watch a little parade that Amy marched in :-) It was wonderful to be there, as I love Mission Springs- it really is one of my absolute favorite places on earth to spend time at. After we left Mission Springs, we went back to our campsite to have dinner and then got to watch fireworks shows over the ocean! It was a beautiful clear night and we couldn't have had a better view if we had paid a ton of money for it!














We had a great trip and I can't wait to do it over and over again as our little family grows up together!

~M~