Wolf Sighted!

We went up to Great Wolf Lodge (and yes, this goes a ways back too, I thought I was caught up but I obviously neglected this set). GWL is a chain of "western lodge" theme hotels, lots of fake giant timbers, and of course Wolves. This guy with Isaac is apparently not a mouse, but a wolf. Anyway, Isaac thought he was pretty cool!

As we checked in, we were offered a free upgrade to a Wolf Den room, which we accepted. Sydney was pretty excited at first, but at bedtime she had a lot of trepidation about sleeping with the wolves. She did though, and did pretty well. In the morning we congratulated her on it.

The big draw to GWL of course is the water park. Admission comes with (and only with) the accommodations. I'm not a connoisseur of water parks, of course, but the kids loved it. Last time Isaac wasn't too into it, but this time he had a lot more fun. Once he conquered this slide, he spent hours on it!

Sydney spent quite a bit of time in the wave pool here. She had a blast trying out body surfing. And taking off and putting back on the lifejacket. Off and on, off and on, off and on ....

It was a nice weekend.

Seaside

We got to spend a weekend in Seaside at a resort condo, and had a very nice time. The kids loved the pools --- Sydney found some kids to play with, and Isaac enjoyed this shallow pool where he could splash around and stay warm. The beach was right outside the resort, and the weather was just about as nice as it gets in Seaside which means that it was tolerable to play on the beach for a while.

Ice cream cones from the candy factory.

Someone handed us this bunch of balloons, but I don't think Isaac's really upset about it!

Dance Recital

Last weekend was the Dance Recital. These are the best pics I have on hand, but I have better ones coming. And really, for something like this I need to figure out how to post video clips. Anyway, they had a great time, hamming it up in front of the bright lights. They really do a good job putting on this show, it's really well produced.

Point Lobos

Last in our California June 2009 series is this picture of us exploring the tidepools at Point Lobos. The kids were enchanted by the crabs (hermit and otherwise), fishes, snails and such. We were enchanted by the kids --- I've been disappointed in the past at the lack of interest in tidepools, 'cause I think it's one of the neatest things to do, but this time they were much more interested. For the most part, the day went pretty well, and I'm sure the unpleasant parts will fade with time since I didn't get any pictures ....

Natural Bridges Park

After the Boardwalk, we went to Natural Bridges park and played on the beach for a while. Sydney romped at the edges of the waves...

... while Isaac enjoyed playing in the sand. We enjoyed watching them have fun!

Boardwalk!

Arriving at the Boardwalk the traditional way: over the railroad trestle.

For Sydney, no amusement park trip is complete without winning a prize in a game of "skill". Maybe this will change when she's playing with her own money? These whales set us back $3 each at the "everyone's a winner" fishing game.

Makes Daddy happy to see them enjoying the boats. Real ones in the future, I hope.

Check out that smile!

Many many more pictures were taken. I'll try to get some more up in the following days.

First Camping Trip

We've been talking about how fun it will be to take the kids camping. I think both of us have fond memories of camping as we grew up. But we thought we'd start simple, with a little backyard camping, so we finally broke down, got out the tent and set it up. We had a blast! I'd planned on firing up the grill but Sydney said "I thought we were going to cook over the fire!" so with a little quick thinking we got some sausages and long forks. I love the pic of Sydney roasting her sausage over the fire. We all squeezed into the tent at night, and except for how hard ground has become since the last time we went camping dozens of years ago, everyone slept pretty well. We agreed that this was one of the best campsites we've ever used, and we're going to this again!