Alabama Gulf Coast

Catching up again...
The first week of June we went on a lovely trip with the whole family, including Oma, Opa, YaYa, Uncle Richard, Aunt Dana and Mia to the beach near Gulf Shores Alabama.  The weather was a little windy, especially the first day, but was overall very good and we had a great time.


Henry spent lots of time being sweet in his bouncy chair.

Building sand castles with Daddy.

Cousins hanging out with their favorite YaYa.

Mia is practicing to be a big sister (in less than a month!).  She was very sweet with Henry.

Climbing up sand mountain.

Henry loved spending a lot of time with his Oma.

Opa's favorite thing was having his picture taken a lot of times :).

Trying out my telephoto lens from the porch.  Dana and YaYa put on a great effort to get Owen looking in the right direction and waving.

Three cousins on the mountain.

Loving beach time with Daddy

Owen making sweet faces at dinner.

Glow sticks!!  Aunt Dana was mobbed by the demanding children.  Even Lamby got a necklace.

Henry got to spend a little time on the beach as well when it was not so windy.  We stayed safely covered under the umbrella.

Family picture!

The Fergusons

Oma came down to play in the sand, too.

Mia loved putting sand on Wes' toes.  She thought it was hilarious.  Such a cutie pie.

Cousins on the kindle

Tired after a day outside.

Opa wants everyone to know he was not trying to make a statement with his blanket...we just had the air down too cold.

A lovely walk on the beach before dinner

Looking for crabs on the beach before bed.  There were lots of the little buggers.

Relaxing on the beach with my sweet little boys.  You can see Opa on the porch of our fun round beach house in the background.

YaYa thought sitting down for awhile sounded good, too.

Rachel could play at the beach all day!

Feeding some seagulls on the porch.  They could catch the bread Rachel threw in mid-air.

An effort at a family picture just before YaYa had to leave.

South of San Fran

After my conference, we rented a car and headed south from San Francisco.


We stopped for lunch at Half Moon Bay.  Rachel and I shared a giant fish & chips.

Then, we spent some time in Big Basin Redwood State Park.  We all had a lot of fun walking around and exploring.

The only way to get the kids to look at the camera seems to be using the timer.

Owen and Rachel helped us through the guided tour by finding the signs and looking at the map.

We stayed in Santa Cruz and checked out the coast when we were there.

We spent the morning Saturday enjoying the aquarium.  They have a blue whale skeleton.

Owen played with the seals.

Rachel normally does not like touch pools, but she really enjoyed touching and learning about the star fish here.

On the way home, Rachel and I were upgraded to business class.  Sadly, Owen and Wes had to stay in the back.

San Francisco - Days 3-7

Picking up where we left of a few months ago...

The rest of our week in San Francisco, Wes and I had conferences the first couple of days so Tante YaYa took care of the kids.  She sadly had to leave in the middle of the week.


Before she left, there was lots of fun with YaYa in the area surrounding our hotel.

It was cool out, but very nice weather overall.

Wes and I had a fancy dinner as part of the conference.

The next day, everyone got to ride the carousel.  Despite the look on her face here, Rachel loved it.

Rachel also got to leave notes on the wishing tree.

 

In the evening, we checked out Pier 21 with its seal colony.

And Rachel got gelato on the way home!

I had some time off on Thursday so Wes and I took the kids out.

There was a hands-on art museum for kids that was a lot of fun.

Rachel did puppets.  She also made a music video singing twinkle, twinkle little star...I will post it if I can find the DVD.

She was thrilled to do the project from the mystery box...a home for an octopus!

Owen liked watching the fun video when he slid down the green screen.

When I had to go back to the conference, Wes took the kids to Golden Gate park.  I am sorry I missed it because it looked like lots of fun.

Owen even took a nap.

Back awake and in a happy mood.

For a dinner/party during the conference, they colored City Hall in Deloitte colors.  They also closed some of the streets and had an 80s cover band.