Karl and Angela Rees

We drove down to Big Sur Friday morning to celebrate our fifth anniversary.  On the way we stopped in Monterey for lunch at Bubba Gumps (good but a bit overpriced for the amount of food) and then a fun park.  We then drove on to a "rustic" cabin at the Ripplewood Resort.  It was a lot less rustic and a lot bigger than we had believed it would be.  But we won't complain.  After checking in we went on a short waterfall trail overlook.  The boys went to sleep pretty easily so we were pleased. 

Saturday,  after our worst little boy restaurant experience ever, we went on a hike to another waterfall.  Since we were each carrying a boy, it took a little longer than expected.  It was sure fun though.  We saw some deer up close (Angela was spooked by them when we came around the corner and saw them standing within a few feet of us).  After a packed lunch we headed to the beach.  It was fun except for the fact that our boys had only short naps.  Jonah was pretty grumpy playing on the blanket, unless he was playing with the sand.  Which would have been fine if he weren't putting handfuls of sand in his mouth.  Thomas and Karl had a blast hiking up the hill and on the rocks.  Thomas enjoyed "sliding" down the sand hill.  After dinner in the cabin the boys went to bed quickly (good thing they were soooo tired). 

Sunday, on the way home, we stopped at a couple of overlooks.  Through Karl's binoculars we saw a pod of killer whales awaiting seals on their rock.  The next stop we did a very short hike down a steep cliff to some tide pools close to the water.  Thomas loved throwing the rocks in the water.  Thomas also enjoyed showing us how brave of a hiker he was instead of letting us carry him.  A little too brave if you ask us.  We then had lunch in the car and headed home (after getting a little wet by the rain coming back).

While riding in the car one day, Thomas said "Jonah do you want a story.  Curious George goes to beach.  One day the man in the yellow hat ....".  So that shows he can be nice to his brother.  But lately he has been a meany a lot as well--climbing on and pushing his brother around.  (Today he even pushed Jonah into the toy bucket).  Other than that, Thomas is a pretty smart kid.  We have started having a "bag lesson" every Monday (thinking of doing it more often).  This is when Angela takes object from around the house that begin with the same letter and hide them in a bag.  She then takes them out of the bag one at a time and together they say what it is (elongating the first sound).  She then asks him if he can guess what it starts with.  Today he did it by the 3rd object.

Karl and the boys made a sneaky exodus to the store Thursday night to buy anniversary gifts and flowers for Angela while Angela was learning more about how to cut hair at Enrichment.  Karl came home and started cutting the flowers in a hurry so he could hide them from Angela.  Thomas grew very upset.  "No mess daddy!  Make mommy sad."  And then, on his own, he started picking up the stems and throwing them away.

Jonah loves to stand.  He is getting better at it each day.  He is even starting to take a few steps around the furniture.  He is also starting to pull himself up.  He pulled himself up in his crib 3 times in a row.  Angela lowered the crib to the lowest level after that.  He pulls himself up to standing over the toy buckets.  He even tries to climb up stairs.  When we were at the cabin and there was just one step inside, he climbed up several times. 

The heater was finally fixed on Wednesday.  This was a better week to have no heat.  We went to the park twice because the weather was so good.  After Thomas' nap on Wednesday Thomas told Angela "I have a big belly" "my belly hurts" "my belly is going to pop."  Since it was right after nap and there were no other signs and he didn't mention it again she assumed it was a dream or he just had a mild tummy ache.  He did start to get a cough and then early Thursday morning a fever.  But no more Tummy aches.  He was sick Thursday night too so we were afraid our trip would be canceled.  He woke with no fever and was doing better so we went.