Didn't you Know? It's still July

At least in blogland. In July we were able to take another fantastic trip down to the beach house! Shannon (my sister in law) was gunning for a new bike. She didn't find one in Monterey, but Ethan sure did. Oh and it wasn't this fantastic green one. He wanted the purple one with streamers and all the frills. It really was fantastic. (Just don't tell John I told you).We spent some much needed time down at the beach. Ethan L-O-V-E-S the water. Even though I thought it was freezing cold, he didn't want to stay away. And really, let's face it. I'm quite a baby when it comes to things being cold, so it wasn't THAT cold. It's still July, remember?
He would spend some time just running around the beach and warming up. This kid loves to run. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up being a track star.
We also went to the tide pools this trip and E was the perfect age for it this trip. He loved splashing around and was surprisingly good at balancing on all the slippery rocks. We made lots of discoveries...

Mr. crab
Lots of those squishy things that squirt water when you touch them. Anyone know what they are called? E was definitely hesitant at first.
Then he finally decided that they looked harmless enough.And he couldn't wait to find more.We also found a mermaid there! On no, that was just the starfish. We found I think a total of 5 down there. One was bigger than John's hand!

A successful trip to the tide pools.

After that, we went on a bike ride downtown.

The boys got to be lazy and get hauled around in the carrier. Ethan was thrilled, Henry was less than thrilled. Maybe because Ethan got to wear the pretty pink helmet? We had a fantastic trip at the beach house. Oh how we love you beach house. And we love my dad for sharing.

July unfortunately brought sad times as well this year, with our good friend April (well her whole fam) moving away to Southern California. We did get to see a friend, Naomi, who moved away a few years ago, who happened to come into town to celebrate our last get together. Here she is on the left, pictured with our non-moving friend April. I know pay attention here, it gets confusing.

Here is star of the evening, April, on the left, with Hayley.

Tammy & Teri.

The whole shebang. Whenever April plans to get together with people it always seems like everyone can come. She's fantastic and we will definitely miss her.

Oh and I can't forget to give a shout out to my sister in law Shannon who gave us the recommendation for the place to eat. The food was AMAZING. And we would like to hire you pro-bono to find all of our gathering venues.

April and I couldn't stand to leave one another, so we ended up getting together for a "date-night" later that week. We found another fantastic place to eat (via Shannon), and devoured our dessert for two.

Bye April! Miss you already.