Thanksgiving at the Beach House

For a few years now my family has been able to go down to the Beach House for Thanksgiving. It's such a treat! We spent a little time down at the tide pools, which I'm sure you remember we have done in the past. This time the boys had a fun time doing something a little different. Can you tell they are SCREAMING their lungs out? What on earth could they be doing?

Why screaming at seagulls, of course.

Isn't that what everyone does when you see a seagull nearby?

Don't you worry we spent lots of time exploring near the water as well.

And just taking it all in. I love this spot!

We found some interesting friends too. Do you think this squirrel might have been fed a few too many times by humans? I'm pretty sure if we had any crackers, this little character would have taken them right out of our palms.

Ethan wanted to spend a little time posing today too. I love this face.

Ethan just loves to explore all over these rocks.

My brother, the perv, taking a photo of his wife's cleavage. Okay. Okay. Maybe it's the baby. But I seriously doubt it.

My sweet little angel boy.

So at the beach house with all the grandkids together, it can get pretty crazy. One afternoon it seemed like everyone was having a breakdown and we decided to throw in a random Japanese movie, produced by Disney, called, "Ponyo." It's basically like a non-romantic version of the little mermaid about a goldfish wanting to become a human. A little on the weird side, in my opinion, but the kids all settled down immediately and were mesmerized. After we got home from the beach house, I added it to my shopping cart on Amazon. What a dream!

We got a few family shots while we were there. It was pretty desperate, as literally, people were climbing in their cars to drive home, but we decided we couldn't lose the opportunity.

Just before we left, we found a friend waiting for us on Cannery Row. Let the Christmas Season begin!

Another first!

Our whole family headed down to the beach house for Thankgiving. Our first night there, we had a first! Our boys had their first bath together!

 Ethan is thrilled. Lincoln looks slightly concerned.

 There were no major crises, so we call that a success!

Tilden Park with the Mitchells

My younger brother and his family got to venture down our way for Thanksgiving this year. We would all eventually end up at the beach house for Thanksgiving, so by coming a little early, they got to break up their never-ending drive a little bit! We got to spend an evening enjoying Tilden Park. First stop was at the animal farm.

 The boys were checking out the huge pigs. I love that they have a little platform to step on for the little guys.

 Most of our time there was spent feeding the cows though.

 Ethan was fascinated by the cows' long tongues.

 The cows were just happy to be getting so many treats. Thank goodness I can never seem to use up all our lettuce or celery when we buy it at Costco, but do you think that keeps me from buying it there? Not a chance! It's still cheaper to buy it there, even if we end up feeding half of it to the cows!

 Here's the crew of us. Looks like I just came from work. Yuck. It was definitely a man that decided that Khaki shirts and black pants was a good idea.

 The boys were so cute running around together.

 Near the parking lot of the little farm is a little playground. Why not hit that up too?

 They had some great rocks to climb.

 Or jump off of.

 Then we stopped at the carousel on the way home.

 The boys loved every minute of it!

 And then a new love began.

Crawford Family Thanks and Giving 2010

John's cousins, James and Brigitte had the clan over for our annual Thanksgiving gathering.

 We had such a nice spread! Doesn't it just make you hungry?

 We started off with the thanks part!

 And then did what everyone does, digest!

 Lincoln did the most "giving" with all those great smiles!

 Although, John and I did our part as well!

Discovery Kingdom with the Rossi's

John had a light day at work, so he got to take off on a Friday and come with us to Discovery Kingdom! Ethan was surprisingly warm and fuzzy with all the "friends."

He is definitely not one of those shy kids, I guess!

I can't believe how big he is getting!

We stopped first to see the Dolphins and they seemed to be waiting for our attention.

How is a little boy supposed to smile for the camera with these beauties on the other side of the glass?

The troops came together at the dolphin show.

It might be the same every time for the adults, but it really is quite amazing that they can train all these animals.

I'm not sure Lincoln was all that interested in the Dolphins, but he was still happy to smile for the camera.

Then onto the kids zone for Tazmanian swings.

This is the first time we have ever gone to the butterfly exhibit. To our delight, they also had a huge Koi pond.

John spent a lot of time teaching the kids how to get them to suck on your fingers. Oh, until the workers came, then he was instructing them not to touch the fish.

There were so many butterflies!

This one was huge but blended so nicely, Ethan didn't even notice it right above his shoulder!

We also explored the reptiles area (Pammie, look away!)

The kids rode a few rides in the kids zone too.

While down there, we looked at all the exotic cats. One of the feeders was there and saw us trying to  see the tigers way back in the corner. The feeder just walked up to the fence and the cats came running over to us.

We got a fantastic show. And if you can't read the sign, it says, "You may get wet or sprayed." True. We did.

So we were able to spend a little time in front of the mister to clean off.

This mountain lion was a little freaky. Ethan ran past the fence line distracted by something and that cat was stalking him like prey. If that fence weren't there, he would have taken Ethan down. I got a little freaked out. Definitely a reminder that these are all still WILD animals.

Here's Mr. Smiley Face again! 

John took some time "watching" the boys on the playground.

I love that we get to explore different things every time we come here!