Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Birthdays and Vacation Time

 July and August have been busy with birthdays and taking family vacations.  Alana is shown here at her birthday celebration with all of her nieces and nephews blowing out candles.
 Evan and Danny were in the stake musical, Crazy for You.  It was a great production and a lot of fun.
 We had a number of friends and family members that attended the musical one night.
 The whole family got together for a quick visit one of the weekends.
 We celebrated Steve's birthday one night, just before he started studying for his final exams.
 On another night, we had a picnic dinner at a park and then went to see cousin Nicholas as the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz".
 The summer afternoons were spent playing in the pool with Uncle Evan.
 Sliding into the pool is a lot of fun for Gavin.
 We all went to see the Pixar movie night at the Hollywood Bowl - really a lot of fun.
 The kids surprised us with a really great anniversary dinner for our 36th wedding anniversary - much better than any restaurant.
 We traveled up the Central Coast on our way to stay at the lighthouse.  On the way, we stopped at Mission San Miguel, just north of Paso Robles.
 Then it was onto the aquarium at Monterey Bay.  Coco and Gavin loved that.
 We rode the train at Henry Cowell State Park, the Roaring Camp Narrow Gauge Railroad.
 Gavin particularly enjoyed it.
 Here we are in front of the engine.
 The train went right through the redwoods, so we took a hike through them afterwards.
 We stayed at the lighthouse - and Evan got to do dishes with the most beautiful view ever out the kitchen window.
 We had fun staying in the lighthouse at Point Montara. . .lots of time for games and walks on the beach.
 We celebrated Auntie's birthday up at the lighthouse.
 We had to do a pyramid on the beach - and Gavin made it to the top.
It was a lovely spot to spend a few days, even though it was fogged in most of the time - typical California summer weather.