Fall

Wait, what happened to September?? It passed by so quickly...we've been busy with school and all of the kids' activities and I neglect to update this blog! I put so much stuff on Facebook now, that this falls by the wayside.

Here are a few pictures from our Capitola trip at the end of September. We had a great time, as always...great weather and fun memories made. Kenny and the boys made some huge sandcastles.

We celebrated Tim's birthday while we were in Capitola...hard to believe he's now 15 years old.

The kids enjoyed the (COLD) water...

This is a small part of the huge sandcastle that Kenny and the kids made. Sadly on our last day there, some people stomped all over it and ruined it. :(

It feels like Fall has finally arrived, with the cooler weather...nice!

20th Anniversary Trip

I'm finally getting around to blogging about our anniversary trip last weekend! We had a fabulous time! We left Friday right around noon, and started our drive up the coast. We drove up Highway 1, which is a very WINDY road (and I was glad I was not driving!). The views were beautiful! There were several places that we stopped to take pictures and walk on trails that led right to the cliffs overlooking the sea. Breathtaking!

We spent Friday and Saturday nights in the little town of Gualala, which is a bit south from the Point Arena lighthouse. Our Bed and Breakfast, The North Coast Country Inn, was wonderful...we highly recommend it to anyone traveling up that way. We enjoyed the area sights, drove up to the Point Arena Lighthouse, visited the Gualala Regional Park which included a few miles of trials and a nice walk on the beach. We'd love to go back up there someday.

Sunday we headed back down the coast, and cut over to spend the night in Sebastopol. We spent Monday in the Sonoma Valley, where we visited three different wineries to taste wine. The vines were all loaded with grapes, as their harvest is very close. We took a great tour at our first stop, The Benziger Family Winery. Again, we'd highly recommend their tour; it was well worth the money! We also visited the oldest winery in Sonoma, Gundlach Bundschu and one other called Viansa, where we enjoyed walking around the grounds and tasted the wines there. Very fun!

God blessed our time with perfect weather - unseasonably warm on the coast and unseasonably cool in the valley. We really had a great time relaxing and just hanging out together.

And...the kids did great at home! :)

Vacation

Big Basin State Park

The trees were so tall...

One of the many sand castles...this wasn't one of the best ones!

We celebrated Tim's birthday on Wednesday, October 1st! Happy Birthday Tim! (He's 14)

We had a great time on our vacation, although we all agreed that it went by way too fast. The weather was beautiful; sunny and in the 70's. We spent Friday afternoon at the redwood forest, at Big Basin State Park. God's creation is amazing...HUGE trees, some of which are estimated to be 2000 years old!

It's good to be home...but we missed waking up to sound of the ocean.

**Congratulations to our friends, Stef and Jason Arnold, on the birth of their baby girl yesterday! Kara Joy Arnold!

Half Moon Bay - August 12-13

Kenny surprised me for our anniversary (August 12th) by reserving a room at a bed and breakfast (Cypress Inn) in Half Moon Bay for Sunday night! I didn't find out about it until Saturday evening. He had arranged child care for the kids (thank you to Megan, Jessica, Jane and Katy) and made a reservation for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Moss Beach Distillery. We had a wonderful time just hanging out together, and even though it was short, God blessed our time together. Enjoy the pictures!


This first picture was taken while we were taking a long walk near the beach on a walking trail. We walked for about 1.5 miles on the trail, and then came back on the beach. Very nice!

This one was taken at the restaurant. We had a great window seat with a beautiful view of the water!

And sunsets over the ocean can't be beat! This was taken from right in front of our bed and breakfast.