While my Mom was here, we took her to my favorite beach - Sunset Beach. It's at the top of the Monterey Bay. I love the sand dunes, I love the way it looks! It feels a little rustic I think, but the beach is so nice and there's always lots of shells. Greta played like crazy in the water with my Mom. When Greta was a baby, she would cry so hard if we so much as held her while standing in the ocean never mind dipping her little toes in. The roar of the waves used to be so upsetting for her. But now, she's in and out of those waves laughing and enjoying her little self. We had such a wonderful time at the beach. And, lucky us, we saw whales! I've never seen whales in the wild, but it's been on my bucket list. It was such a thrill to watch them slowly making their way north. After some research, I've concluded they were Gray whales, momma and her calf. They're at the very end of when whales migrate through Monterey and Santa Cruz, so it was really lucky to see them! What a sight! Oh the wonders of the ocean!

Now for a ton of photos!

We finally visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium! High fives all around! I've wanted to go ever since we moved here (almost three years ago!). We made it our big special outing with my Mom during her visit. It was so worth every penny (we bought a membership and a couple buddy passes). We spent nearly 5 hours there. I think my favorite part was seeing how enthralled Greta was. She was so into it and so excited to be there! I just loved that. Age three has really been her blossoming year. We all really enjoyed it - the ocean is an amazingly magical place. Holly loved the Hammerhead sharks! The kids' area in the aquarium was a great play place for Holly and Greta - they could've spent all day there!

I'm so grateful we get to live in this area and be so close to the wonders of the ocean. My family has been so blessed to live here.

I picked up a Dizzy swing (or disc swing) for my daughters. My siblings and I had one and we spent hours playing on it and laughing. I have good memories connected to our dizzy swing. My mom hung it in the tree in the front yard and the girls have loved playing on it. Holly wants to be out there swinging almost all the time. The neighbor kids have really enjoyed it too - we'll come home and someone will be swinging on it. So fun! It's getting lots of use and was definitely a good investment. I love when I get to share something from my childhood with my dear sweet children. Something about things coming full circle is so satisfying.

This week has been hot, so hot! We're talking highs of 34 degrees CELSIUS! It's insane. Lucky us though, we live near the ocean. So off we went on the hottest day of the week. Santa Cruz was also very hot (it doesn't always work out that way), too hot to just sit on the beach. Fortunately the ocean is frigid and kept us cool. Holly and Greta are so enamored with the ocean. It is so fun to play in the waves with them! It makes me so so happy. We spent a solid 4 hours at the beach before we dragged ourselves home (to our hot house). It's going to be an amazing summer!

A couple notes: Holly is really into making things "stylish," like her food. She initiated a towel modeling show. Greta makes sand angels a lot these days and it's adorable. Love my turkeys.

This week we went to the park with some friends. We love getting together with our friends to play! I had brought my camera along because we were seeing some friends who were visiting from Utah. We were some of the last to leave. I took some photos of my daughters just playing together at the park. It's been a while since I've taken photos of a regular activity. I love that Holly stopped at the bottom of the slide to smile at me - I'm so proud!