Carmel By The Sea, Valentines, Rash-o-Rama,Golf Ball Venture, Nate B-day

Carmel-by-the-Sea. Last month we cruised down to Carmel.  It happens to be one of our favorite places to go as a family for many seriously fun reasons, Mission Carmel being one of them.

Right after Nathan was born 11 years ago, we had this new, incredibly anticipated arrival who also happened to be an awesome  traveler. So, we jumped in the car one day and decided to drive down Highway 1.  It was that daytrip that made Highway 1 (and all that comes with it) among our Top 3 best roadtrip destinations to this day.

We finally stopped in San Luis Obisbo (North of Santa Barbara) and headed home to the Bay Area. Where else can you drive along the cliffs over the big blue deep and see (lots of links here) San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Carmel, Bixby Bridge, Point Lobos, Monterey, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, San Simeon and the San Lucia Hills...ALL IN ONE DAY TRIP?

The kids have recently been covering their California Missions unit in school, so they were amazing at how historic Mission Carmel is--and to actually be in anything that was built in 1770.  They were amazed that something made out of mud, straw and cement could last so long---through all the earthquakes, weather, etc.  I have to say, it is probably the oldest building they have ever been around.  What makes it even more interesting is that our neighbor friends Santino and Kristen Marcozzi were married there, and their kids are good friends with ours.

John decided to be Mr. Grumpy face, "I'm so bored ... this is not fun and is too much like school", but the rest of us really liked it!  It seriously feels like old, old Colonial Mexico--like some super old building right out of Oaxaca.

We may have just found a photographer in Nathan.  The guy loves to take good shots--which may mean Dan will start being in some of the family pictures!  Handy.

Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch. After Mission Carmel, we went down to Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch, which is very close to Mission Carmel but right on the water. This place is beautiful! It is now a hotel, restaurant and ranch and has many places to hang out and walk around. Really fun.  Check out the link above for the full scoop on this place.  What's really nice about it is that there are not 10,000 people around.  Our neighbor Kristen Marcozzis is from Carmel and she gave us the tip on this place. Really fun.

Carmel Elementary. Right next to Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch is Carmel Elementary...a fine place to let the kids go wild.   Of course, Nate and John had a footrace.  Nathan has won every race so far, but you would be surprised how well John keeps up with him!  John (8) tips the scales at 120 lbs. and Nate (almost 11) is pushing a strong 80 lbs.  Plus, John usually busts up laughing half way through the race as he sees Nathan trying so hard to beat him.  Fun.  High knees, heel kick, REACH!

As you might imagine, the houses are AMAZING in Carmel. Of course, not very many people live in them because so many are all rented out for Pebble Beach events.  Be that as it may, it is a fun place to go to get design inspiration.  Not that we could ever replicate it, but if anything of that ilk magically appears in the Craigslist free section, we're on it.  I had to take a picture of this fancy birdhouse because Nate and I plan to build one for Scouts.  The birds in our yard... spoiled for sure.

Carmel Beach. We stopped at Carmel Beach to let the kids go wild, make friends with some premier dogs, play with them, watch people scoop their poop.  We are seriously in awe that this place is about an hour and 45 minutes away from our house (if you hit the traffic right).  I mean, seriously--that is Pebble Beach and 17 Mile Drive behind the boys.  Pinch ourselves (NOT EACH OTHER!) now. 

Liza and Caroline got into the act too.  Magical sand throwing opportunities.  We're not totally sure why kids love to see the sand fly so much.  It could be that it is the one place we encourage them to get as filthy as they can and play with as many dogs as they can.

Caroline quickly learned that digging a hole and drinking salt water isn't all she imagined it would be, yet she still did it over and over.

We were just grateful to see her spitting it out rather than swallowing it.

There were a few people who walked by and told us, "Wow, you really let 'em go don't you?" We have no idea what they are talking about.  Is the act of allowing your two year old to swim in (and eat) sandy cold salty mud frowned upon?   People were laughing at Caroline as much as we were.  Maybe she saw all the dogs rolling around in it and thought, "I've got to try that!"

Behold, The Tuck Box.  I know we've told you about this place before, but it's so fairy tale-ish that we have to tell you again.  If you come visit, we would like to take you here for some scones, tea and crumpets.  Bring your lorry and we might be able to find some free wood someplace too.

Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey. It seems like we go to Dennis the Menace Park every single time we go to Monterey. But alas, it is always fun for the kids, every time we go there. Huge, fun park, big family tradition. 

This time though, there was a strange occurrence that might be forgotten unless well documented.  A bride and groom, complete with the whole stretch Hummer, bridesmaids, best men and photographer came traipsing through the park to go down the squiggily slides.  Very weird.  I have to think they met there as kids or something--maybe their kids met there and brought them together.  Whatever that was, it was freaking weird. Even I intentionally didn't take pictures.  It was one of those moments where all the women in the park were looking and the men just couldn't. 

Great Scouts. In the opening of Pack Meeting, lo and behold Ben Harmer pulls a ball python out of his backpack.

Awesome thing to bring to a Pack Meeting a ball python is--hard to find a kid packing a good ball python anymore. Instant attention.
Here are some of the guys in Nate's group (L to R) Jack Nelson, Mark Webster, Jake Blatter, Ben Harmer, Derek Herring, Nate Doxey.

John, with a purple megaphone, ran the flag ceremony.

Julia, the Cubmaster, handed out many awards on that fine night.  John's group of boys loved the snake as well.  His pals (L to R) Sam Monson, Miles Nelson, Austin Lammi, Aaron Johnson, Cole Tapia, Gavin MacDonald, Ben Harmer, John Doxey, Oliver Pemberton.

Bad Virus. Liza had a bit of a bad reaction to a virus. Need we say more?  She was one sick girl.  We thought it was chicken pox at first.

If you can believe it, this rash became worse the next day.  Not good.  Not good at all. She had this rash for about 4 days in early February 2011.  She was a trooper through it all.  A bit freaky it was, but she is doing much better now!

Valentines Morning Came with a Rage.   There were cookies flying, Valentines written out, and a general flurry of Valentine festivities.  Jules makes it fun and memorable, always, as usual. The kids have not idea what kind of non-reality they live in. Big blessing.

By Valentines evening, we had a full blown awesome family Valentines dinner.  Kids loved it, we loved it. Once again, Julia makes everything 10x better than they ever would be normally.

Mom & Dad Call came last Thursday for a "warmer" time in the Bay Area, and to see Tom, John and Julia--three of their kids in one trip.  It is sooo fun to have them here. The kids LOVE it. We love it when they come.

Nathan & John's Golf Ball Business.  We have a friend named Livia McDonald who lives a few streets away on the San Ramon Golf Club course.
Her house gets rained on by errant golf balls.  She has about 10-12 five gallon buckets of balls in her backyard and recently had the boys over to clean up her yard and collect balls.  This is what they look like when gathered.

This is the ball washing station.  The boys started out washing each one by hand, but it was taking FOREVER so we had a great idea to put them all in the tub and mass scrub them. We layed out balls one level deep, put in a lot of Basic-H and they got a broom and scrubbed the heck out of them, rinsed and dried.   Then, they put them all back in and bleached them.

When they were done, they had a lot of clean balls!  The plan is to separate them by brand, then package them up in dozens,

Thanks to John Call we know which balls are worth something!  They are going to set up a lemonade/golf ball stand on sunny days when tee times are booked and sell them. There are some really nice balls in the lot, so they are excited.

Our house has been a flurry of golf balls.  All the kids have gotten into the act.

'Twas an opportune time to talk about branding and marketing,  Lots of branding and marketing in golf balls--even a fair amount of science, which we're novices about.  The favorite ball of the bunch ... a yellow Sponge Bob ball.

Nathan turns 11 at the end of the month and we are celebrating early! Julia made him a double Oreo Mud Pie with seriously good chocolate topping.  I think I want to be buried with one of these one day.  Definitely a favorite!  Mom & Dad Call, Tom & Hilary, John & Ann and kids were all over for an amazing Thanksgiving-esque dinner, and it was seriously awesome!  Nathan crosses over from Webelos into 11 year old Scouts this week, and he is stoked.  Lots of badges to sew on his new shirt!