A Little While Longer

It looks like we will be in Monterey, CA for a bit longer than we thought. Brandon took his big test last week. The scoring of the test is really weird and hard to explain, so I will just say that he did not pass the listening portion of the test(he got a 1+). He did well on the speaking and reading. A lot of different things could have happened becaues of this, but we were very lucky. Brandon has been moved back into the class before him and will have another chance to take the test in 6 weeks. He has this week off, then starts back up next Monday. Now that he knows what to expect from the test and knows exactly what to work on, I think he will do fine. We were very excited about the fact that we were about to move on, so in that aspect it is difficult. Brandon is also very frustrated because he knows he understands the language. I guess we could be stuck in worse places, right?

Berry Pickin' Fun

This last weekend we went to a berry picking farm and had a great time. My cousin Becca told all about her family's berry picking fun on her blog, so we just had to do it. We picked blackberries and strawberries and they are soooooooooooo good. Jacob picked the blackberries for a while, but then had more fun wandering around looking at everything. We went over to pick strawberries next. There was no picking involved for Jacob. He just followed us down the rows eating as he went. After we picked, we played. The farm had an area for kids with an old tractor and some hay bails. It was a beautiful day to have a picnic and let the kids play! Thanks Becca for a new family tradition (hopefully)!

Zoe was constantly trying to look around me.

Two seconds later she strawberry and dirt all over her face.

Thanks to visiting Mimi and Pawpaw, Jacob was waiting for the tractor to turn on.

Chill Out

You would think we never feed her.

A couple of days ago we found out how much Zoe really likes strawberries. When Brandon was with the kids, he said Zoe disappeared into the kitchen for a little while. It was the same day I had gone grocery shopping and the strawberries were in a bag on the floor. After a little while in the kitchen Zoe happily came out with a red ring around her mouth. Brandon said that half of the strawberries were on the kitchen floor with one bite taken out of each of them. Now whenever she spots them in the fridge, this is what happens.

Father's Day

For Father's Day we went to Natural Bridges State Beach. It was a bit too windy and cold to hang out on the beach but there was a great hiking trail. Jacob found a stick to walk with and had a great time leading the way. Zoe hitched a ride and almost fell asleep on me. We had a great time and loved how well the kids slept that night!

This bridge used to be three bridges in a row but due to erosion it now stands alone. The rock out farther in the water was the connection of the last bridge back in 1900 and the other bridge was to the left.

Zoe kept that hat on for about 3 seconds...max.
Look at my handsome guys!
Pretty flowers.

My favorite spot on the hike.

Wild Fires

In the last couple of weeks we have had two wild fires within about 60-70 miles of us. One was to the North and the other to the South East. The wind was really strong and blew the smoke right over us. Here is a picture from our house.

When we first saw the smoke it looked like a huge rain cloud. I was really excited because I thought that we were going to get a real thunder storm. Then, we realized it wasn't moving like a cloud. We found out later from the news that it was smoke from the South. It was pretty cool to watch.

Swim Lessons

This past Tuesday, Jacob started swimming lessons. He goes 3 days a week for 3 weeks. We started going to the pool a lot after we got back from Texas and Jacob loved it! I wanted to make sure he was comfortable in the water before I handed him off to a stranger. I was worried he wouldn't want to go to the instructor and I was imagining him crying the whole time. It was the exact opposite! When I took him to meet his instructor the first day at the edge of the pool, he pushed me away and jumped in to her. I was ecstatic!! He absolutely loves going to the pool and is mad when his 30 minute lesson is over. During his lessons, I take Zoe to the baby pool to play. She is a water baby. She is already putting her face in the water and laughing. I love my kids!

Its Official!

Zoe is walking! She still prefers to crawl but sometimes she will surprise me. I have been trying to get her walking on video for the past few days but, of course, she never performs on demand.

Dentist Appointment

Jacob had his first dentist appointment today and he did really well. I had this fear that he would bite the dentist or something. He was so great! He laid down in the chair all by himself and let them clean his teeth. He even let them floss. I was so excited that he did so well and he doesn't have any cavities that we took him to get ice cream.