Thanksgiving in Monterey

We decided to take a trip to Monterey for Thanksgiving since we weren't with our extended family this year. Monterey has been on our list of places to visit in California for the past year, so this holiday provided the perfect opportunity for a little getaway.

The moment we arrived at the hotel, Brynn tucked herself in with Isaac for a little snuggle while Abby and Aaron jumped across from bed to bed. Joseph took them down to see the ocean at 10:00 at night to get a little of their excess energy out. Isaac and I stayed in the room. When Joseph came back he said it was funny to watch the kids. Abby was trying to run out by the tide and Brynn stayed close to Joseph on the sand. Aaron kept yelling/crying, "No Abby! No Abby! Tum (Come) back!"

Our main reason for going to Monterey was to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was fantastic. We loved it so much that we bought an annual membership, so we'll definitely be back in the coming months.

The kids couldn't decide which exhibit was their favorite, there were so many wonderful ones, but my favorite was the moon jellyfish (below). They were beautiful and bounced so gracefully through the water. It was theraputic and relaxing to watch them.

The large 2 or 3 story aquarium was very impressive.

The girl's really liked the the manarays, stingrays, and batrays and even got to pet a batray. The picture below isn't that great, but if you can see their facial expressions from the reflection on the glass it's pretty cute.

Abby loved touching the starfish, but the lady guarding them had to keep reminding her, "Just pet with one finger please!" When the lady wasn't looking Abby would try to squish the starfish and then pick it up and turn it over to see what the back looked like. As soon as the lady would look her way, Abby hurried to put the fish down. I think the lady was afraid she was going to run off with it. She's just a curious 4-almost-5-year-old.

I was surprised that Aaron was comfortable enough to touch the starfish, Brynn of course kept it to only one finger and was searching for the nearest hand sanitizer immediately after.

The girls were fascinated with the batrays and started crying when we walked away from the exhibit before they were able to touch one. We headed back over to give them a feel.

Overlooking beautiful Monterey Bay.

We had reservations for our Thanksgiving Dinner a few blocks away at a restaurant on Cannery Row. It was a quaint street shopping district next to the aquarium.

Our Brynn just "hatched" from a penguin shell.

It always trips me up a little to be in California during the holidays. It does get colder, but because the weather is still pretty nice Thanksgiving and Christmas seem to sneak up on me. Northern California is perfect for me, we have seasons, but they aren't as extreme as other places we have lived....best part of all, NO SNOW! (Unless you make the 2 hour drive to Tahoe to play in it, which is what snow is for anyway, right?)

The view from the restaurant.

Afterward we spent some time at the beach to let the kids play a little and to enjoy the sunset. It was a pretty simple and relaxing holiday....that is as simple and relaxing as a holiday or travel can be with 4 children in tow. :)

Joseph seems to capture such beautiful scenes, even with our simple old Sony camera. I'm always impressed at what he comes up with. We enjoyed this beautiful sunset....and left feeling very thankful for all of our blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!