A Week in Carmel

We recently spent a week in California visiting Stephen's family.

We spent most of the trip in a beautiful house in Carmel, just 2 blocks from the beach.

The house belongs to my brother-in-law's family.

Before we headed to Carmel we did a quick run to Napa.

We saw Stephen's Grandma.

Then spent a few hours with my parents.

The next day we spent a couple hours at the pool in Brentwood.

Alice liked it but Jane did not like the cold water.

Then we drove to Carmel, about 2.5 hours.

I vaguely recall having gone to Carmel once as a kid but I didn't remember anything about it.

So when we drove down the main street and then through the neighborhood of houses I about died from the cuteness.

Such a cute place filled with houses that look like they are from a storybook.

I loved it.

When the cousins arrived, the first thing Alice wanted to do is dance with her ballerina cousin Avila.

She had been talking about it for days.

The two of them were pretty inseparable during the trip.

It was kinda chilly the whole time we were there.  It was in the 60s.

But that didn't stop us from enjoying the beach that was just 2 blocks away.

Avila pretty much "babysat" Jane for a lot of the trip.  It was great.

We celebrated Grandma Patti's birthday one night.

She is always a favorite reader :)

The whole week was really laid back and relaxing.  We mostly just hung out at the house or the beach or walked around looking at houses.

Our one big outing was to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I had been a few times as a kid and always loved it and was really excited for Alice to experience it.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pretty bad day for Alice.

Lately she has been more emotional and meltdowns have become more frequent and then add on traveling, missed naps and LOTS of stimulus and it accumulated into a day of meltdowns.

The entire time at the aquarium was an emotional roller coaster.

She would be running around happy and excited one minute and then completely meltdown over the tiniest thing (for example, putting a sticker on her shirt).

It was bad.

But the aquarium was still really cool.

An up moment on the roller coaster.

The Edwards.  Such a cute family, right?!

I hear the Jaws music, do you?  :)

The whole time Alice was looking for Dory and Nemo and was very excited when we found them.

Jane loved this one that was just her height and just stared at it for forever.

When we got back to the house, daddy and Alice took a much needed nap.

One of the days, when the girls were napping, Stephen and I walked around the main street of Carmel.

We came across a store dedicated to Alice in Wonderland.

And just around the corner was this Jane Austen store:

It was a funny coincidence (Alice was named after Alice in Wonderland and Jane was named after Jane Austen, in case you didn't know :)

More beach fun.

Jane LOVED playing in the sand but she did NOT like the cold water.

Caught this cute picture where Alice ran up to hold Papa's hand while on a walk.

He really won her over with his magic light-up finger trick.

She thought it was amazing.

Hanging out with Papa Grande.

Hanging out with Grandma.

Jane fast asleep during a walk with Nana.  She was her usual easy going self the whole trip.

Tide pool explorers.

We came across an artist painting and the girls were fascinated.

Auntie Michelle entertaining the kids with home videos.  She was in her element with 6 little ones around her :)

It was a really great trip.  I hope we get to do it again!