Wanted some more practice with my lighting equipment and Corinne turning 7 months old seemed like a good excuse.
This one is our favorite of the bunch because of Corinne's face. Sadly it was one of the first I took and it's overexposed on the side of her face.
And some more:
We went down to Monterey for the weekend of August 21, 22, and 23.
I took that Friday off from work and we drove down mid-day to avoid morning rush hour traffic. When we got there we grabbed lunch at Point Pinos Grill, which was considerably nicer than I was expecting considering the prices. After lunch we walked across the street to the Point Pinos Lighthouse.
This picture would have turned out better if the sky weren't so heavily overcast, but not much I could do about that.
After touring the lighthouse we headed to our hotel room at Asilomar Conference Grounds. Once we were checked in we walked down to the beach (Asilomar State Beach) to do some playing.
I dug a hole, because why not?
And Heather stood in it, because why not?
We hung out in our little beach shelter (which worked fairly well overall):
We walked along the beach and dabbled in the water:
This was Heather's usual reaction to the waves coming in:
I tried to take some artsy pictures of the waves stacked up as they came in:
Then we headed up to the room for a dinner of hastily retrieved McDonald's; eaten on the floor (there never seems to be a good place to eat food in a hotel room).
Saturday we eventually made it out the door and down to Monterey's main drag. We ate breakfast at Coco's which was....not a highlight of the trip. It could have been a smoother experience, but the food was fine.
With food taken care of we walked down to Monterey Bay Aquarium to spend most of the day. Public Service Announcement: Buy your tickets online and print them out. We walked straight in the door while a line down the block was waiting to buy tickets.
Heather got to see some baby moon jellies up close as we walked in.
Heather, Jess, and Corinne sat in a giant clam:
And some more jellies, because they seem to make the most successful pictures at aquariums for some reason:
After completely wearing everyone out at the aquarium we headed to a local pizza joint, Gianni's, for dinner. It sounded like a sit-down and order kind of place, but it turned out to be a place-an-order and seat yourself kind of place. Which would have been fine, except they were packed and there was nowhere to sit. And Heather was DONE with the day and couldn't take being in the restaurant. So we converted our order to takeout and I took Heather back to the van to decompress while Jess waited for it to be ready.
Once it was ready she called me and we drove around to pick it up (couldn't drive up earlier because there would have been nowhere to park). That worked well for Heather and we had another dinner on the floor of our hotel room. The food was good though. Probably would have been better not stuffed into takeout containers and driven across town though.
On Sunday we got up and eventually got packed up and out of the hotel. We headed down to Carmel-by-the-sea for breakfast at Em Le's. They have famous deep-fried french toast:
Em Le's is just a tiny little restaurant tucked into the corner of a building. There's only seating for maybe 25 people at a time. The food was really good; give it a try if you're in the area.
See with the Point Pinos Grill, Gianni's, and Em Le's? I tried to find unique, local places to eat; but it's tough not knowing what to expect when you have little kids. Don't want to unintentionally go somewhere too upscale or non-kid-friendly (Em Le's was close on these criteria, but we didn't have any problems).
After eating we went down to Carmel Beach for a few hours, but didn't take any pictures this time around. Then we loaded up into the van and headed home. Which took much longer than it should have. I was expecting weekend traffic heading back into the Bay Area so we left at like 2, but it was terrible. So try to avoid that. We ended up needing to stop for food so we found a Habit Grill (which is a chain, but I hadn't seen one before) which was decent.
I decided to make use of my new photography lighting equipment and took some family pictures today. Originally it was going to be a little photo shoot for Corinne, but that rapidly expanded. Unfortunately, I wasn't planning on taking a full family picture so I didn't have the tripod and remote out and configured. So don't have one of the whole family, but we're all in there in some way or another.
It was tough trying to get Heather and Corinne looking in the same direction at the same time with something amounting to a smile on their faces. I resorted to tickling Heather as she's reached the age where asking her to smile results in bizarre grimaces.
Here are some of the best shots:
And the other shots that came out well:
Okay, not junk. Not at all. But alliteration, you guys! And I get sick of titling these posts "miscellany" or "camera dump." But anyway, here are all the fun pictures from June that didn't already get their own blog post. Enjoy!
Heather with some art. She loves to art.
If you're going to be realistic about feeding your doll, you need the Boppy. Obviously.
On any given day, looking into the family room, you may see something like this: 
Totally normal, right? Isn't this how everybody uses their tablet?
Sometimes feeding the baby gets boring. That's when you move to the family room and watch TV.
Kyle turned 30 this year! Wahoo! The girls helped him open his presents.
And blow out the candles.
So we decided to experiment with the cake this year, and it came out YUMMY! I just used the recipe for chocolate cake and frosting off the back of the Hershey cocoa tin (also found here), but the secret was the filling. Kyle has invented this mousse stuff (it's essentially instant pudding made with whipping cream instead of milk) that is divine, and that's what I used (vanilla flavored). Kyle needs to blog the recipe, and when he does, I'll link it (Edit: Link!). He also declared it's even better the next day. It did not last long.
Heather really likes to snuggle up in blankets. Even when it's 100F outside. She's also started piling up the cushions and pillows and making all sorts of comfy arrangements.
I'm the Primary secretary in our ward, and our chorister asked me to help out a few weeks ago. To help the kids review the song for Father's Day, they got to put something in my hair for each line they remembered. Everybody had a lot of fun with it!
One afternoon, Heather came up to Kyle and said she wanted to marry him. (When I asked her what that meant, she said they dance!) So she put on her flower tiara thing and they danced. When I showed her this picture and asked her what it was, she said, "Me and daddy...being married..." in a sweet, sing-song voice, and she twirled away. She obviously has fond memories of this event.
Kyle walked by Heather's doorway one morning to discover her in bed with what she declared to be her "perfect family." I don't think that requires any further explanation.
This is Heather's dance class at their in-studio dress rehearsal. Too cute.
And this was a Mommy fail. I packed the sunscreen! I just forgot to put it on her. Poor thing. Ibuprofen and aloe vera helped, but she was pretty uncomfortable for a couple of days.
On Father's Day, Heather helped me make some peanut butter brownies for Kyle.
In Primary, the kids got cards with Pop Rocks candy to give their dads, and Heather thought the candy was amazing. She liked watching it pop in Kyle's mouth:
And lastly, Heather had swim class the last two weeks in June. It was her first time not being in a parent/child class, and she loved it! They were in a 2-foot pool and the class was very small, so she had a lot of one-on-one time with the teacher. I love watching her learn new things!
Kyle and his girls:
Heather was so tired she laid down on the couch and fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon. This has never happened before or since. In fact, later that day, she didn't believe it had happened until Kyle showed her photographic proof. (For the life of me, though, I can't remember WHY she was so tired! Some adventure with Daddy, I believe.)
Heather spent an afternoon with our friends the Badgers. She got her nails painted for the first time!
All dressed up in her recital costume for picture day:
Awww, sisters!
Heather and I got to do some sidewalk chalking one afternoon, and it was super fun. I drew a face, and she proceeded to add the digestive system ('cuz she's awesome like that). This is the only art I got a picture of, though:
The girls and I went for a walk downtown, and Heather somehow ended up in the fountain. She thoroughly enjoyed herself, though, and has fond memories of our adventure on "the First Street."
