Carmel Vacation, 2012

Carl, Max and I went on our annual trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California last week. The weekend that happened to work for everyone fell on us leaving on Carl's birthday. It was fun to get to celebrate while in paradise. We were planning on taking Carson until the travel planning got a little more real. We can't wait to go on a family vacation with just us, but wrangling him around my boss in a rented gorgeous beach house didn't sound very relaxing. Max was plenty of work! The house we got this year was absolutely stunning. We usually stay closer to town, but this year we booked an ocean-front view. There were patios and amazing landscaping around the entire home. Carl's favorite was the hot tub out back. And all things considered, it was only the equivalent of booking two $250 per night hotel rooms which is so much less than we ever expected!

This was our view at sunrise from each side of the kitchen/front balcony:



The year we took Carson he was one month older than what Max is now, Carson at 9 months and Max at 8 months. You can see Carson's trip with us here. We knew Carson absolutely hated the water when we put his feet in, but still had to do it with Max. The weather was really warm, but the water is still really cold. Max hated it probably even more than Carson did and was so mad the rest of that beach visit. He kept crying and fussing and wanted to get out of there.
Ugh, he is so dang cute.


Hopefully this isn't abuse....

"Pick me back up!"


Look at that pouty face.

It's hard to see, but he has tears sitting on his chubby cheeks here:

Getting warm with Daddy.


We spend a lot of time walking around in the little town of Carmel-by-the-Sea too. It is such a unique town that looks nothing like anything I've ever seen before. It's technically only 1.1 square miles and everything else is just Carmel. My favorite discovery this year was that the city laws say that you can't wear high heels without going down to city hall and getting a permit. Apparently it's free and quick and I'm so bummed we didn't do it for a souvenir! Everywhere you look it is like you are in the middle of a fairy tale set.

These plants outside of some shops are my favorite.


The other place we spend a lot of time at is Point Lobos State Reserve. We saw at least 100 dolphins last year and some whales, none of those this year. But you always see otters, seals and/or sea lions. It's one of the most gorgeous places to visit. I loved the challenge of shooting at mid-day, obviously with nothing to give the scenery any shade. I think the sunny haze over the water is so beautiful.



On Saturday we walked/hiked around there for at least 3-4 hours straight and Max slept through almost the entire thing! His sleep got pretty messed up during the days there.

Once he woke up we stopped for a picnic of ridiculously good cheeses, salami, local strawberries and beer. We eat so good when we are there! My boss always spoils us and gets us to try stuff we don't ever eat at home.


We got a family shot on the way out since Max wasn't asleep anymore. You know you want to pinch those cheeks. :)

And since I don't get many with my boys, here is one on our last morning before we hit the road. I just love this little chunk!


Here are some of the iPhone pics from the trip!
Getting on the plane for his first plane ride!

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Tiles in the sidewalk.

He was obsessed with the magazine/media shelf in the living room.

Nap time on the couch.


Oh, and you'd better believe we haven't missed this cake, even for one trip! I have only ever gotten the banana cream, but these were the best ones to get a quick pic of. To. Die. For.

$4.29 was the cheapest gas we could find. Ouch.

I always have to take a pic of my toes for some reason. This was heavenly.


If you get a chance to ever go to Carmel/Monterey........DO IT!

Max: 8 months old

My little buggy is already 2/3 of the way done with his first year. Boo. He's going to be running before we even have a chance to blink. Right now he's a rolling (and rolly) machine. His first tooth finally broke through about 2 weeks ago and I can tell the next-door neighbor is about to make it's debut too. He is such a happy little guy, but is starting to show us a small attitude in there. We get some tantrums when we take something away that he really wants, usually a remote control right now. What was our life like before we knew him? I can't really remember :)

I got a shot of the tooth!

He makes me melt a little...

And the ritualistic toe shot.

This one was from last week and I forgot to post it here. He is really starting to talk and blow bubbles. We've had TONS of "mama"s in the last week. YIPPEE! I just loved this capture!

Cripple Creek

We took a drive up to Cripple Creek in the mountains on Thanksgiving weekend. I was planning on getting a photo of the boys together for our Christmas card while we were there. I loved this one and would have used it,  but a card just never ended up happening at all. Oops. The photo is still adorable though!

Thanksgiving: 2011

I got behind on photos in the last months of 2011. Here are a few photos we took before dinner on Thanksgiving. I wanted a photo of the boys together so Carson gave us one and then took off. We still have Max though!

To put Max's size in perspective.... Max is wearing an outfit here at 5 months that Carson wore on his firsts Easter at 11 months old.

New old toys and Jeeps

I kept the baby toys that were still in good shape from Carson and have been able to start pulling stuff out for Max. He loves this music stage. It is meant to bang on so it's perfect for him because he seems to try to hit everything. Those little fists get going and it builds him up to get a little crazy. He is sitting up on his own, but still randomly throws his head backward and goes down. We don't quite trust him to be alone like this just yet. The doctor said the bigger babies usually take longer to sit up, probably because there is just more baby to hold.

Carson sees my camera come out and he gets his to join right in. This thing doesn't take great photos, but it lets him feel like he is doing something with me. We took pictures of each other taking pictures here.

That afternoon we headed to Carl's Jeep club meetup. Ours is the white on on the bottom left of the photo. There was one other little boy there (named Max) so Carson had someone to run around with and then watch cartoons with while the grown ups were socializing. He has cameras with me and Jeeps with his dad.

After we left Carson still had a ton of energy so we stopped at "Chick Play" (that means Chick-fil-A in our house). We had been outside with the Jeeps so I put Max in this warm outfit that day. I bought it a while ago because it was on clearance and 12-18 month size. I folded the arms and legs once and it fit like a glove! He's just so big all around, not even only in length!

I already posted Max's Sunday photo from being 7 months old. I found this outtake that I had to share though. Any idea what was happening with this face??????? :)