Monterey!

The fun started at one of our favorite places -- The Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

Grandma was awesome and made us a group reservation so we got in a little early at our own entrance, which was conveniently far away from where everyone else came in.  We started with the Jellies Experience.  Talk about interactive and fun.  All of us especially loved being able to finger paint jellies and then send them up to the large screen to float in the 'ocean.' 

I don't know how many creations we each made, but since that area was still practically empty, we definitely took our time. 

That's Noah and Nate's creation on the left and Luke's "I do it myself!" creation on the right.  Love that independent spirited kid.

The next few hours were spent touching, interacting and observing all kinds of sea life. 

Noah remembered the eels from last time and was excited to find them again.  Looking back, this is a day when I definitely wish I had taken more pictures, but we were all having so much fun looking and exploring together that my hands were busy doing other things. 

We squeezed a few cousins into that clam shell for some extra cuteness.

The boys each left the aquarium with a new stuffed animal.  Noah chose a squid who, according to him, would be able to sleep in his bed and squirt ink at any enemies.  He went back and forth between naming it 'Evil' or Chloe, but ultimately settled on the first one.  And then I was reassured with, "Don't worry Mom, he's actually nice."  Luke came home with a sea turtle and wasted no time naming him Cuckoo.  Evil and Cuckoo.  I love these boys and their creativity.

 After the aquarium we drove over to Denace the Menace park.  Noah is a big fan of the bumpy slide.

 Luke was a little unsure of the suspension bridge but found lots of other places to climb and play.

We love this simple city park and it seems to be a bit of a tradition to stop there when visiting Monterey.

 After playing we met up with all of the family for dinner in Carmel and then headed back to Santa Cruz.  It was another perfect vacation day!