Fourth of July trip to Monterey

We took a quick trip to Monterey with a lot of my family for the 4th of July. The ocean house was packed, but we had a lot of fun and got to do some things that we've never done before in the Monterey area. 

A whole bunch of my family waiting for the Monterey 4th of July parade... on the ground: Hilary and Michael, Kevin, Belle, grandpa and grandma Bromley, Owen and Becca. My mom, dad, and Matt are standing behind.

Girls in our 4th of July gear!

Becca lent Owen her sunglasses and helped him plug his ears when the firetrucks got too noisy. :)

This little girl didn't like the firetrucks either.

Cutie kids. :)

My dad, Owen, and Becca outside the hall where California's constitution was written. Owen got that cool octopus from the fair we were at.

There was a cool truck that drove through the parade that unloaded a whole bunch of kids' games at the end of the road. Owen loved playing plinko!

Owen named his octopus Owen... because they both start with "O". Funny kid.

4th of July cutie.

A little blurry, but I can't get enough of this cute face!

Nora LOVES Matt, and always gives him huge smiles.

My cute dad.

Becca and mom.

4th of July family picture!

Later on that week, my family took a tour of one of the farms in the Salinas valley. We got to see their animals...

...and their crew of Mexicans picking celery.

Owen and Madeline standing by one of the fields. The farm was partly organic, so they use flowers (like the marigolds here) to keep away pests. 

Owen next to the huge paintings of farm hands that can be seen from the freeway. I've seen these many times from the road; it was fun to see them in person and hear the stories behind them.

At the end of the tour we got to pick and eat fresh strawberries from their fields!

Dad, Madeline, Owen, mom, and Kevin.

Owen and me in front of the farm store.

We also took a hike through Elkhorn Slough, which is a wetlands preservation area. This is in front of the remains of an old barn from a dairy operation that used to be here.

The rangers gave Owen his own pair of kid-size binoculars to use while we were there. He pretty much didn't take these off of his eyes the whole time. :)

We saw and heard lots of neat birds and found some cool crabs while we were there.

Owen checking out the displays.

While we were in Monterey Owen and I went on a mommy-son date to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was great to be able to spend some one-on-one time with him. We saw the Deep Sea exhibit's large tank, which has been closed for renovation for a while after one of the sea turtles was discovered eating the tiles from the wall. This school of fish has over 16,000 individual fish in it. We got to watch them being fed. It was pretty awesome!

Crazy kid in front of the tank.

And more craziness. :)

Waiting in the wave tunnel for the water to come crashing down.

One word: eyebrows.

Aaaaand.... this is the only picture that I have of the two of us from this day. What a nut. :)