Santa Cruz Beach Vacay. Final Day & Monterey.

On Friday, we had to be out of the house by 10:00am. The photographer was sweet enough to set up a photo viewing at 10:45 for my Mother-In-Law & I. After packing up everything, double checking the house, & saying goodbye's to everyone, we caravanned over to the appointment.

Annie, our photographer, told us about this little bakery next door. We were quite early so we stopped in & got a very delicious breakfast. This place was swarming with people. TOTALLY.PACKED! All 3 of us got the frittata, potatoes, & blueberry muffin {which the kiddos ate} & ate outside in the lovely weather.

*side note* I happen to love the name of this bakery, Buttery. How fitting!

We had our viewing, which was amazing. Annie, is a fantastic photographer. I knew she would be. When searching for someone in the Santa Cruz area, a big part of my decision was based on their website. Since I was out of town, all I had to go by is what I could see on their site & I was truly impressed with hers. It also helped that she had won some great awards.

She didn't rush us on time & I am so glad we went in to see the photos on the big projector screen. It helped to see everyone's faces so clearly & make decisions on the prints that we would be ordering. Annie was so helpful in showing us different options on how to display them on the wall, etc. We definitely walked away happy.

I departed from my in-laws & made the drive up to Monterey, just me & the littles (Bra was at work & would be driving back 3 hours to meet us in the evening). It took a little less than an hour & I have to admit I was a bit nervous about the drive, checking in to the hotel, finding something to keep these munchkins busy, etc. I have never been to Monterey, so I was unfamiliar with the area.

 We arrive at the hotel & checked in & had the bell hop service help with our luggage. Once we were all settled in, I let Reago & Jax play outside on the deck in the sand with buckets & shovels. The hotel was directly on the beach & the view of crashing waves was gorgeous.

Eventually, I got brave & decided to take the kiddos down to the Old Fisherman's Wharf. We had a good time checking out the little shops & strolling past all of the yummy food stands/restaurants. There were a couple of cute candy shops & after we ate a very so-so early dinner, we stopped back at one to grab so caramel popcorn for a treat.

Earlier, I had let Reagan pick out a special bath fizz packet from the lobby store. Come to find out, our room only had a shower. Now, that was interesting/fun.... ALL three of us in the shower. Everyone was clean & that meant we were stuck in for the night. Having 2 kids trapped in a hotel room = chaos! There was lots of jumping on the bed, playing baby Jesus with the long round pillow & luggage stand (obviously a perfect manger), {kid} movie watching, etc. Braden arrived sometime after 8:00 & I was so glad to see him. Happy to have our family of 4 back together & complete.

And, if you are lost as to why we were in Monterey... The next day we would be attending my college {Azusa Pacific} roommate, of 2 years, STUNNING wedding in Carmel.

Santa Cruz Beach Vacay. Day 7.

Thursday

A mid morning popcorn snack :)

The girls antagonizing Uncle Rob

Grammy had one more special surprise planned for the kiddos. She buried a sack of treasure for each of them with X marking the spot. The treasure "chests" were filled with silver half dollar coins, gold $0.50 coins, candy, bubble, & other little treats. So cute!!

Our little family took one more last trip down town where we ate lunch at a darling hopping Deli. We enjoyed our delicious subs out on the patio in the fantastic weather. After, I strolled a few more stores with Jax while Reago & Daddy read at the bookstore. I had to stop in at the candy shop {for a bribe} & get Jax a shark fin sucker. This kept him quiet for a little while. 

We came back to the house & everyone {minus me} took naps. My sweet boy woke up crying so I scooped him up & he quickly fell back asleep in my arms for a LONG.TIME.

Unfortunately, Braden got called to work the next day. So we had to go pick up a rental car for him in the evening to drive back home in the morning. When we came back, we met everyone down at the beach.

The guys had a good time burying Sam in the sand & giving him a couple of accessories.

My bubba had a meltdown... I think he got hit by a little wave or something??, I don't quite remember. What I do remember is that HE.WAS.NOT.HAPPY. I bundled him up so we could snuggle & keep warm from the chilly breeze. He calmed down & I took him out of the towel. And, then what does he do.... he tripped in a big whole right next to us & the meltdown started ALL over...

That meant more Mommy cuddles :)