More PB Pics

Eric & the kids took me out for a fancy dinner for my birthday, on our last night in Pebble Beach at Roy's at the Inn at Spanish Bay. We were so proud of how well the kids behaved. Outside of the restaurant they have a bench with a statue of a little girl & an old man. The kids got quite a kick out of this bench:



The girls enjoying some coloring while waiting for their dinner:


Alana standing in front of her favorite car at the restaurant:

Josiah & Alexa enjoying checking out all the cool cars at the Carmel Car Show. Although it looks like they are saying, "You may have a cool car, but have you seen my pimpin wagon?"

Alexa showing daddy some love at the Car Show Parade:

All ready to watch the Car Parade:

We took a drive to Julia Pfeifer State Park and hiked to the waterfall and overlook:


The kids LOVE any moving ride! So, we try to get our money's worth & squeeze them all into the same one. :)

Pebble Beach Vacation 2011

Our family vacation this year was to sunny Pebble Beach in August. To all of you familiar with Monterey/Pebble Beach area in summertime...it's usually NOT sunny! So, we brought plenty of long sleeves & jackets and headed to the beach. It was quite a lot a fun & very relaxing. We rented a house, which the kids quickly named the "vacation house". We spent 10 days just relaxing & enjoying the sites (as relaxing as you can get with 3 year old triplets, anyway). Here are a few of some pics:

The night before our departure the kids helped us pack up everything we own into the back of our truck:

Josiah being the "big" brother that he is & pulling his sisters in the wagon at Fisherman's Wharf:

Chilling in a tree:

Our first beach adventure (and yes, the sun was out!). Everytime the sun even peaked out for a few minutes we literally ran to the beach.



Alexa finally decided that the big scary noisy ocean was okay...for at least a minute...

Post beach feet clean-up:

Alana truly "relaxing" at the Carmel Beach (she's a girl after my own heart):

Josiah & Alexa helping daddy build a sand tunnel:

Porsche, Ferrari, Benz or Rolls?

We took a vacation trip to Monterey during what is called car week. I have been practicing with the kids on how to identify a Porsche and some other sports cars. On Thursday night we went out as a family to Roy's at the Inn at Spanish Bay. The kids were awesome during and after a top notch dinner. After dinner we relaxed in the lobby and took a trip out to the front of the hotel to check out the "lineup" which consisted of an Aston Martin, 3 Rolls, 2 Bentleys, a couple Ferrari's, a Porsche GT and a trio of Jaguars. Here are the kids with each of there favorite cars:

The minivan pulling away from the valet. I am sure some dirt particles jumped off our hooptie and landed on some of the super nice vehicles...



Alana and her Carrera GT


Josiah and his red Ferrari with white stripe


Alana with a 60's or 70's era Rolls Royce


Alexa with her white Ferrari with a red stripe

Bart Train

We took a ride to San Francisco around St Paddy's day. One of my friends from Colorado was in SF for a conference and I wanted to visit him. We talked and he mentioned that there was going to be a parade. In all of about 30 minutes we decided to take the kids to the parade and were out the door. Spontaneous fun at its best!

We have been meaning to take Bart Downtown and this was a perfect day take the adventure. All was going smoothly until the first stop at Rockridge. Josiah thought that the ride was over and scooted off his seat and ran for the door. He made it all the way down the aisle to the door before I caught him. Truly, he was just too excited to realize that this was a big adventure and not just a short ride.

We got downtown and ate lunch "under the dome" at the SF Centre Mall which is one of my favorite places that we went to a few years back.


Later, we watched fire trucks, marching bands, horse and motorcycles on the parade route. At one point, I think Rebecca was more excited about the parade than the kids were.

We then landed on the train for our journey home. Sleepy but happy.

Good Friday Part II: Potty Training Success

We had a pivotal moment on Friday! If you ask any of the kids what they get if they go potty in the potty chair, they will say an M&M. Little do they know that it is a mini M&M, you know the really small ones that are about 1/10th the size of a real M&M. Then you ask what they get if they go poo poo and they say, "Go for ride in Daddy's new truck." We convinced Josiah to sit on the chair as it appeared that he was getting ready for some business. I left him in the bathroom and checked on him about 10 minutes later. I said, "Are you done?" and he responded, "No, I still trying." After another 10 minutes, I checked and sure enough he had done some Serious business. I have pictures to prove it but will withhold for future blackmail purposes.


Can you tell that he was excited to take a ride!


Three M&M's later he was on cloud nine and after his nap I took him for a ride to the grocery store. It is downright amazing the excitement of a ride in the truck. The girls were completely distraught and we tried to explain that they needed to go poo poo in the potty. Alana looked at Rebecca with the sweetest puppy dog eyes and said, "But, I go pee pee." Later that night we caved and took the whole family out for a ride.

A very Good Friday: Hiking Briones

Since we moved about a year ago we have come to appreciate the vast open space less than a mile away from our house. With the day off on Good Friday, we had no plans which is a good way to guarantee a ton of fun.

We decided to take a hike and do a picnic. The hike entailed hopping across a stream and a climb up a big muddy mountain. Good news was that we were all smiles at one point or another. I didn't get any pictures of the highlight which was getting up close to some ducks in the reservoir.



The view from our picnic site

Mommy with her girls

Josiah after the duck sighting

Josiah and Alexa walking to go and see the ducks

Random shots

I just came across some pictures of the kids from when we had our "professional" pictures taken. These were taken just after. We were trying to get the kids to pose for us so that we wouldn't have to buy as many of the professional ones (can't blame us for at least trying to save a few bucks). But, we weren't super successful. The kids were tired of us trying to take their pictures!

We love our daddy!

The kids LOVE their daddy! They all like to put on his shoes and anything that is his. Josiah, recently, put on Eric's bike helmet & shoes. He really, really can't wait to go on a bike ride with daddy. We also got some cute, random shots of the the kids with Eric that I thought I'd share...

Potty Training

I will be the first to admit that I have been procrastinating like crazy when it comes to the whole potty training thing. The last thing in the world I want to do is teach 3 little people to all use the potty at the same time...ughhh! But, I think the time has finally come and I can procrastinate no longer. The girls are super excited to start wearing "big girl undies" and would literally sit all day long on the potty if I let them. Josiah, on the other hand, is excited to "sit" on the potty but has yet to be too excited about actually doing any business. So, we are still very much in the beginning stages of this whole potty training adventure, but I had to at least share some funny pictures we took of the girls enjoying some reading...

Misses Fix-it

We got the kids some "tools" for Christmas and they all love them. One of the things I love about having girls & boys at the same time is that we buy both girl and boy toys for them all. Then, they have the choice of playing with either (baby doll & stroller vs. tools). I love the fact that the girls love to play with the tools & Josiah's favorite toy, by far, is the kitchen (yeah, for guys that love to cook!). :)