Benefits

Sometimes being in the military stinks. 

Like when they take your husband away for months at a time.

And other times it's really great. 

Like when you get to live in a practically new, really huge house.

Or

When they throw you an outrageous Christmas party in the park near your house.

I'm not kidding, it was insane.

There were ponies.

And pizza.

And a bounce house.

And games.

And prizes.

And Santa.

And snow.

Yeah, they brought in snow.

And an entire petting zoo.

And of course I didn't take any pictures.

(Leave me alone. Ty wasn't there and I had to keep track of two boys in a giant crowd.)

The boys had such a great time. Jay especially loved the petting zoo. Those poor baby animals had no idea what they were in for, but they tolerated in pretty well. There was even a giant rabbit that was, no joke, nearly as big as Jay. And Jay wanted to pet it so bad, but that rabbit was not dumb and was actually quite good at evasive techniques.

We ended up waiting in line for about 30 minutes to get Leo a balloon animal. (I kept trying to get him interested in other things, but he really wanted that balloon.) And it ended up being totally worth it.

Leo was absolutely in love. He carefully carried it all the way home and he nearly cried when Jay Alvin's bear balloon blew into the bushes and popped. ("Mom, he's just going to be so sad!")

But the best part of the whole day?

Both boys slept for 4 hours after it was over.

(Wait, is he sleeping with the Thomas balloon? Of course he is.)

Visitors

We had our very first visitors this past week. Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler came and we had so much fun! They helped us get settled into our house, took us sight seeing and basically spoiled Leo and Jay so badly that they've been unbearable since grandma and grandpa left. While they were here we:

~Went to the Monarch butterfly sanctuary.

In the winter time thousands of Monarch butterflies from up north migrate to Monterey to avoid freezing to death. There are over 12,000 butterflies here right now.

Here is one of the cutest ones we saw:

 We walked all over the sanctuary and only saw four or five butterflies in the air.

 (Here's another cute one):

 All the rest of the butterflies were in a single tree. (See that stuff that looks like dead leaves? That's them. I guess they're trying to stay warm.) 

They even put butterflies on the port-o-johns.

Cute, right?

~Went to the beach.

The sandy one, the rocky cliff one and the tide pool one.

~Toured the point Pinos Lighthouse.

(It's the oldest, continually running lighthouse on the west coast.)

Jay thought it would be fun to go down the stairs all by himself.

 ~Played SkipBo almost continuously.

Seriously, it got to where you couldn't even remember if you'd won or not because all the hands ran together.

~Sat on Santa's lap.

(Against our will, apparently.)

 We asked Leo what he was going to tell Santa he wanted for Christmas.

His response?

"Candy."

And would you believe that Santa granted his request immediately?
Leo held onto that little candy cane for two days before he ate it.

~Took lots of naps.

 (Naps were not limited to little boys either.

We don't discriminate like that around here.)

 

~Went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.* 

Twice.

It really is as good as people say it is.

Leo could sit at the Open Ocean tank for hours and be completely entertained.

~Went back to the Choo-Choo train park.

~And just had an all-around good time.

Come back guys! We miss you already!

*We got an annual passport to the aquarium that comes with 2 reusable guest passes. That means you'll get 2 free admissions to the aquarium when you come and visit us!

You're coming soon, right?