I'm Back...Aren't You Happy?

The day after Easter the kids and I left Reno for a change of scenery and some fun before I started my new job. We went to Santa Cruz California for 4 days!

Monday, after we got to my dad's house we drove down to Capitola Beach and played in the surf before dinner. Mr. Butler totally loves the beach and ocean! After dinner we drove past the Santa Cruz lighthouse and the darkened Boardwalk (it was closed).

Tuesday, my Dad's lady friend, Sally, got us tickets to the Boardwalk. The day was super windy and a bit cold, but we had a ton of fun. My kids now love the boardwalk as much as I always have. Mr. Butler is my adrenaline junky. He went on the log flume ride all by himself, and went with me on the not wooden roller coaster. I went on the ferris wheel with Louie Blue and decided I do not like ferris wheels. Big A loved the dinosaur train ride (of course). I can't wait to go back!

Wednesday, we went to the Seymor Marine Research lab at UC Santa Cruz ang got to play with the star fish and sea annenomes and see the two bottle nose dolphins. I love dolphins, by the way! It was again very windy and colder than Tuesday so we didn't get to see the tropical birds and it was maiting season for the elephant seals so we couldn' see them either for obvious reasons...Later in the day, we took a picnic lunch and went to the beach in Aptos and walked out on the peir to the cement boat.

Thursday we spent the entire day playing in the sand and surf at Capitola beach. The wind was finally gone and it had warmed up, but the water was fridgid, so Mr. Butler was the only one who really played in it. We got to play in the tide pools, collected lots of shells and rocks, got sand in places sand should never be, and got sun burned beyond belief. It was great!

Sadly, we came home Friday. But, that night was 80's Bunco, which I wore things that were actually from the 80's, and I won with the most wins! Even with my serious sun burn, I had so much fun!

I started my new job on the 20th and I just love it.

The 2 little ones are enjoying baseball still. Louie Blue got her first two hits of the season on Saturday and got game ball. She's not very good, but she's having fun, and that's what's important!

J is working on wood bases for our taxidermist and keeping busy with it and making money to boot! He enjoys it and he does very nice work!

I have over 200 pictures from Easter and Spring break, but my home computer is just about out of memory, so I can't downoad my camera disk. Hopefully soon! Actually as soon as I have some extra time, but what's that?!

Sorry this post is long, but now you're mostly caught up!