"Winter" Fun

I know it's supposed to be Winter, but it's been so nice and warm outside it's more like Spring. We've been trying to take advantage of this beautiful weather and trying to do fun things with the kids.

Chloe's birthday weekend, we drove down to Monterey to check out the monarch butterflies with Jed's sister's family. We heard that they were migrating and were in Monterey between October and mid February, so we had to check it out. They were so beautiful in their clusters on the trees. My camera isn't that great but here's a few pictures I took. On our way out, we were able to see a couple of butterflies up close.

Here are some family pictures too. Elijah loves his cousin! As soon as her saw her he gave her a big hug and kiss. He also had fun playing in the dirt and both kids spent more time doing that then observing the butterflies around them. This was Elijah's "dirt monster" that he made.

After watching the butterflies, we headed over to the Aquarium. We've been wanting to visit it for awhile and thought this was the perfect time, especially since Elijah will be turning 3 soon and then we'll have to pay for him then. :) Ever since Chloe started walking, she hates to be up, and she loves running. It's so much fun watching her and chasing after her. It was a really fun trip, since Chloe was able to really get into it also. Some of our favorite exhibits were the sea horses, jellyfish, penguins and Elijah loved the octopus and Chloe loved the star fish. She was able to pet some and as soon as she saw that it moved and was in water she went for it, and loved every minute of it.

Later, the next week I took the kids to the zoo and to Fairy Tale Town. The kids had so much fun running around and checking out the animals. Elijah had fun pretending to be the animals and making animal sounds all day and Chloe just loved running around. She also mastered steps on this outing. :)

We took Elijah's picture the first time he went to the zoo for his first birthday, and here's his growth chart since then.

After the zoo, I took the kids across the street to Fairy Tale Town. They had more fun there. Elijah loved the boot and train, and Chloe loved the blue rabbit. She kept running over to it to pet it. She also loved to play hide and seek with the cutouts, since she was able to reach them herself.

Saturday was free museum day and we took the bus (because Elijah keeps asking to ride one) and headed downtown to the Train Museum. Elijah loved being able to touch the trains and being able to get so close to them. He also brought along one of our old phones that he plays with and tried to take pictures of everything on it (so cute to watch him!). Even Chloe seemed to love the trains and her reflection. (Every time she sees herself, she always waves and says hi)