Best week ever!

I need to preface this post with the fact that Gordon has been traveling to China A LOT this year, and had a ton of Hyatt points saved up.  So, we were able to get away for 8 days with only taking 3 days off (he has been gone for 3 holidays this year) and without paying anything for hotels.  

Having said that, we lived it up this week!!!  We planned out a coastal vacation and just visited some of the spots where the Hyatt's were close and had a blast as a family.  Spencer was great the whole time, slept in past 8:30 almost every morning, (I think we wore him out most days!) and was a real trooper in the car. 

This was the week prior to our trip.  Daddy gave Spence a much needed hair cut.  Lookin' good, kid!

Thank you again, Pinterest.  We created this spider web in the living room out of painters tape.  You put cut outs of ghosts on the corners and you have to walk on the lines, stepping over the ghosts and collecting cut outs of spiders that are inside the boxes.  If you step off the line or onto a spider or ghost you are out.  We had lots of fun.  

We went swimming with brown haired Jack who is back from his LONG trip!!!  We sure missed him (and his Mommy) and had lots of fun catching up before we left for our trip.  The boys had a blast swimming at their pool!  Jack is a little fish!  And his influence helped Spencer to take off his floaty while we were on vacation.  Now Spencer can swim about 5-6 feet on his own and has no fear of going under water.  We are so proud!!!

These boys are so cute together. 

Okay.  

On the road. 

First stop, Santa Barbara zoo!

Mommy and Daddy at the zoo.  

Spencer was being grumpy and wouldn't smile for the picture. 

"Look at these giraffes, Mom!"

We fit right in there.  :)

We stayed for two nights in Santa Barbara.  First day was the zoo. 

Our second day there was a Sunday and we just slept in, ate good food, swam at the pool and walked around town.  It was a great rest day!

Monday, it was on to Carmel.  

We stayed in an AWESOME hotel right by the water.  This is our view out the window.  

The pool was nice and warm and we spent lots of time in it after our hike.  Which you'll read more about later.  :)

The first night we found a GREAT French/Italian restaurant 

Point Lobos National Park

This place had GREAT family friendly hiking trails that went right along the coast.  There were spots to stop and look for sea lions and places to just sit and admire the water (and rest your pregnant belly).  :)

The boys found tons of little pools in the cracks of these huge rocks that were filled with tiny crabs.  They tried catching a few (Gordon did, Spencer was not excited to get his hands dirty on the crabs) but to no avail.  They were sure cute looking at them, though.

Lots of good photo ops.  

My silly boy.

And Spencer took a nice picture of us!

Little blooming photographer. 

Eating our sandwiches on a bench along the trail. 

Spencer did not want his picture taken. 

Hence the hand in the face. 

ha.

We hiked down a steep hill to this rocky beach where we spent about a half hour throwing rocks in the water and cooling off our feet in the COLD water!

We found some nice girls that were taking pictures by the water who offered to take our family shot.  It was so gorgeous there!!!

On to Monterey.  

This was our room there (or more like suite!)

Spencer had his own front room and TV (which he was a little protective of, ha) and we had our own space.  Also our doors opened right out to the courtyard where you could walk right out to the pool. 

It was awesome!

We re-visited the Monterey Aquarium and had a blast.  Spencer loved looking at all of the exhibits and we had a great time.  We ate some lunch right there on the wharf and had fun walking by all of the cute shops.  Later on, we hit up the pool and enjoyed a relaxing evening! 

The next day we came home for a night because we had our ultrasound and found out .... 

we 

are

having

another boy!!!!!!

We are super excited to add another cute boy to our family.  Spencer was pretty set on having a baby sister, but he is coming around to the idea of having a baby brother and says he will teach him how to play soccer and football and "everything else".  :)

When we were home for a night, Gordon and Spencer took a walk and enjoyed watching a baseball game at the field near our park down the street.  I got this picture on my phone where I was relaxing on the couch. 

Love vacation.

After the ultrasound, we visited the jelly belly factory on our way up to San Francisco.  

The tour was really neat and it was a fun place to go!

We stayed in a high rise Hyatt right in the heart of the financial district in downtown San Francisco and this was teh iew from our window.  It was awesome!!!

The view looking up from the lobby downstairs.

The cool glass elevators.

All of Gordon's travel has made him an executive member of Hyatt (ooo la la, fun for our trips - but we still wish he didn't have to travel so much!)

so that gave us access to the lounges where they have free snacks and dessert and food all. day. long. 

Our favorite place in this Hyatt was the lounge upstairs.  It had 360 degree views of the city at the very top of the hotel (18th floor) and they had board games you could check out to play, so we had fun going up in the evenings before bed to play and relax and eat some free dessert.  :)

More views from our window.

Spencer and Gordon did a tour of this old battleship (I don't remember the name of it) that is on part of pier 39 near Fisherman's Wharf.  I am not a fan of tight spaces, so I opted out - but they had a good time while I wandered the streets and checked out the cute shops. 

Afterward, we walked to Boudin and had clam chowder in bread bowls.  SOO good.

And walked along the wharf ...

and visited our pirate friends, and played on the beach in the sand. 

Then we walked up to Ghiardelli square for an ice cream to share and we took a street car ride.  Spencer loved it! 

We really enjoyed wandering around the city.  

We took a taxi because Spencer LOVES taxis and he loves them even more now. 

I had never been in a taxi before, and I'd be happy if I never have to again.  Talk about crazy driving!!!

Overall, a fantastic trip and soooo nice to just be together and enjoy things on our own time.  We saw everything we wanted to see and got to rest and relax and laugh a lot.  All things we love. :)