California part two

We met up with our family on Tuesday at Asilomar Conference Grounds which is on the ocean next to Monterey. It is the perfect spot for family reunions because the rooms are spacious and each group of rooms has their own central meeting area. Asilomar is famous for their wonderful food and they definitely lived up to their reputation. All we had to do was show up at the dining hall and voila (!) the meals were served.

Of course, the most important reason that we got together was to celebrate my grandfather’s 90th birthday, but in our family we have several August birthdays as well: My brother is the 20th, my sister is the 24th, my grandmother is the 27th and I am the 23rd. So we had a big cake for grandfather and a small cake for the rest of us. We had plenty of cake! But forget the cake…the best part was spending some time with so many wonderful people!!

A HUGE THANKS to Dianne who did a beautiful job coordinating this event!


Happy Birthday dear Grandfather “Gijo”!!
(I know what you're thinking...there is no possible way that he could be 90 years old. Doesn’t he look AMAZING?!? I'm pretty sure that with all of my grandparents' world travels that they must have found the fountain of youth.)
Here is my beautiful Grandmother in one of the necklaces she made out of Fimo clay.
Baxter spends some fun time with Grandmother “Gigi”.
My sweetheart sister, Josie, and Gigi.
Fun with Cousins Johnny and Anna and their pop, Uncle Otto.
My adorable nephew, Jon, wondering who’s behind that GIANT camera.
My brother, Loren, sister-in-law, Terri, and my doggie niece, KD, arrive in their super cute Mini Cooper.
We spent a day visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was AWESOME!!
How bizarre is this giant sunfish? The first one I saw was lying as flat as a pancake on the bottom of the tank and I thought he must have died. Then suddenly he straightened up and started swimming around. Crazy!
Aren’t these jellyfish amazing?
Oodles of cool jellyfish!
I love this photo of my brother “Waddy” and Terri.
Dianne, aka “Honey”, with the kiddos.
Sometimes when I point the camera in the kids’ direction, I am received with “the look”. Waddy and Terri decided they would give me “the look” too. (Read below about the sign this photo was taken in front of!)
After reading my Grandmother's blog, I realized that this is the sign that she designed when she was a little girl. Read HERE for the story!
Because I didn't take a photo of the whole sign, I stole this image from “webshots" and wish I could give credit to the photographer, but there was no name attached.
I took this photo through the big windows of the dining hall. A minute later, with a mouth full of strawberry shortcake, I spied him swooping down, grabbing his prey and taking off. I guess we both had dessert!
The boardwalk at Asilomar.
Anna is so cute!
My cousin Byron and I grabbed some nice photos of the setting sun.
Lovely Aunt Kristin in the golden light of the setting sun.
Kristin and her daughter, Anna.
Uncle Otto looks so regal in this photo.
I was wishing a bird would fly past this tree…and it did!
The Smith family is full of amazing musicians, so when they get together it is very lively and entertaining!
Baxter moved quickly from the penny whistle to Aunt Kristin’s violin. She is a wonderful teacher!
My sister had the great idea to bring fabric markers and t-shirts for the kids so that all the family could sign and doodle on them. Cousin Byron went over top with his rendition of this surfer he photographed an hour earlier. Summer was thrilled!
I LOVE my Grandmother's hands!!
My gorgeous Grandparents!
I had to save my very favorite photo for last...


I think I broke my own record for the longest post of all times. Congratulations to any of you who made it all the way through! :-D

Next up: weddings, weddings, and more weddings...
xoxo