Getting back to normal

The excitement of the holidays is finally over. We end up with a busy few weeks. Not only is there Christmas and New Year's, Jordan's birthday falls on the 3rd. Then it takes a few days to get the house back in order and the kids back on schedule. They did not want to go back this year and I can't say I blame them! After two 3 day weekends, I was dreading working five full days in a row!
We did get a really rare day last week with all of us home together on New Year's day. We decided to head down to Monterey Bay and I am so glad we did. It was a gorgeous day there while there was fog and rain back here at home.
We stopped first at the Butterfly Gardens in Pacific Grove.

You can see the clumps of butterfly's here.

This is Mike and the kids on the Butterfly bench, last time we were here was Feb. 3 years ago. I can't believe the kids have gotten so big!

Just before sunset at Asilomar State beach. I love the beaches here, we always find great shell treasures so I will be working on making some pieces as soon as I get a bead reamer to put holes in my shells.

Dinner at Bubba Gump's. This is how you get the waiters attention. We had them sing Happy Birthday to Jordan, she got so embarrassed she hid her head under the table.

And the birthday girl at her party with her chocolate chocolate cake.
I did get one beaded item done.

I didn't have the colors I wanted but wanting to make him out weighed going to the store yesterday so here he is in multiple shades of blue and green. You can find the pattern here. 3d beading
Now is the countdown to MLK Jr day. We are all off that day too so I am looking forward to another trip to Monterey. And I have a week off in Feb. for President's day week. The kids are off all week so I am going take my Birthday holiday that week so we can go spend a few days in Monterey.
We are barely over an hour away and we never go. It's a shame because it is my favorite place to be. I may do some job hunting while we are there. I would love to move. But until then, we plan to go way more often.