Asilomar-by-the-sea

There was this old expression for a particular stretch of coastline that is near and dear to me: "Carmel-by-the-sea, Pacific Grove by God, Monterey by the smell." I don't know why I'm sharing that with you, except that it makes me giggle every time I think of it. This past week we got our fill of all three, but mostly Pacific Grove, since Danny's big Eco-Farm conference was held there at the Asilomar conference center we love so much. We love it so much we stayed at Aunt Annette's house instead, to save $500. (But then once the conference was over, their rates came way down and we actually stayed the night afterwards. Go figure.)

This was our first week with Lauren as our sole nanny, and it worked out beautifully. One of the many perks of keeping your childcare in the family is that you can go hang out with family and bring your childcare with you and it's fun for them, too! While Danny did his board-member conference hobnobbing and I attended a few sessions and got a lot of work done, Lauren and Annette took Jack to the beach, the library, the museum (where Jack purportedly named every dinosaur in the place), the park, the thrift store (to buy Jack a jacket because mommy somehow forgot to bring one), and went to the foot spa together while he was napping, to recover from all that chasing after him. And then I would take him to Lovers Point and we would watch the waves and the kelp and an occasional seal or sea otter or scuba diver, which he would get very excited about and not want to leave until dark. He would not want to leave even at dark, but that's when I put my foot down.

(Not bad for an iphone, huh?)

Of course I forgot to take a photo of Jack with his Lo-lo while she was around, which is really unfair because there is very little photographic evidence of her very pronounced presence in his life, so I will have to try to do better in the future. But I did get some sweet ones with Annette.

He gives such good hugs now!

After that most pleasant week, I met up with my old Tasmanian/Minnesotan friends (Minnesotans I met in Tasmania) for a very mini bachelorette party, since I won't be able to make the real bachelorette party because I'm bringing my own little bachelorette into the world. We booked our rooms at Asilomar, and they didn't even mind that we had some boys tagging along for some of it. They are two very cute boys, after all.

Melissa was kind enough to take some maternity photos for me, since I didn't really have any of my baby bump this time around. I always swore to myself, as a second child, that this second child would not get stiffed on anything that her older brother got as a first child, but I'm already falling down on the job. She's not getting a shower, either. Poor Sadie! Maybe we'll throw you a Welcome to the Party party instead, once you join us.  Both Melissa and Sara doted on Jack and he pretty much adored them right back. Sara spun him around and around so much one night that he started calling her "Dizzy." Dizzy and Mizzy.

It was a great week on the coast. A calm before the storm. Which it turned out we really needed because it was one hell of a storm. (Which I will write about in the next post, but I'm too tired now so it's going to have to wait a little longer.)