My mom and I took the kids up to visit my sister Lisa. About time too, I have never been to her house before and I was excited to see it and explore the area where she has lived for so long. She lives near Monterey and it is so beautiful! Lots of rolling hills, forests, and of course the beach!
My sister plays in a military band, and since my kids love music she invited us to come see them perform. Oliver was SOOO excited, he wouldn’t let us leave before the very end. He was entranced by every song.
Elora likes music too, but she also enjoys being a goober.
Here are the kids posing with Lisa. Jessie is pretending to play Lisa’s horn. They sounded really great and played some fun songs from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Oliver loved every song. And Elora loves Auntie Lisa. And Jessie got to miss some school. So it was a great outing for everyone!
Here we are inside the ballroom at the hotel on the grounds of the Naval Post graduate School. That is where the concert was held.
Next we went to the Monterey Aquarium. The kids really loved all the jellyfish displays.
More jellyfish! Elora got really excited and starting talking about finding Nemo and about how the jellyfish will sting you. She gets pretty happy about animals that have the potential to hurt people really badly. I am not sure if this is a good sign…
The aquarium is right on the beach, so there are some beautiful views from different balconies outside the aquarium. The kids liked looking down at the water and trying to spot fish and birds.
There was a cute kids play area that taught about whales and walruses. Super fun interactive exhibits.
Oliver climbing through the blubber tunnel!
Jessie trying on her whale tail.
I enjoyed the fact that the aquarium also had this exhibit on cows, manure, and power. 
These are crazy looking seahorses.
Elora liked the area where you could pet and pick up starfish. She was very… enthusiastic and had to be reminded about 50 times to be careful with the starfish. She’s that kid who would probably end up throwing starfish if you forgot to remind her they are alive and you have to be gentle.
They had stations where the kids could stamp their own bookmarks with different sea creature stamps. A big hit with Elora because it made pretty pictures. A great hit with Oliver because you got to push lots of buttons.
Another fun play area. I promise, they really were excited… just not about me pausing their playtime for a photo-op.
And my favorite part of the day was these special toilets. Very interesting. I have never seen a water saving public toilet before.
