Since Josh is going to be traveling a lot in the next couple weeks, we decided to take a little vacation as a family. We drove about 6 1/2 hours to Monterey, California. There is a Postgraduate Naval School there so we stayed on base at the Inns & Suites. Everything on base, and in Monterey for that matter, was amazingly beautiful. We got two full days to enjoy the sites and thanks to my friend Grace, who used to live there, we got the best recommendations on what to do!
Our first day we spent the morning at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Josh and I knew Ava would love it, but boy did she ever love it! She is still talking about it. It was kind of crowded, but well worth it. The set up was amazing! After eating lunch at a great pub on Cannery Row, we drove over to Pacific Grove to see the Monarch Grove Butterfly Sanctuary. There weren't as many butterflies as we had hoped, but there were a couple clumps hanging from one of the trees. It was still pretty cool and I got a couple good pictures. After the Sanctuary, we knew Ava would fall asleep in the car so we decided to go ahead and do the 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach. It was really cool seeing the Pebble Beach golf course and all the beautiful homes and ocean views.






















Our second day was spent on a hike around Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Our plan was to just do a little 2 mile hike but we ended up hiking the majority of the reserve, which was about 4 or so miles. The weather was so beautiful and Ava was enjoying the backpack ride so we just kept going. I was pretty sore the next day but it was well worth it!