Halloween in La Mesa!

Getting ready!

Waiting impatiently!
I miss you all in Japan! I couldn't stop thinking about our times together on Halloween night! Tonight we had a good time meeting new neighbors and seeing the kids buzz with excitement. Tiffany wore her Kimono, David was an Alien, Austin was a werewolf and Shelby was a pirate.
The other day the kids were talking about how they wanted to add to our decorations in the front of our house. I gave them some empty cardboard boxes and some tape to see what they would come up with. They told me they had made a coffin and they wanted me to come look at it. I was busy at the time and couldn't get a minute to peek at it. By the time I saw it it was about five days later. They had it propped up against the wall in the back yard. I expected it to look like a mess because they were complaining that the tape wasn't sticking very well and at the time things weren't working out with it. I was shocked when I saw it for the first time. It was great! It was even more amazing when they painted it. All four of them made this thing all by themselves. They worked as a team and got it done! Me & Tiffy. Like my HAT?My Husband. Creepy!David, Tiffy and Austin at our house ready to go!

Shelby and her friend Courtney

Seventeen Mile Drive

This is for my friends in Japan. This is the 7-11 convenience store in the United States just like the 7-11 in Japan. Except the Japanese 7-11's are so much better! When I was in Japan I used to love to go there to get my sushi. We stopped at this one in Monterey before taking the Seventeen Mile drive around the Monterey Bay peninsula. To my surprise we found sushi!!! I didn't buy any though. It just didn't look as good as the Japanese! My husband is standing at the coffee bar. We do like the coffee bar though! They sell different types of coffees and everything you can think of to put in your coffee. The kids like the Slurpee's they sell. They are flavored shaved ice drinks. The Seventeen Mile drive has 21 stops along the way(Points of interest). Here are pictures of just a few of them. It costs $9.25 to get in the gate. We definitely will be back to go to Pebble Beach again. It is sooo Beautiful!!

The Seventeen Mile Drive
Bird Rock Area

Cypress Point Lookout

Shepherd's Knoll

Coyote Lake & Big Sur Camping Trip

Coyote Lake

We started out Friday heading to Gilroy to go camping at Coyote Lake. We were supposed to stay two nights and leave Sunday afternoon. We arrived at our site and started to set up camp. The wind was too much! We wound up ripping our screened in tent we use to eat in. We did manage to set up our sleeping tent. Because of the wind they weren't allowing open fires which made all of us very disappointed. The lake was very pretty but not much for the kids to do in the cold wind. I think we would have not set up our things if it weren't for the couple we were supposed to meet the next night. It was one of David's friends from his work. His friend and his family were going to camp with us the following night. We made it through the night of sleeping in our tent but I swear it had to be under 30 degrees because the next morning we woke up and went to the van and our van read 39 degrees outside and that was after it had warmed up a lot! Around 11am. I said to David we need to make a decision here. Are we going to stay and suffer another night or are we going to drive south to Big Sur and try to camp there. We packed everything up in an hour and drove 100 miles south to beautiful Big Sur campground. We were so happy we did! It was so amazing! The drive is spectacular and the campground was so much fun! They had one last campsite opened and we all thought it was the most beautiful! We were allowed to make a fire and our site was encircled by huge redwood trees. Some of them you can walk into the trunks. Our site was right next to the great playground they had. The campground has a river you can tube down. They rent the tubes. We wound up spending three days and two nights there. The weather was great, not to cold at night and during the day it was warm. We are definately coming back!

The drive to Big Sur Campground

Big Sur Campground

The beautiful trees!

Our Tent

Our new Truck

Playground