Marine Layer

Usually we see the marine layer coming in over the ocean in the late afternoon, but on one trip home from Santa Cruz, we saw it coming over the coastal range just north or San Juan Bautista. It was beautiful...it looked like a cozy blanket was draped over the mountain.  

Pardon the grainy photos, these were taken with my phone, through the incredibly dirty windshield, while we were driving :)

Dance Fever

One of my absolute favorite things about summer is the Concert in the Pines in Twain Harte. It is so relaxing to sit with people you love and enjoy the warm summer evenings with some good wine and good music. We started taking Adaline (here and here) when she was a baby and now Spencer is getting his turn.

He seems to like them... 

Even if it will be awhile before he fits into his chair.

Adaline has grown to love the concerts, too. She dances and dances and dances. 

She also became a groupie (thanks, Mom!)

Every time we go, Adaline can barely wait for the band to finish setting up. As soon as the first notes are played, she looks around for the first ready dance partner.

Of course she takes a break every so often, but then she's right back out there.

 Cousin Laura seems to enjoy dancing, too :)

 Spencer's still getting the hang of it, but he does love being snuggled up in my arms as we watch everyone else dance.

Adaline's First Race

My dad's cousin Michelle organizes a local charity run every year that benefits the local high school athletics department. It's in Hilmar and it's called the Udder Run. There is 2-mile and a 5-mile race as well as a kids fun run. Before kids, I did the 5-mile race and it was awesome- stinky, but awesome. It weaves through a couple of local dairies (and right by my great-uncle's farm) and MAN it stinks- but it's pretty darn cool to have the cows stampede the fence lines to check out the runners :) Anyway, now I do the 2-mile race and it's less-stinky. The cool thing is, every year I've run the race, the weather has been drastically different- one year it was 85 degrees at 8am, one year it was 60 degrees at 8am, one year it was raining, and this year it was a crazy windy...so much so that it hurt to stand outside because we were getting pelted with sand and dirt.

This year, the race was on the Saturday before Travis's birthday and our trip to Santa Cruz. So we ran the race, hurried home, cleaned up, packed up the truck, and took off to SC. It was only 8 weeks after Spencer was born, so I ran very, very, VERY slowly, but I ran the whole thing!!

Travis ran it after not training at all (per his usual style) and still beat me in my MANY minutes :)

This year was the first year Adaline was able to participate in the kids fun run and even though it was really windy, she seemed to enjoy it!

(Cousin Trace in the red hat, telling her how it was going to work)

Yay! Our first medal! 

(Anyone want to guess what the kid in the background is doing?!)

Can't wait for next year- it's my goal to run the 5-mile course again :)