Peek-a-Boo

Easter, Part 2

After our egg hunt at Gommie & Papa's, we went over to Pasadera for their annual Easter party and brunch. Ben had a second egg hunt and scored big time!

 Ben also met the Easter Bunny for the first time and he wasn't too thrilled... at least at their first meeting. Ben and the bunny quickly became good friends.

 All the other toddlers stayed very far away from the bunny but not Ben, not our fearless little man.

 Since no other kids wanted time with the Easter Bunny, Ben monopolized his time. Never a bad time for 'peek-a-boo!'

 Ben : "Take that, Easter Bunny!"

 After playing with Mr. Bunny and a big lunch, Ben was an exhausted little man and literally had to be carried to the car (which is very rare - Ben would much rather run everywhere rather than be carried).



Easter, Part 1

For Easter, we had 2 celebrations...the first celebration took place at Gommie & Papa's house where Ben had his very first egg hunt ever. Of course it was raining... on Easter. Unbelievable! So unlike most Easter Sundays, we didn't spend much time outside in the sun. But Ben picked up the key to egg hunting very quickly and Papa was a great teacher.

Like Father, Like Son

We went on a walk on Sunday and watching Ben with his Dad was so special. They walk the same, the have the same mannerisms and they have such a good time together. Ben's big thrill of the walk was picking up rocks...

 ... and storing them all in his pockets. Here Jeff is helping him squeeze one more rock in his jeans pocket. Watching them from a few steps behind was such a kick, I can now very clearly imagine what Jeff was like as a toddler.



Rocklin Jacobs Visit Monterey

Jen's brother and his family came for an early Easter this week and Ben looooved playing with the older kids! He had so much fun with Matthew, Joel and Sierra, he sure has a thing for playing with the 'big' kids!

 The lucky little man got an early Easter basket...

 which had one of his most favorite things EVER... bubbles! Ben is so infatuated with bubbles and especially those water gun type bubble blowers. As Ben says, "Mama... Buh-bows."

Ben & Jake Video

Here's a cute video of Ben and Jake Goines from last Thursday at the Monterey Aquarium.



Who looks better in Mama's Sunglasses?

Ben will say he definitely does!

Gilroy Gardens, Part Two

So we have these season's passes to Gilroy Gardens and boy, are we going to get as much use out of them as possible! Sunday Funday included a few hours at Ben's favorite toddler amusement park... Jeff even won Ben a yellow monkey stuffed animal (see the last pic).

Sunny Saturday Afternoon

Saturday was a gorgeous day so being a true Bolger trifecta, we spent a majority of the day outside. We started off with a hike in the Fort Ord hills behind Toro Park. It was a big mountain biking expedition in those hills this weekend so Ben and Jeff looooved to see all the awesome bikes and the hard core bikers.

After our hike, we went to The Farm... the coolest place ever. It is a working farm with organic produce as well as a little petting zoo for toddlers. Ben loved 'talking' to the chickens and ducks. Below is a pic of Ben moving his arms up and down like chicken wings, what you can hear is his impression of a du-kin, part chicken part duck sound. Pretty cute. Inside the Farm was a bunch of new born chicks and Ben was entralled with them and we literally had to pull him away from them.

Once we got home, Ben so nicely asked to play out back with the hose. Sure he has that great water table toy in the back but what would he rather play with? Yep... the hose... after he 'accidentally' sprayed Mom, he watered all the flowers and the lawn.



Gilory Gardens, Part One

Gommie took Friday off and spent the day with Ben at Gilroy Gardens. Ben loved showing Gommie all of his favorite rides and games. Such a fun day!

How Lucky Are We?!

So lucky... because our great College friends, the Goines family, came to Monterey for a wedding over the weekend and decided to come early to spend Thursday with us. So, of course we had to take the day off of work to take full advantage of their time here. It was a very full day of playing at the aquarium, then to the park and then to a pizzeria for dinner. Jake Goines and Ben got on so well and Ben even picked up a few new words from his new best bud. What a perfect way to kick off the weekend!

Jumping Beans

Ben's new trick is jumping... or at least he thinks he's jumping. It's pretty funny. Here is a quick snippit of his jumping abilites.

Big Slide = Big Fun

At the PG street festival this past weekend, Ben went on his first huge slide. Good thing he had Dad to co-pilot with him. Keep an eye on the yellow lane...

So we meet again

Gommie & Papa took Ben for lunch on Sunday morning so we got to go to our own adult breakfast and then on a hike/trail jog. And... the sheep were back. We saw them for the 1st time around Paddy's Day but haven't seen them since... that is until today. As you can see from the sign, they are very busy at work. What work a sheep does, we have no clue.

 It is hard to tell but that big white blob on the hill are hundreds of sheep very dilligently working away.



Pacific Grove Street Festival

This weekend was the Pacific Grove Good Ol' Days annual street festival and fair... Crafts, Rides, Fair Food, Live Music - good small town fun. Of course we just had to stop at the bird man and get Ben's first picture with tropical birds. Poor Jeff is stuck with Ben and I, who are both infatuated with any and all birds...

 Ben wasn't scared at all when George, the bird man, put the green bird on Ben's arm. He does wake up every morning and kiss the birds that are painted on his bedroom walls so maybe he's already comfortable with these fine feathered friends.

 Ben had just got off the big slide with his Dad and was about to have one of his newly found 'terrible 2' tantrums because he wanted to go back on...



Mr. Cool

Rec Trail Fun

On Sunday, we walked down to the rec trail to look at the harbor seals who were apparently having their pups. We saw the big seals but no pups... looks like we'll be walking down again this weekend!

Hike in the Hills

We took a hike in our favorite hills this past weekend after weeks and weeks of non stop rain. The river was flowing (it is usually a dry creek bed), the lake had doubled in size and the hills were greener than we can ever remember.

Here Jeff & Ben had to cross the 'river' to get to the start of the hiking trail.

 Pre-requisite Ben snoozing pic... the green blob on Jeff's back... that's Ben...

 When Ben is napping on our hikes is when we get to chat about the important stuff since there is a 45 minute stretch of no interruptions.

 Ben and Jeff trecking along. Ben loves the back pack, I think he feels like he is in command of Jeff much like Ben is on a horse dictating where to go, speed up, turn left etc etc.

 A pretty pic from the top of the peak we hiked too. Fog starting to roll away, green hills, no one around... Not a bad Saturday morning.



Fun in the Sun

All we can say is, thank goodness the rain is gone... at least for now. The weather here has been incredible so we have really been doing as much outdoorsy stuff as we can because who knows when the rain will come back and we will be forced to stay inside.

Go figure... more pictures of Ben playing in the water! What these pics don't show is about 5 minutes after these were taken, Ben figured out how to use the hose as well as spray Mom, Dad and Sophie Lou. Ben thought this was the funniest thing he's ever done. Us, not so much.

Like Father, Like Son!

Jeff has been teaching Ben the fine art and love for Italian meat and Ben has been grasping on to this new delicacy quite well. Here the boys are enjoying fresh pepperoni.

 This is just a cute pic of Ben swinging.