Otter Trot/Santa Cruz Camping

Addison and his friend Jaden ran the Otter Trot this year. It's the kid's race that is associated with the Big Sur Marathon. Addison ran it last year and had a lot of fun. Tom and I, and our friend Micah (Jaden's dad) ran along, too. We had lots of fun, even though it started out a little chilly!

Just before the race.

I love this picture. He looks so happy to be out running!

Look at those long-haired boys!

After the race, we drove up to the Santa Cruz mountains to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It was the first national park in California, and has lots and lots of, you guessed it, redwoods. They still freak me out as much as they did when I was 15. They are so big. When I look up and get to the point where I think they should stop, that's where I start feeling a little dizzy and scared. Really weird, but seriously they make me nervous. It was really sunny in Santa Cruz, but because of how tall the trees are and how many of them there are, it never really gets super warm as it's always so shady! We set up our tent and had lunch and then headed out on a hike.

Santa Cruz is famous for having a lot of banana slugs. In fact, the banana slug is UC Santa Cruz's mascot. I had never seen one, and before we even got out of our camp, Addison spotted one. In my opinion, they are pretty disgusting. My friend's daughter went to a science camp where they learned that if you kiss a banana slug, your lips will go numb, and all the kids at the camp tried it. Addison, thought about it....

But, decided not to.

The following are a lot of pictures of us in trees...

Addison in a tree.

Addison and Mom in a tree.

Addison and Tom in a tree.

Blogger says I can post from phone. Trying it out

Spring Break

We stuck around here for Spring Break, but I tried to do something fun every day so that it didn't feel like we were missing out on a vacation!

On Monday, we went to the aquarium.

The new seahorse exhibit is awesome!

On Tuesday, we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens. So cute! I loved Bob.

Then we went to TCBY where I discovered my new favorite treat... A frozen frappe!

On Wednesday, Addison had an all-day play date with Tyler K, and on Thursday we went swimming at the Monterey Sports Center.

Friday through Sunday, we went camping with some friends. We ended up with quite a group, and had lots of fun! We went to the Andrew Molera Campground in Big Sur. It was so great. There were lots and lots of kids (all boys!), and we had a great time running around the camp site, hiking, and eating lots!

At the camp site.

Just before our hike. I should have gotten a picture of our whole group, but never did. This is me and Meridth.

At one of the vista points on our hike.

Crazy boys hanging off a cliff!

Camping in Big Sur

On Friday, we made a last minute decision to go camping. The weather has been beautiful here, and we wanted to take advantage of it. We ended up going to the Big Sur Campground. I didn't know anything about it, but it ended up being absolutely perfect!


Addison knew we were in the right place when the lady directing us to our campsite and said, "turn right at the basketball court." That is pretty much how he spent his time. He was a little celebrity, too. Everyone around was watching him sink shot after shot. People kept coming up to him and telling him what a great basketball player he was. While I was playing HORSE with him, a guy told me that I shouldn't expect too much, because that kid (Addison) had a better shooting average than anyone else on the court. Addison felt pretty cool! (Because he is, of course!)



The campground was surrounded by redwoods. It was a really beautiful place. This is Addison looking up, up, up at one of the ones by our campsite.


The campsites were really close together. It would be fun to have a bunch of families go and get sites right next to each other. It was really crowded while we were there.


Delicious S'mores. Seriously one of my favorite treats ever...

One of the coolest things about this place was that Addison felt totally confident wandering wherever he wanted to go, even after it got dark. I kept asking if he wanted me to walk with him to the bathroom or to brush his teeth, and Tom kept saying, "Let him be 9!" ...It's hard!

Addison can't get enough pictures with bunny ears. It never gets old...
We played Clue and Phase 10 Twist. The main cabin had games you could check out, so we got Sorry! and played that, too.
The next morning we ventured over to the playground, and then played more basket ball.

This was a fun tree with a slit in the bottom perfect for a hideout. When we left the campground we drove to Andrew Molera State Park and walked down to the beach (about a mile). There was this little fort that someone had built out of driftwood that provided much entertainment for Addison.Of course, Addison got soaked in the water, even though it was windy and a little chilly. That child has no thermostat.

After the beach we stopped at Big Sur River Inn and ate lunch. We ate outside by the river. They have these chairs and benches in the water that are so fun.

We came home tired and a little sunburned and had a wonderful weekend!

Addison's 9th Birthday

For Addison's birthday, we did an Olympic themed party. We set up several events: Basketball tournament (which was actually a free throw competition), javelin toss, parallel bars (going across the monkey bars), sprint races, long jump, and the ever popular Olympic event - popping the balloon that is tied to your opponent's ankle. The kids had a lot of fun, and best of all, it was all outside and required little preparation and clean up!

We first divided the kids up into 2 teams for the basketball tournament and relay races. We let them paint their faces with face paint... which was one of the (several) nerve racking moments of the party. They went a little crazy with the paint, and as they were washing their hands to get the paint off before starting the games, we realized that it looked pretty permanent. Tom and I kept looking at each other like, "what did we just do?" I wondered how I was going to explain to these parents that their kids were going to look like they had been beaten (if they were on the red team), or like they were about to throw up (if they were on the green team). I went through a whole package of baby wipes wiping paint off their faces on and off throughout the whole party. By the end, most of them had somewhat normal skin color again, and I was feeling better. I still had a little explaining to do to some parents, but they were all great about it.

We had a "hang off" on the monkey bars to see who could hang on the longest. Some of these kids are super strong!!

This was just before another heart stopping moment. This little girl who is about to go across (the only girl there) is our neighbor and keeps up just fine with all these crazy boys (thanks to her 2 older brothers). She was going across the monkey bars and fell flat on her face... Hard. She was upset, but seriously so tough. If explaining face paint was going to be hard, I didn't even want to think about explaining stitches. She was fine, thank heavens.

Tom cut some bamboo stalks for a javelin toss. I wish I had taken more action pictures, but I was too involved with everything else. The kids thought this was really cool, though. On a side note, notice the torch behind Addison. This was our "Olympic torch" which we lit before we started the games. The kids loved it. Getting that torch almost killed me. I'll just say that if you want a tiki torch anytime before the month of June, you're going to have to work for it...

Preparing for the balloon pop game.

Opening presents. He got lots of Tech Decks and ramps (but none of the same ones... which was perfect!), a Lego pirate set, a model airplane kit, Life game, and gift cards.

For his cake, we had doughnuts and frosted them the colors of the olympic rings. The kids thought frosting on doughnuts was awesome! We also had pizza.

You can see some of the paint still on these kids.

The medals before the games.

For the party favors, I got Gatorade and put a sweatband around it and slipped a kids ClifBar in between.

I feel like Addison has really grown up this year. I keep saying he is starting to be a bit of a "tween" in so many ways. He really is between little boy and young man. He certainly has some of that obnoxious (but sweet) boy sense of humor, but he is so witty and funny, and always good company. I love that he still wants me to snuggle him at night, but won't hold my hand anywhere near his school. Much of The Lord of the Rings is too scary to watch, but he loves to talk to his friends about the battle scenes that aren't. When I suggested watching Monsters, Inc. the other day, he told me I had to be kidding, but this morning when I went in the living room, I caught him watching Handy Manny. No girls were invited to his birthday party, but he can't stop talking about the little girl at school who is "flattering" with him (flirting). I love this kid and feel lucky every day that I get to be his mom!

Tommen Ian

Ian came to visit Tom over the President's Day weekend. They planned a big camping trip, which they endeavored for a couple days, but got soaking wet, and cut it short. I think it was probably made worse by the fact that Tom doesn't believe in tents and so they slept in the storm with a tarp covering them, and a river running between them. Sounds like fun!

Doing the dishes after dinner. Their mother should be proud that she raised such good boys.

Ian playing Wii tennis (I think), while Tom is reading.

Trying to get them both to be normal for a picture was a joke. If one of them was smiling, the other was goofing off. Mostly though, neither of them would just sit for a picture. This is a good representation of how most of the pictures turned out.

Tom wanted to send Ian home with lots of new music. They spent a few hours in "the dungeon" putting together a huge playlist for Ian to take with him.

Pay It Forward

So, here's how it works-the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and past like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Please submit in an e-mail or on the comment, your address, if I don't have it already (thestotts3@hotmail.com). Remember that only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

... I've seen this on a few blogs and thought it looked fun!