A Day Trip to Cabrillo National Monument

We decided to take the last couple of weekends easy since things have been pretty hectic here with our newest additions arrival.  Marie is settling in nicely and has, since my last post, started at her new school and has met a number of new people.  Since things have started to calm down we decided to start taking little day trips to show her Southern California.  We have so many trips planned and this is just the beginning.  We decided to take her to The Cabrillo National Monument to show her a more natural side of San Diego.  We took the boys here a year ago and I absolutely fell in love with the beauty of this park.  I have been wanting to go back and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Marie loves photography so this was also an opportunity for her to take some beautiful pictures. 

On our way to the park we decided to pick up some lunch so we could sit down on the cliffs while enjoying our lunch.  The boys loved it and we were even able to see some fun creatures down on the small beach.  The tide was up so we didn't get to play in the tide pools, but regardless it was (as before) absolutely breath taking!  

 Noah and Gabriel eating their subway lunch on the rocks overlooking the ocean

 Daddy making sure they don't jump over... believe me they tried.

 Gabey went exploring

 Our beautiful Marie

 Noah on a really really tall rock!  Casey was hiding on the other side

 Down on the beach... Check out the cool striated rock behind them!  Wish I knew about this place when I was teaching Earth science!

 

 Daddy and his boys

 Can ya tell the boys are "in love" with their new sister!

 Gabe kept peaking through this window and I thought it was so adorable!

Family photo op! That is San Diego behind us..

New addition to our family!

Last Friday we welcomed Ragnhild Marie into our family.  She arrived in the United States on August 1st and lived the first few weeks in Nebraska.  She, along with her host sister Martina, were placed in a pretty harsh situation in Nebraska.  We were approached by Palma, Casey's godmother, about possibly hosting Marie after she and her husband Brad decided to host Martina.  After hearing their story we quickly agreed and were on a mission to get his poor girl on an airplane to California!  After many phone calls and some heavy pleading we were able to bring her into our home in California.  We are so excited to have her and the boys are elated to have a big sister!

On Friday when she arrived we took a quick drive up the coast, on Saturday we ran a few errands to make her room a little cozier, and on Sunday we hosted a bbq so the two girls (Martina and Marie) could be reunited.

Our next trip is already planned for Marie's birthday.  Her birthday is September 20th and we will be spending the weekend at Disneyland!