Hello family and friends!

Hello everyone! This weekend we enjoyed a short trip to the beach and some quality time at home. With everyone being so busy with school and work, we have really been enjoying our time off. Kyla and Casey have been doing great at their new schools, and we are very proud of them. For those of you that don't already know, I was just hired to teach first grade at a small 5 classroom annex across from Casey's school. This is a huge blessing for our family and I am really looking forward to the challenge.

Brandon continues to work hard at his job. When he drove home in his crime scene van the other day, he wouldn't let me take a picture, but I did anyway when he left to go back to work, hehe.

Back To School

Kyla and Casey started school on Monday. It has been an uphill battle trying to get them into the best schools available. God supernaturally blessed this situation, and as we finish up the first week, I am so grateful that everything worked out as it did. Sometimes you have to go through the valley to reach the hilltop, but once you are there, you can look back on how God placed each event as He did, and strengthened our relationship and trust in Him in the process. Kyla and Casey are both doing extremely well, and I will share more details of their school experiences in later posts.

A Visit From Home

We have had a very adventurous couple of weeks here in Monterey. We were so blessed to have Brandon's parents come for a visit, and were able to show them around our new town. One day while they were here, we went whale watching....big mistake. Kyla and I spent most of the trip with our heads hung over the boat. It was not a pleasant "three hour tour", but we did see a couple of humpback whales, and then partook of clam chowder in a bread bowl when we got back to shore (well, everyone but me....uuggghhh). We miss them already, and hope they come back soon for another visit, along with all of our other loved ones!

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Along with the rest of the country, we have been experiencing record breaking heat here the last couple of weeks. 80 degrees may not seem hot to you, but for Monterey, it is sweltering (especially when no one here has air conditioning!) Casey has been happy, because for the first time, he was allowed to wear his swimming trunks to the beach. The water was freezing, but he didn't even seem to notice. Daddy even decided to join him in the water (I think they're all crazy).



My idea of fun, on the other hand, is to bury the innocent ones, and try to get seagulls to eat chips off of their heads. I know how to have a good time.



Later in the week, the kids decided it would be a great idea to have a birthday party for their stuffed animal friend....Baby George (these poor kids really need to start school). He turned one-year-old this week. We had oreo pie and busted the pinata. We invited the only other child in the neighborhood to join in the fun. Her parents may not let her come back.

Glutton For Punishment

Well, I took the kids to their weekly poety and art club again yesterday. I'm not sure why I did; I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. When I returned to hear the poems and see the paintings at the end, Casey whispered to me that he had a special poem, and he couldn't wait for me to hear it. We had spent the week at Carmel beach, Asilomar beach, rock climbing, memorizing scripture, practicing handwriting and math, etc., so I was sure that this week, he was going to share some of his weekly experiences, and make me look good in front of the teachers and other parents. Here's the poem:

"The Couch"
I feel the most comfortable on the couch.
I can watch TV on the couch.
I can sleep on the couch.
I can eat popcorn on the couch,
and I can read on my couch.
by Casey

Well, at least everyone knows he can read, even if it is after naps and popcorn breaks (neither of which he has taken part in on our new couch yet by the way)! Here are some pics of the kids at the poetry club....they may be the last ones you see because I might not take them back, hehe.

My Friend is Movies

After a fun-filled week of hiking, biking, a visit to the Museum of Natural History, practicing Spanish, and exploring various parks and beaches, I was feeling like a pretty good mom. That is.....until our weekly visit to the "Poetry and Art Club" put on by the city of Pacific Grove. Having to practically drag Casey to a poetry club should have been a warning sign. He got even with me. The assignment was to write a creative piece about your best friend. After an hour of creative time to write and draw, my dear, precious child proudly walked to the front of the room to read his poem to the class.

"My friend is movies.
I like to watch movies.
I am lazy and watch movies.
When I get home, I will watch more movies.
I will watch more than four movies.
I like movies of any kind.
I really like Walt Disney movies.
By: Casey"

I shouldn't complain.....the boy comes by it naturally. At least he drew a picture of a seal. Maybe he did learn something at the museum after all.



The next day, we visited the Asilomar State Beach, which is one of our new favorite places. You can investigate the seals, crabs, starfish, and other marine life on the rocky beach, then walk on the boardwalk over to the sandy beach area to wade and watch the surfers. We love this place.

Home Sweet Home

The Living Room

We were very busy all of last week and this weekend setting up our new home. Here are a couple of pics of rooms we have finished putting together.

Master Bedroom

Family Room

We really love our new home, though it has been a lot of work putting it all together. Our new address is: 9 Balfour Court, Seaside, CA 93955. Our new home phone number is 831-583-9359. Our new home email is: bowens10@sbcglobal.net, though we still receive email at our Yahoo account, too (kylacasey@yahoo.com) or brandon's work account (brandon.owens@us.army.mil).

After all that work, we went to the beach to unwind with a little Beach Football!

More to come later....

New House Time

We have been extremely busy the last couple of days getting ready to move out of our small hotel room into our big house (2100 square feet!) You may notice the iron wrought bars on the doors and windows as appparently the old lady who used to live in the house before us was a touch paranoid. Still, it certainly gives us that extra secure feeling and even allows us to leave our windows open while we are gone.

It has been very warm for Monterey the last couple of days, with temperatures reaching 79 degrees! After moving stuff around in our house all day, Misty and I adjusted our thermostat to turn the air conditioner on. We were a little worried when only warm air came out of the vents, so I called the landlord who said most people on the penninsula do not have air conditioning because of how cool it normally is and that opening the windows typically cools the house down. So, we ran to the store and bought some industrial strength fans, but we are told that we will not need them very often.


This is our palm tree in our front yard. Its a mini-palm tree, but we like it anyway. We call it, "Little Fella". We'll send more pics of the house when we have our stuff in it.

Well, we won't have an internet connection again until a week from now, so there won't be any more updates until then. However, once that is all set up, we should have a lot to show you so come back then!

A Day At The Beach

We will never get tired of the ocean!

Yesterday, we spent the day at a beach in Seaside and at the Dennis the Menace park. Poor Misty got a really sunburned nose. It stays
about sixty degrees here with a wind, so the coolness can make you forget about sunscreen.









The kids really enjoy sifting through the sand for buried treasures or funny looking beach creatures such as hermit crabs. When sifting through the sand or peering through tide pools, they take great pleasure in making a new discovery that no one else in the family has found before.

After having fun at the beach, we went to a childhood favorite of Misty's - the Dennis the Menace Park! The park features a locomotive for the kids to play on, a rock climbing wall, a bush maze and lots of new friends to meet. Casey has a natural ability to make friends effortlessly and quickly. Misty and I have no idea where he gets that from since we are so natually anti-social.

We made it to Monterey!

I thought I would try using the blog format this time to decide if it is better to do this or use snapfish.com. Let me know what you prefer. Feel free to pass the link on to anyone you think would care.

First, some pics from our trip here. Before our vehicle misfortune, we had a great time at Six Flags in Denver, CO.

Notice Wonder Woman waving from up above.

We then had an unfortunate vehicle incident and no one was in the mood to take any more pictures until we got to Monterey and started having fun again.

Today, we went to the Rocky Beach!

Notice the little monkey hiding behind a rock on the right!

Our beautiful girl.

Casey always makes friends quickly!

More to come and maybe I will even get good enough at this blog thing to make it look nicer next time!