Family Fun Day

I know I've been doing a lot of pointing out of how cool our coast is, so bare with me with yet another reason why we live in paradise!

Every year elephant seals gather on the beach to have their babies, nurse them, and mate. It really is an amazing thing how they all live out at sea for 8-9 months out of the year, only to come to shore twice a year (once to birth, etc and the next to molt). We're lucky enough to have a beach pretty close to us in San Simeon (right by Hearst Castle) where elephant seals gather. It's been a couple years since we've been. I think Jonah was only 3 when we last went. So Saturday we decided to head up and check 'em out.

The seal pups were so adorable! Here's a little trivia for ya - elephant seal pups nurse for less than 4 weeks before they're left on their own. In those few weeks, they more than quadruple their size - their mamas milk has the highest milk fat content of any other mammal! Crazily they're born weighing 50-60 lbs and 3 feet long! Yikes that's a big baby!

These two were my absolute favorite. I'm assuming they're twins because they were always snuggling together and they both nursed from the same mom. But either way they were so sweet!

Jonah took one look at the babies and said "Mom, for my birthday can I PLEASE have a baby elephant seal? Please?" The entire time we were there we had to repeatedly explain to him that you can't own an elephant seal because it belongs in nature, not to mention illegal to just bring one home, and by the time it became an adult, it would have grown to be as big as his room!

Ever wonder why they're called "elephant" seals? Well check out the schnoz on this guy! (The males have huge nappy noses and are bigger, while the girls look more like an overgrown typical seal)

The males are always fighting for their women! These two started at each other until one chickened out and baled into the water.

The males aren't the only ones fighting...

Look at all those seals!

The boys got a real kick out of the noises they made. It pretty much sounded like they were passing gas or something.

Jaxon really liked the elephant seals, but got bored of them pretty quickly. He just plopped himself right down in the grassy hill on the edge of the beach and waited.

I had to take a picture of this seagull. I find seagulls so absolutely annoying and repulsive (sorry all you Utah people who call it your state bird!), but this particular one was so pretty. It was so clean (you know, pure white, not dirty white) and my favorite was the pattern on its tail - look how cool it is!

There was this chart that showed the months of the year and what the elephant seals did during those months. The first row was of the males, the 2nd of the females, and the 3rd of the juveniles. I am SO grateful I'm not an elephant seal female. Can you imagine giving birth, nursing for a month, then as soon as your baby is barely weaned (or rather being weaned), you have to mate and get pregnant again? Ug!

I don't think Jonah can go anywhere without checking out the rocks. If we'd let him, he'd haul this rock home for his rock collection.

When we were done visiting the elephant seals, we headed to Morro Bay on our way home. I love Morro Bay. I wouldn't want to live there, since its foggy way too often, but I like to visit often. Its always so peaceful and they have a nice park for the kids (which we didn't go to this time), lots of good food, and beautiful scenery.

We tried out a new restaurant for dinner. Its new to us anyway. It was pretty tasty and as always in Morro Bay, we enjoyed beautiful view of the bay. While Jonah loved watching all the boats (especially the tug boats hauling barges) go by, Jaxon thought it was the coolest thing that he could look through the holes in the deck below us and see the water.

My big boys enjoying their crab sandwich and garlic fries.

Jaxon always insists on sitting in a chair without a booster, just like everyone else. Its funny watching him eat, seeing as he can barely see over the table. He had a lovely meal of chopped tomatoes from my salad, garlic fries and LOTS of ketchup!

Argh...ahoy captain!

Jonah showed Jaxon his favorite store - they sell all sorts of swords and real ninja weapons and stuff. We didn't actually go in, but through the window, Jaxon pointed out just the weapon for him..."I like dat lidda sword!" Jonah, being the weapon conaseur that he is, pointed out that that wasn't a sword, but a dagger. Boys!

We had such a fun day! Our goal this year is to have more fun days like this and living where we do, there's plenty of cool places to visit!