My Fabulous 40th - Carmel, CA

In my past life (pre-baby) I said for many years that I wanted to go somewhere amazing/foreign for my 40th birthday.  I had always planned on going somewhere super cool like Tahiti for this monumental birthday.   Well, sometimes life has a way of changing your plans and I decided that I did not want to go on a long flight with a one year old baby who recently started walking.  It's just not that much fun to try to keep Elin contained. After much discussion about what to do for my birthday I had decided that we would just go somewhere local where we could drive.   I was thrilled when James surprised me by booking a trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA. 

 It was the perfect trip because it was a 2 hour flight to a cute place on the beach that I had never been.  Carmel is quaint little town with cute cottages.

We did some shopping on Ocean Ave.

We went to the beach every day. Elin love, love, LOVES the beach/sand and would get so excited when we would go.

She wanted to get in the water but it was way too cold. One afternoon she did talk her Dad into letting her put her feet in.

We did a few scenic drives (17 mile drive through Pebble Beach and Highway 1 to Big Sur) mostly to get Elin to take a nap. It was beautiful scenery.

We also went to the Carmel Mission.

One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

We spent 2.5 hours there and Elin did not stop talking the entire time.

500 lb sea bass!!!

They had a lot of fun activities for kids.  Elin got to touch a bat ray, starfish, sea cucumber, and play in a little stream in the kids area.

 

One of Elin's favorite parts of the aquarium was the jelly fish exhibit.  After we would look at one tank she would make the sign for "more" when she was ready to move on to the next tank.  It was so cute!

We all had a great time.

On my birthday we went to the beach in the morning (it was a little cold that day...), shopping in the afternoon then had a nice dinner at the Mission Ranch.

We had a really fun 4 days in Carmel. It was a great way to start a new decade of my life. Thank you James for planning such a fun trip. 

I guess we will do the "big" trip for my 50th.

Maija

Elin's travel log: One year = 16,730 miles

In the past year Elin has been on 5 trips that require flights (Salt Lake City UT twice, Baltimore MD, Kona HI and Durango CO).  10 flights with a grand total of 15,030 airmiles traveled! Not bad for your first year of life. Based on Elin's flying miles we really should have signed her up for a frequent flier account, except that she traveled free on all of the flights. 

Hitchin' a ride.

When you add in the 1700+ road trips miles (Townsend MT and Whistler BC) you get one well traveled baby.  And she does it with all with a smile on her face (well.....not always her Daddy says).

 Now that she is mobile and active, things are not quite as easy or fun when flying or driving long distances. I suspect that in her 2nd year of life her traveling miles will be drastically reduced and/or we will need to start paying for an extra seat when we fly.

  Happy 1st Birthday Elin! 

We love you,

Mama & Dada

Gillespie Family Reunion, Ignacio CO

In mid July my whole family got together for the first time in 4 years. We gathered in my hometown of Ignacio CO.

The whole Gillespie family

 

The "originals" - Pentti, Erek, Oscar, Terry, Aila, Maija, Leina

 James, Maija & Elin

Randi, Lincoln, Deekon and Oscar

MJ, Sylis, Noah, Ella, Leina and Marty

Pentti & Amy

Kijanna, Erek, Laci & Kali

Grandma & Grampy with all 9 grandkids

We enjoyed having a few days to catch up and spend some time together.  The kids had a great time playing with all their cousins. Elin thought she was in heaven with so many kids around.

We went for a picnic to Lemon Lake.  The boys did some fishing, Elin waded in the creek and we all spent some time eating and relaxing.

Since we had the whole family together we had an early birthday party for Elin who was turning 1 on July 29th and Marty who was turning 11 on July 25th.

It was a busy weekend but we had a lot of fun I am so thankful that we were all able to get together.

Maija