Hanging out by the pool.
Jelly Belly Factory
About to go on the tour.
Look, we got Grandma in a picture!! The kids love Turtle Grandma....and the fact that she lives by a Weinerschnitzel....and the fact that they get to say "Weinerschnitzel" over and over again....I'm sure she is happy to have some peace and quiet now that we're gone, and a floor free of soggy Cheerios, and a bathroom that hasn't been turned into a makeshift "Beauty Shop." She is wonderful!
Maybe this picture should have been first. The kids and I and Aunt Alivia road tripped down to California. Sam ate pretty much the entire container of cheese balls on the way down.
Benjamin slept like this, which I thought was pretty funny. They also played their leapsters to death and watched "Tangled" about 47 times. No, really.
One day of our trip we took a little detour to San Jose. I tortured the kids by driving around town and showing them the places we lived, parks and other places we frequented, and regaling them with memories. At each pit stop they would argue about whose turn it was to get OUT of the car for a picture. It was difficult to get them back IN! Here's Joshua at our first San Jose apartment.
Truly, I miss California so much it hurts. Though Luke and I keep reminding ourselves that it was a fabulous stage of life overall and that simply going back to CA would not bring that back. (It might help though, no?!)
(As an aside, though, I've talked about it before and I'll say it again. I am in love with our neighborhood. I wouldn't trade our community for the world, though I would relive the California experiment a thousand times....small apartment, one car, liberal whack-jobs, and all.)
One of the things on EmJ's list was to visit her old school. She could remember virtually nothing about her short time here, but was happy to visit nonetheless.
While in San Jose we visited with some good friends. It was wonderful!
Alivia came with us on the trip, where she did super helpful things like getting carsick and fetching toys from the bottom of the pool.
Another pool photo. I was pleasantly suprised at the kids' ease in the water. They definately can't swim, but they were comfortable. (Actually, I think Sam is the best swimmer of them all. She would stand on the stairs and tell me to "go back....more.....three more steps....that's it", and then she would yell "Chop, chop, tiiimmmmmbbbbeeerrrr!", jump off the stairs, and wiggle-swim to me. She's fearless.)
Visiting Jaime!! I love this girl and I would like to transport her and her family up here....or transport our neighborhood down to where they are. Seriously. It was so fun to visit and get caught up and it definately didn't feel like 5 years had gone by!
This is where our water-phobe parked it while we were at the pool. Or near a sprinkler. Or near a water feature anywhere. At one point Alivia stepped into the hot tub while holding Reillee....you would have thought someone was trying to kill her. No water. And don't, under any circumstances, say the word "bath".
And that's it!
2 comments:
Kirstin, I was so glad you made the trip to come visit! Mike wishes he could see the kids! My girls kept asking all day, where did our friends go? Can we go see them again? It was a such great day :)
Ouch. I did other helpful things! LIKE BABYSIT YOUR CHILDREN AND DRIVE HOME....and fetching that toy was hard work.
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