California Dreamin' - Part 1

Mark and I took some time to visit my parents in California for a little over a week.  My "cousin" Tami was getting married and I was hosting a bridal shower for my sister the next week so we were going to kill to birds with one stone, as they say.

I didn't take the other 2 boys because I didn't know if I can handle two bickering boys and a baby so decided to just take Mark with me.  In retrospect, I should've taken them all.  My parents would have loved to see all 3 of them together.

Day 1

We left for the airport Friday morning bright and early at 6am. This was what breakfast looked like that morning.  Mark did so well on the plane.  He played for most of the trip and fell asleep until we landed. 

Of course, we headed straight to my parents' donut shop! After a donut..or two, we decided to get healthier and had some cherries with Poh-Poh and Yee-Yee.

Then we helped Yee-Yee clean up.

We played with some of Yee-Yee's old Barbies.

Took a nap with our favorite "donut blankie."

My brother came over for dinner. Mark and Ben sort of played together.  Love that expression on Ben's face. And yes, Mark was in his PJs the whole day.

Day 2
On Saturday, we went to have breakfast at the donut shop and then over to my brothers house to hang out.  We decided to head out to the farmer's market, which is heads above what we have here.  The weather was awesome for strolling and food tasting.  And I didn't have to worry about getting bit by the stupid bugs.

That evening, we went downtown and had dinner with my sister.

Mark took this picture at dinner - a little blurry, but not bad or a 2 year-old.

Day 3
We walked over to my brother's house - about a 15-minute walk.  Ben and Mark played.  Sometimes well, other times? Not so much.

 But look how cute they are.  They were sharing something yummy to eat - maybe some melons?

That afternoon, we drove 3 hours to Sacramento for Tami and Chris' wedding. Oh my word it is HOT in Sacramento in July!  Still not as hot as Texas, but hot enough to give the groom's grandmother a heat stroke. And that actually happened.

The wedding was beautiful and the bride and groom looked very happy.

Mark, Owen and little Addy took to the dance floor and boogied down for hours! They took a quick break to eat and were back on the dance floor right after. It was hilarious.

I love this picture. It looks like they were doing some sort of choreographed routine, doesn't it? And I love how serious Owen looks.

It was so hot, the cake started to lean over to one side.

I told you I was serious about the heatstroke.  Paramedics came to attend to Chris' grandma in the middle of the reception.

Felicia dropped her sunglasses and was very sad that it broke.

More dancing picture.  This kid was serious about his dancing. 

Day 4
We slept in a little and went to Starbucks with my mom to get Mark his yogurt parfait and his chocolate milk.  On our way back from the wedding the night before, he had a huge meltdown because we stopped by Starbucks and didn't get him anything.  Huge. Epic. Meltdown. I felt so bad about losing my cool (and I totally lost it) that I promised him another Starbuck's trip in the morning.

Day 5
We spent the day running errands for Sandi's wedding - meeting with decorators and finalizing her cake order.  Then we met up with my brother and his family for dinner at one of my fave restaurants that we've been going to for over 20 years.

What We Did - Week 26

Day 189 - Thur.
Early start to San Antonio!

And a visit to the Riverwalk

Day 190 - Fri.
We had to take cover from the 4th of July rainstorm.

Day 191 - Sat. 
Big breakfast buffet before a big day of swim sun and fun.

Playing games with new friends!

Day 192 - Sun.

Super exhausted after a weekend away.  That or from having to wake up at 6 so we can be on the road  by 6:30 in the morning.

Day 193 - Mon.
I had to take the car in to get it looked at.  The rearview camera sometimes does not work - very annoying.

Michael had a get together with his soccer team for some swimming and soccer, of course. He got dehydrated and nauseous when he got home so he rested the rest of the day.  Then him and Mark decide to make some popcorn and watch Despicable Me 2

Mark loves to draw and when he finishes his artwork, he asks for tape to hang it on the wall.

Day 194 - Tues.
Mark and I payed with cars and trains in the morning.

Then I dropped him off at the Gs in the afternoon so I can take the other two boys to see Earth to Echo.  I wanted a picture of them with the movie poster, but only Matthew cooperated.  Michael was refused.

Day 195 - Wed.
We did a lot of furniture moving.  We got a bed and some chairs from M's dad so we gave away our chairs and the boys bunk bed to make room. No picture today.

Hill Country Trip 2014

Like last year, we took a road trip to San Antonio Hill Country for the 4th of July weekend. It was another wonderful family mini-vacation and the boys had a blast.  Michael and Matthew brought a friend along and they spent most of their time on the watersides and the pool. Mark did too, of course, but he spent his time with us.  We saw the boys for a total of a couple of hours during the day.

We were on the road by 6:30 in the morning and all 4 kiddos fell asleep until we stopped at a McDonald's for breakfast.

Mark decided to put his shades on.

The resort has an awesome kiddie pool and a couple of kiddie slides.  That's where we hung out with the occasionally trips to the lazy river and the big waterslide.

There's a river below the deck and when you turn the wheel, the pipes open up and dump water on people going down the river in inner tubes.  Mark had a lot of fun with this.  He also had a lot of fun shooting people with water cannons along that same river.

And of course, he loved the waterside.  He must have gone down that thing 100 times in the 3 days we were there.

We had some down time before dinner.

We ventured out to the Riverwalk in San Antonio for dinner at Boudro's the first night we were there.  It was not worth the hassle, but we thought the boys would like to see it.  They liked it, but weren't all that into it. We didn't stick around very long because it was so crowded. We stayed in the resort the whole time after that.

The boys goofing off waiting for dinner

The boys goofing off while we're waiting to cross the street

In the mornings, Michael would get into bed with Mark and sleep.  Love these guys.

Cuddling buddies

 The balloon lady made Michael this cool "hat" at breakfast one morning.

He doesn't know it yet, but we lost the little "red castle."  It's one of his fave pool toy and he asks for it whenever we go swimming.  I'm hopeful that he'll find something else to love before he realizes that we don't have this anymore.

We got a pretty big afternoon rainstorm on the 4th of July and it caught everybody by surprise.  We all ran into the covered patio waiting for it to pass.  When it didn't, we just went back up to our room.

The boys were being silly waiting to get seated for breakfast the next morning.

On our last evening there, the boys went out and played some ball with the other kids at the resort.  This is probably my favorite thing about going there - they meet other people and just start playing together.

The resort also offers organized games.  The laser tag was rained out the night before.  Tonight, they played hand dodgeball.

We got up early to get back home. Like 6:30 in the morning early.  This was our backseat.  Michael is in the way back.  He was also asleep.

Good trip!  I can't wait to do it again next year.