Back to Cali

Other than the must have trip home for the holidays, we have been avoiding planes for a very simple reason....and his name is Cade. Our last big trip was last June to California to see my cousin get married and to visit Mickey while we were there. While the big event was wonderful, seeing and spending with family was fantastic, other parts of the trip were not so enjoyable. Cade was kind of a mess and it scarred us enough not to travel for a while. If you don't remember the details, you can read about some of it here. Anyway, we knew quite a while back that there was another occasion we absolutely could not miss happening on January 25th in Oakland....my good friend wedding. Since we have a lot of friends in the area, we decided to make a longish vacation of it...hopefully long enough to make the long plane ride with the kiddos worth it.

And was it worth it? Absolutely! I came well armed with plane activities, expected the worst, survived the flights well and had a really great vacation with the family. Getting back....different story. It's been a rough\hectic couple of weeks, hence this delayed post. But, without further ado, here's some info on our trip.

My good friend, Ana Maria, and her family relocated to the Bay area last year. Since they were all settled in their new place, they graciously offered to host us for most of our stay. So once we arrived at the San Fran airport, we picked up our ride for the week...a minivan....and headed to Ana Maria's place in Saratoga. Now first off, I am a car person. I like cars. Pretty ones. Fast ones. Minivans do not fall into those categories. I resigned to a life of SUV's while having young kids but I absolutely can not bring myself to go the minivan route. Really, absolutely no offense to any lovely folks out there that drive one but they're just not for me. In any case, we got one because 1) we planned to take some group trips that it would be handy for and 2) it was cheaper than other large car rentals. I really tried to hate that thing but man, are they convenient! Cup holders EVERYWHERE and easy access to the whole vehicle. I will absolutely not be purchasing one anytime soon but I definitely understand the draw a bit more. However, I will still curse the minivan in front of me that cannot find the accelerator (Damn minivans!).

In any case, after our last long trip with a big time change, we wisely decided to have laid back expectations of the trip and touristy things to do. On day one, that involved getting to their house and hanging out. We did just that. Dylan and Cade got along smashingly with their girls, Elise and Cate. It was almost like having a baby sitter because those 4 just went off and did their own thing most of the time.

While we had a relaxing time, we didn't exactly have a restful time. Mostly because adjusting the kids to the time change while all sleeping in the same space didn't exactly make conducive conditions to getting a good night's sleep. We did the best we could though and napped when possible.

Our first morning there, we were greeted by some deer that frequent Ana Maria and Theo's hilly yard in Saratoga. They were a beautiful sight to start out what would be a nature day for us.

Near their house, there are some nice trails they discovered that we took the kids on to explore. Their area is really lovely....the hillsides are dotted with grape vines for vineyards and beautiful big houses. The highlight of our hike was a little less scenic. They had discovered a deer carcass hiking the trails a few weeks back and, having Dylan as a son, I knew we had to check it out. Dylan was completely fascinated and still talks about it and asks questions. It was actually pretty cool to see and I took some pictures. Knowing it would gross out my Mom, pictures are not included here so you can feel free to keep reading.

Mike, Cade, Theo, Ana Maria
(and on the "lower" level) Cate and Elise

Us
Yeah, Cade was the one happy to walk the whole way. Tired Dylan, not so much. Good workout for me though!

The Prellers!

Once back at the house, we hung out in their back yard which, in addition to the feature of a big cool hill, they have rocks to climb on and a coy pond. The boys loved it there!

Elise then asked if she could paint and, it being vacation and all, Ana Maria said yes. No sooner then the paint came out, the chaos and mess started! The boys certainly had fun but there was a good mess to clean up after the quick pieces of art our little Picassos made. Cade was definitely to blame for most of the craziness. Unfortunately, I was wrapped up dealing with his clean up and left Ana Maria with the bulk of the art\deck clean up. (Thanks, Ana Maria! Sorry again for leaving you with that!)

That evening, my friend Katie, her husband Justin and their cutie pie Everett came over and we all enjoyed pizza while the kids ran around screaming. It was quite chaotic! Katie and Justin are friends of mine from college. They've been on the west coast for a while so since our wedding, Mike and I have only seen them a very small handful of times....the last one was, I think, when Dylan was a wee tyke. It was great to see them and to get to meet their sweet little boy.

The next day was Monday. It being MLK day, my friend Katie had the day off so we drove the hour to her town of Livermore. We had lunch in the cute center of town, wandering, let the boys run amok then headed to her place for naps.

Dylan and Everett

During their nap is when I got the unfortunate news that the sale of our NH condo fell through. I dealt with that fallout while the kids were sleeping and then tried to put it behind me and not let it ruin the rest of the day\week. After naps, we walked to the park and played.

What up Ev?

Katie

Mom, You're Crazy!

When it got dark, we walked back to Katie's place, packed up, said goodbye, grabbed some Subway sandwiches and drove back to our home for the week in Saratoga.