Trip to California - Part 1

Yikes! I have been a terrible poster for the past couple months and I apologize to anyone who checks this blog hoping for an update only to find an out-of-date Easter greeting :) Anywho, regular blog posts to come!

(WARNING: This post is REALLY long - there were too many cute pictures to include!)

The girls and I returned home last week after spending seven days in the Bay Area visiting Chris' family. What a blast! The first few days were really busy. My mom and Grandma Mary flew up from L.A. to spend a few days with us and we drove south to meet my cousin Elisa and her sweet son and ADORABLE three-month old baby girl. It's fun to have a relative with kids the same age as ours!
(I just realized that Carol has all of the pictures from the first day of the trip, so I'll add some soon :)

The next day we drove inland to visit my grandma Ginny. We had lunch at a cool pizza place that had an outdoor play structure and arcade games that kept Maryn entertained. It was such a treat to spend time with four amazing women at once - how often do you get pictures with four generations in them?!!









The day Mom and Grandma left we spent the morning on grandpa DB's "fishing" boat. I say that in quotations because this boat is much nicer than your average fishing vessel. Lucy in particular was lulled by the water, and despite being bundled in a cumbersome life jacket she fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the two-hour cruise around the bay.



I have to say, I think I could get used to having a boat! We even saw a statuesque sea lion perched on a buoy as we returned to the harbor.



Maryn and I enjoyed some of Grandma Carol's famous "belly bomb" chocolate chip cookies on the trip. It was a perfect morning!



Here are some of my other favorite pictures from the boat trip:

Grandma Mary and Lucy


Mary, Kathy, and a sleepy Maryn


Carol and Maryn outside


There's just something about grandpas interacting with their grandkids that is so sweet.


The rest of our trip was slightly less busy (in a good way!) with lots of time just hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's. Maryn loved to water the plants in the backyard and got to play with some of Aunt Laurel's old toys that Carol so thoughtfully held on to. She especially liked the Barbie swimming pool:) But her favorite thing by far was playing with the awesome Victorian doll house that Grandma Carol made and lovingly decorated with the sweetest furniture and accessories.

Maryn took every opportunity to play with it, arranging and rearranging each room (or more accurately piling all the furniture into the same room). It will be fun to see what she does with the house next time we visit.

On Saturday I got to spend some time with a friend of ours from college. Melissa just graduated from law school (congratulations, Melissa!) I hadn't seen her since we moved to Portland and it was great to catch up. I'm so thankful for our friendship!


There's still another few days to blog about but thinking about how much we did is wearing me out! I'll try to post the rest tomorrow :)