We took the opportunity to turn Charl's training seminar into a family vacation in mid September. The conference was in Sacramento for 2 1/2 days, so we went 2 days early and stayed 2 days late, and we did a ton of stuff. Hopefully I can remember everything, because when we got back, we discovered that our computer was "fried", so it took a while to get back up and running...but that's another story!
Monday, September 15, our journey began at 7 am. We made it to Winnemucca for our first stop. The gas station had a grassy area where I sat on a blanket and fed Holly. Charl wouldn't go on the grass because it was the doggie bathroom. We let Andersen run around and play with the pay phone...do people use those anymore??? This stop was about 45 minutes and it was, believe it or not, our only stop until we got to my brother's house in Tracy, CA.
We pulled into my brother's house around 6 pm. Jason and Michelle live on the outskirts of Tracy and I guess you could say they live on a small farm. They have horses, chickens, dogs, cats, a calf, tractors, a snake, and a skink. Andersen got to feed the chickens, gather an egg, ride a horse and sit on a tractor. He liked all the animals except the boa constrictor...its cage was in the family room next to the couch where the kids played. Here is a video of Andersen on the horse and some other pictures from "the farm". (Click on the pictures in the small boxes that are labeled to see more pictures.) Thanks Haley for helping Anders ride your horse.
The next day Jason's kids played "hookie" from school and we went to Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton. Shadow Cliffs is a park with a beach area and lake where people go to picnic, fish, swim, etc. They also have waterslides, but they were closed. I used to go to this park when I lived in Pleasanton. It was a perfect day for a swim and a picnic lunch. We had thought about going to the ocean, but this was much closer, safer, and warmer. Since kids were back in school, we had the whole beach to ourselves. I took Charl on a brief tour of downtown P-Town and then we went to see the house I used to live in on Shearwater Ct.
Tuesday evening, we drove to the hotel in downtown Sacramento. Charl's training started the next morning. The kids slept much better in the hotel this time. (We stayed in a hotel back in April and they were difficult.) Wednesday morning I hung out with the kids and then we met up with Charl and took a walk through the parks and around the capitol building. That evening we got in the car and drove to Oak Knoll Dr. This is the street where I grew up. I got to see three families who still live on that street: Sue Violet, Jo Bowman, and Norma & Jeanette Anderson. Sue happened to be out on the street with her 2 grandsons as we drove down the street. Sue's daughter Cindy and her family now live in that house and Sue watches the kids while Cindy works. Jo is the mom of my childhood friend, Jenny. We had a nice visit, but Andersen was acting up so that's when we took a walk down the street to take pictures of my old house. From there we headed up to Norma Anderson's house. She invited us in despite being up to her elbows in wedding cakes. Her youngest daughter, Susan was getting married that weekend. Her daughter Jeanette who is a year older than me lives closeby, so she came over with her son. We had a fun visit. Since I showed up unannounced, I only expected to take a picture of my house, but to re-connect with my childhood friends was such a treat. I was lucky that everyone happened to be at home.
My childhood house: 4251 Oak Knoll Dr. I think the trees were "twigs" when we moved.
Close up of the front porch. I believe the porch swing is the one my grandpa and dad made, but we left it with the house.
The Andersons. Norma is holding Holly. Jeanette is holding her son Marcus. Andersen and Marcus were instant little friends. It was exciting to hear that Jeanette was baptized shortly after marrying her husband, who was already a member.
This is my house on Shearwater Ct. in Pleasanton, CA.
Thursday was another full day. My friend Elise and her 2 kids Kate and Matthew met me at Fairy Tale Land. It's a big park with playgound toys themed after Nursery Rhymes. It's very 70's...I went there on a Kindergarten field trip. I think the kids had fun playing on all the slides and stuff. Thanks Elise for meeting me (she lives about 40 minutes from Sac.). I don't think I could have done it without an extra set of grown up hands. Even at that, Andersen managed to fall out of the stroller TWICE. Here are pictures from the park. (click to see all pictures.)
Later that afternoon, while the kids were napping, I arranged to meet Jenny Bowman. She lived on Oak Knoll with me and we were best friend growing up. Since she lived only 10 minutes from downtown, we decided to get take out and eat at her house rather than dealing with kids in a restaurant. She has a cute house with a great backyard and a cat that kept Andersen entertained. (Not sure the cat felt the same.) It was fun to see her and talk about our elementary school friends. Oops, I forgot to take a picture.
Friday was the last day of the seminar. It ended at 11:30 am, so I spent the morning packing everything up. We headed back to Jason and Michelle's for one more night. We were going to go to another lake area when the kids got home from school, but Michelle had a meeting with Mason's teacher and she had to move a Japanese student to a new home, and Sydney had a birthday party. So, we just hung out at the house and had a BBQ and played Guitar Hero.
Saturday was the last big day of the trip. We packed everything up and went to Six Flags Discovery Park, in Vallejo. Elise and her family, and Mica and her family met us there. Kristin couldn't come to the park because her nephew had a birthday party that afternoon. This amusement park is so huge that it was hard to do everything, but we still had a good time. We mostly did kiddie stuff, but I did get to go on the big roller coaster so I was happy about that. Andersen is still too small to do most stuff, but he did like what he could do.
After the park we all went to Elise's house and Kristin met up with us. We ordered food in and visited all night long. We stayed at Elise's that night and got up the next morning and drove back home. We had such a good time and thanks to Jason & Michelle and Elise & Alan for letting us stay with you.
Me and my good friends: Kristin, Elise & Mica. Mica, baby Tyler is sooo cute. Congrats on your little boy. It was so fun to see you all. Come and visit us anytime!
4- Thanksgiving Day. I really didn't take many pictures on this day, but I did get some "dessert" pictures. Gwen got to lick the beaters from the whipped cream and she was sharing with Holly. I got Andersen eating his pie which. by the way, was the only thing he ate that day. I also had to document Granny eating her "killer" pie. It had caramel, macadamia nuts, pumpkin, cream cheese and who know what else. The caramel set up too much and it was too hard to cut or put a fork through it, so you just had to pick it up and eat it. 
Granny's "KILLER" pie.
