Finally!! Our CA Trip

I've been trying for days to blog about our trip to California, but for some reason, Blogger was not letting me write a post when I was on Chrome.  Arrgh!!  So I'm trying blogging from Firefox, and it seems to be working! (Anyone else have this problem?  If you don't know what I'm talking about, just scroll down and enjoy the pics from our trip!!)

Beware... there are a TON of pictures! This is our online family picture album, so feel free to skim through! =)

We left on Tuesday pretty much at the boys' naptime.  At first they didn't want to sleep, but finally they conked out for a bit. Will slept for about 45 minutes of the flights and Jack slept for a grand total of 20 minutes!  We had busy boys most of the time, but they weren't crying or screaming, so we were okay with that! (Thankfully, because of the lack of napping, they slept all night long and late in the morning!  We were afraid that they'd still be on Texas time and be up super early!)

Will finally asleep on Mommy

Jack and Grandpa playing

And Jack finally asleep!

When we arrived, Uncle Aaron, the boys and I went to Walmart for the boys' food for the week.  They got stickers, and Will promptly tried to eat his!  Jack didn't seem to realize it was on his forehead, and it stay right there for the next 20 minutes!!

Uncle Aaron and Will

 We spent the first few days staying near Gram.

Having lunch with Great Grandma Alys

 We were surprised with beautiful weather the whole time we were out in the Bay Area!!  It was so nice!!

Out for a walk in her pretty garden

While we were out there, I found an AMAZING C.raigslist find!!  Our old blue Mac.Laren stroller has been slowly getting more and more run down.  I bought in on C.raigslist last year, and we have definitely been using it a lot! So I'd been keeping an eye out for a replacement for about a month (a stroller is a MUST for me to do anything with both my boys on my own), but I wasn't finding much here in Texas. So I decided to take a look to see if there were any for sale in the SF area.  A lady was selling a brand new, in the box Mac.Laren for $105 cheaper than new!!  It was only $15 more than I found a used for, so the boys and I took a drive and picked it up!! What a great deal, and the boys are loving their new ride!

Isn't it pretty?!

Enjoying their milk on their first ride!

After a couple days near my Grandma, the boys and I went out to my cousin Lynnea's while my parents went to another cousin's wedding in Reno.  Lynnea has two precious girls, Grace and Hannah, and they boys LOVED getting to play with them over the weekend!

The boys made themselves right at home!

My other cousin Annie, came with 2 of her three girls, Cica and Inaya, and Inaya is actually 15 days younger than the boys!  She was so precious!  She kept saying "Baby" to both of the boys!!

All the cousins (l to r) Hannah, Will, Inaya, Cica, Jack, Grace

Hanna captured all the babies attention, and they were all smiles for her!

Grace serenaded the boys on her violin

Inaya is walking, and she showed the boys a thing or two about rocking chairs

The boys loved the cat, Jessie!  Not sure how much she liked them, though!

Will laughing at Hannah being silly

 

 

Silly Hannah!

Lynnea cooked everyone a wonderful meal on Saturday night, and it was fun because Grandma came out to join us! It is a big outing for a 91 year old, but she did a great job eating out with us 2 nights while we were together!

We spent Sunday down in Mountain View with my brother.  Aaron and Sara (his business partner in their company Dressrush) showed us all around the Silicon Valley area.  His company has been awarded a spot in the highly respect 500 Startups, a business incubator that helps fund and grow tech start-up companies.  We toured the office where they work every day and were amazed at all the pretty creative people (like my brother) who are all creating some incredible companies! 

We also went to the Cheesecake Factory, and the boys had a great time! They made many friends with the people walking by our table (and a huge mess on the floor)!

The boys love their Uncle Aaron, and I think he was pretty impressed by how much more they do now than when he last saw them!  I bet he won't believe what they are able to do by Christmas!

 We drove all around the Google campus, and even got a chance to ride the google bikes! (These are all over for employees to ride when they have to go other places on the huge property!)

Dad showing me how it's really done!

 The Android headquarters has huge desserts in front. (I guess each new release has a dessert name, so of course, they have huge donuts, chocolate eclairs, cupcakes, etc, all over their front grass!)

Sara, Mom and I in the Donut Hole!

Sara was letting the boys play in the kitchen and be "Chef Boyardees"!

Aaron and Mom relaxing after a long day!

 We stayed the rest of the time at my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Dan's house in Oakland.  They boys had so much fun exploring yet another new place!!

We were able to spend even more time with Grandma, which was so special for me.  It seems like every time I'm in California, we are rushing off to another city to try to fit everyone in, so it was so nice to be able to just go spend time with here so many times throughout our trip!

 We tried getting a picture of both the babies on her lap, but they are just so squirmy now and she is so fragile, that these were the best we could get!

 So we settled for being near Gram! =)

 The last night we were in town, I just had to get to the beach.  So mom, dad, the boys, Gram and I went out to a really neat part in Alameda and I got my fill of ocean! Well, bay. But it was still beautiful to see the sun setting over the water!

The boys loved all the ducks that were there!

Grandma and the boys stopping for a chat

 This isn't the greatest picture, but I just had to post it.  My dad was SuperGrandpa with the boys this week.  He had so much fun with them, and was always there to play with them, feed them, or help corral them!  It is such fun watching him be a grandpa, and he is so silly with them!  They adore him, and have learned many new tricks this week from him!

Jack was so tired that he just put his head down on Grandpa's shoulder!  So sweet!

 

 

 

'Nana Shay' and the boys!

One last visit with Gram

 This was a huge mural on the glass at the airport.  It was covered with these birds, and the boys were mesmerized by it!  It was very helpful since we were all checked in at the airport an hour before boarding! =)

The plane ride was a late one, so we were glad the boys both slept most of the way!  We were all pretty tired too!

Gigi and sleeping Will

Grandpa and sleeping Jack

 And the best thing of all was waiting for us when we arrived in Dallas... DADDY!  I think the boys must have thought they were dreaming though... can you tell that they were still pretty tired?!  It was about 11:15pm in these pictures!

What an amazing trip and I'm so glad that the boys and I went along with my parents.  It really showed me that they are super flexible little guys. I'm the one who has to become more flexible, since with twins, I've had to keep them on a fairly strict schedule for so long. But our boys were such wonderful travelers, so happy to be with everyone we were with, even with the colds they came down with the first day we were there! It was just great to get to show them off to family!  I definitely can say that I did miss my baby gates though... so much!  It is very tiring chasing two babies and keeping them out of stuff in places that aren't baby-proofed and have no gates, but I was lucky to have many extra hands to help with the baby wrangling!

The last two weeks now the boys have done so many new things!  From really truly mimicking sounds we make, animal noises, pointing to things that we are looking at or talking about, to trying their best on words, I've been so amazed at the new things they are learning!  They still don't say "mama" but I know they'll get it soon! It boggles my mind to think of how much more they'll be doing and saying by Christmas!

We are enjoying a pretty low-key few days here at home, savoring time with Daddy (he left for a business trip the morning after we got home!), and getting ready to leave for Denver on Tuesday!  We can hardly wait to introduce the boys to the extended family on Justin's side!

If you're still reading, your amazing!  Hope you enjoyed out trip to California! =)