Our first stop in California (after Grambot and PawPaw's house, of course), was Davis, to see Sophie, Alex, Manu, and Leo. We wanted to go on a Wednesday so that we could attend the HUGE farmer's market put on by the city (and next Wednesday we're heading up the coast towards Oregon). Before the market opened though, we spent the afternoon at their apartment and pool, just hanging out and grilling and swimming. The kids were so ecstatic to see Manu - it was adorable!
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| Sophie, I apologize for posting a silly face photo of you, but it's the only one we grabbed where you could see all the kiddos at the table. We had grilled brats and corn on the cob - yummy! |
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| These 3 peas in a pod have missed each other so very much... |
After lunch and swimming, Sophie brought out the fixins for ice cream cones and you would have thought James won the lottery he was so happy!
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| I discovered the trick to get a photo of multiple young children at once... give them a treat and sit them in a row. As long as you don't mind Mexican chocolate ice cream smiles, you're good to go! |
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| I don't remember James being so much taller than Manu... |
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| Cowboy Manu and Optimus Prime James, ready to go to the market. |
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| We made quite the parade going down the sidewalk... |
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| A little bounce house fun. |
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| And a little playground fun. |
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| And a little carousel fun (this one is operated by a person pedaling a bike-like pump, so it goes as fast as the operator can move!) |
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| And then a little rock wall climbing fun. Manu had done this previously and quickly scaled himself up to the top of the 30 ft wall, punching the red button, and descending like a pro. James tried quite a few times, but couldn't muster enough confidence to get past the second to last section. Cora took a few tries, but eventually got herself to the top and was super proud of herself! |
We had a very fun afternoon, and would have loved to stay until sunset to watch the Mexican free-tailed bats fly out of the nearby preserve, but the kids were exhausted (and James had an EPIC meltdown in the car on the way home due to it), and honestly, we were pretty tired ourselves after a very long day of travel the day before. We're so glad we had the opportunity to go visit our friends (who we'll be seeing multiple times over this vacation, luckily) and thankful Grambot and PawPaw were willing to share their grandkids on day one of this west coast adventure. And so it begins!
