Pleasanton and Fresno

We got to see so much family on this trip to California. It was the best! Such a fun mix of sightseeing and fun with family. Believe it or not, we got to see three of our siblings while on this trip. My brother Dallin and his wife Krystel are in California for the summer while Dallin has a super-fancy software engineering internship. My sister Camille and her family live in Visalia, just south of Fresno. And Tommy's brother Shane and his family just moved to Visalia as well! So we got to see all of their homes and spend some good time with each of them. 

We saw Dallin and Krystel when we were leaving the Bay Area to head south to Fresno. They took us to a park on Saturday morning where the kids played and the adults chatted. We also spent several hours the night before talking in our hotel room while the kids slept (we got a suite so we had a living room and bedroom, yes!). It was awesome!

And they took us to eat at a burger/diner place near their house for lunch before we headed down to Fresno.

After that we drove the two and a half hours down to Fresno where we visited Tommy's grandma and stayed with her. It was so nice to get to see Grandma Merrill and to spend a few days at her house.

On Sunday we went to visit Tommy's grandpa's grave in Fresno.

Lucy adopted this throne in Grandma Merrill's front room. 

The boys were cracking up watching a show on the Kindle.

 The boys' favorite part of this trip--plenty of time to play with their cousins! Tommy's brother Shane and his family live in Visalia now, and they came up to Fresno to play with us a few times. Dane and Graham were in heaven playing with Jaxon and Kai.

On the Monday while we were there, we went to the Fresno Zoo with my sister and her kids. We've seen so many pictures of the zoo from Camille that it was really fun to visit. 

Love these cousins together!

The giraffe feeding was such a highlight! I love the boys' faces in these pictures!

Lucy was not a fan of the giraffes. She was freaking out.

Lucy and James are just a few months apart. Such cuties. 

My parents' five grandkids all together!

The boys loved helping out around Grandma Merrill's house. She asked them to help plant some flowers in her planter, and they happily obliged. They also loved watering her plants (although they have pipes that do the watering) and sweeping her patio with water every day.

Tommy and his grandma!

San Francisco Day 2

One thing I loved about this trip was that I got to picture Tommy's childhood a little better. Tommy was born in Oakland and came home to this house below when he was born, just a mile from his aunt's house where we were staying:

I've always heard about the Leiningers living in California, and this is where Tommy's dad grew up, but it was really fun to actually see it and to be able to envision it a lot better. I also met a lot more of Tommy's extended family this time on his mom's side, which was also really nice for the same reason. 

We went on a boat tour of the Bay--and we bought a sourdough bear from Boudin's to eat on the way.

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge.

What a great picture! Maybe this will be our Christmas card! Haha all the kids were tired and cranky and determined not to look at this picture, haha. The nice guy taking the picture did his best but they refused.

Alcatraz behind us.

We spent a while walking around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.

And rode on the double-decker carousel there, which was a highlight of course.

And we trekked forEVER down to my dad's favorite pupusa place, La Santaneca, for lunch. 

Then we had plans to meet up with Tommy's cousins south of the city, so we decided to drive out to the coast to make it a prettier drive. We stopped at the beach for an hour or so, and this was how the boys felt about it:

They were in heaven! It was absolutely freezing but they didn't care. Of course they both got wet even though we warned them not to, and they didn't mind at all. They could have stayed there all day, even without sand toys or swimsuits.

Lucy had just woken up from a nap when we got here, so she spent most of the time snuggled up and trying to wake up.

Look at this cute girl.

Then we went to Tommy's cousin Dana's house for dinner. It was so nice of them to host a big group of us, including our crazy kids. 

Luckily, Tommy's cousin Paige has two kids too, so Dane and Graham had fun playing with them.

Tommy and Aunt Shamm.