Vacations for all!

(well...maybe not for B and Tia. Read on...)

For our 3rd anniversary, Justin and I decided that a 3 night trip was needed! One night was spent at our wedding site, The SeaVenture (amazing as always) and the next two were spent in Huntington Beach (newly amazing!!). B and Tia volunteered their kiddo sitting services for the week and even chose to host at their house! (a little crazy I thought but wasn't going to argue...much) So the following pictures and stories are courtesy of B and Tia (and Sonnet). I tried to talk B into being my very first Guest Blogger-but she denied me! ;-) So I'll try to do their adventure justice.

The kids arrived with B in Hayward Saturday afternoon. I hear the drive was uneventful (sigh of relief) and everyone was happy to be at B's house! Unpacking with 2 kids roaming the house was a bit challenging...Camren ended up hitching a ride on B's back to keep her out of trouble! Beth and Maria's friend Sonnet came to offer up reinforcements since Maria had to work that night. Everybody enjoyed a picnic dinner since Some Body (alright...me) forgot to pack Camren's highchair. But really...2 kids packed with clothes, food and medicines for 4 nights and all I forgot was the chair?? Not bad!

The next day was Sunday and the family hit the road into SF for the Pride Parade. Camren napped. Jax walked. And Sonnet pushed the stroller loaded down with their gear! And B?? She was following my requests for pictures...of everything!

The weather was beautiful. The kids got to see most of the parade. Jax' favorite part was the motorcycles. Cam's fav was eating. ;-) Camp was set up in front of City Hall. It was there, I understand, that Jax decided to entertain the masses with an impromptu dance party. No one can resist the call of The Black Eyed Peas, especially not my Jax!

B doing her photo duties.

During Camren's naps, Jax got to do all sorts of fun stuff in the basement room. He tried his hand at playing the drums, singing in a microphone, throwing darts, boxing, bench pressing...I have photographic evidence of it all!! This boy had a great time with out his sister in the mix! Best of all I'm sure was having the undivided attention of his B and Tia.

Since the kids were going to be in the Bay, we put out notice (sorry again Michelle and TJ) that the kids were going to be in the area for visits if anyone was available. So Sunday night, the Fearsome Foursome made it up the hill (literally...Bob and Kelley live at the top. B and Tia at the bottom of the same street) to have dinner with Papa and Nana. I understand there was a lot of swimming but no race car this time--which shocked everyone!

Papa got some good girlie snuggles.

Monday night the crew made it back to the Ranch for dinner with Uncle T, Auntie Michelle and that adorable boy cousin Wyatt. Again--more swimming and lots of fun that we were sad to miss out on.

Tuesday brought lots of packing. And Beth made the trip to Merced with the kids...solo! They all stayed the night at MeeMaw's house before making the trip home to Fresno Wednesday. Whew! That's a lot of activity in such a short amount of time!! No wonder my kids and B looked so tired when we saw them! ;-) But they did have a great time (from the gazillion pictures and video we've seen) and it was awesome knowing that even if Justin and I weren't there, our kids were still surrounded with love. Thanks Beth and Maria!! Let's do it again next year!