My sister and niece came for a visit the last week of February; as I'm sure most of you read over on Tim's blog, but I always have to tell my side of the story!
Tuesday evening I picked the girls up at the airport; a pretty standard pick up, nothing too exciting to report. Though I did have to park in the new cell phone lot and I'm not really sure how I felt about that one, but that's really beside the point. I was so excited to see them because I hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving; way too long. Timbra and Alani got in in the later part of the afternoon which was nice because then we got to spend a good deal of the evening together. We went and had dinner and then played at the toy store for a bit. We also had to make a run to the grocery store because I didn't have any food and when one has a pregnant woman staying with them there always needs to be food!
Wednesday I had to work a half day; I'm fortunate to work for a very caring and generous family; so Michelle offered to come home early without me ever asking! We ran up the hill (umm, in the car of course) to meet with some of the Polley's for a little play time at Funtastic, and then Timbra had her first of 2 DMV adventures. Later that evening (which was another low key just us evening) we went to Big Spoon. I've been promising to take my sister there for like her last 3 visits or something, so I'm glad we finally got to go, no one can resist a good froze yogurt when you get to top it yourself!
Thursday I had to work again, but the weather was nice so after work we went to Old Fair Oaks to the park to check out the chickens and play around. Alani was so excited to play with the chickens!! She got out of the car and went up to greet a few, but chickens being chickens they ran away. Alani turned around to me and said " I think the chickens are nervous." Seriously how can you hear a 2.5 year old say that and not just die from the cuteness and hilarity of it all. We spend about an hour at the park playing around and finding chickens; we even found a little one that we got to pet; I think that poor little guy actually was nervous, a baby. Later we dashed up the hill (same hill still in the car but twice as far) to have dinner with a group of friends who all wanted to catch a visit with Tim and see Al! It was a fun night because though I still live around here I don't get to see that group too often anymore. It was fun catching up with everyone, even if we did miss ER!
Alani and the Nervous Chicken
The Triplets
Friday My step-mom came up and all of us girls headed out for a weekend adventure. We headed up to Willow Creek which is a little town out in the middle of no where by the Trinity River. My dad went there to go fishing in October every year for about 30 years before he passed away and it's where we sprinkled his ashes. This year marks 5 years since my daddy passed away.
We set out Friday late morning for our drive; I was the designated driver of the weekend which is just the way I like it! It took us just under 6 hours to get there with stops, I'd estimated before hand 5 hours of driving which was pretty dead on because I think we had about 45 minutes worth of stops here and there for potty and food breaks! It was a long drive but a nice one. Earlier in the week Timbra had gone through my give away pile and found some road trip bingo cards I had and decided we needed them for our adventure. Since I was the driver we quickly decided that being in charge of my own board was not going to work. Timbra and Di were in a race to the finish; I just shouted out when I saw something that was on one of their boards. It actually ended up providing 2 days worth of entertainment because the last piece on Di's board was a no left turn sign and we didn't see one until Saturday afternoon!
Di focusing on her Bingo Board
Saturday we drove about an hour from Willow Creek to the ocean; it was a beautiful day and the beach was just perfect. I was most impressed at the place we stopped because there was no wind and the sand was awesome; it was fine grain but didn't stick to you after you brushed it off. I took Alani to get her feet wet in the water and I think it was a little too shockingly cold for her; she did enjoy building a little sand castle with me afterwards though. When we came into Eureka The Perilous Plunge was going on which was quite a blast to stumble upon! You can read more about that on my sister's page.
Collect Shells for her Castle
Beach Bums
Al playing pinball
Sunday we made our way up to the actual river where my dad's ashes were sprinkled; after a little muddy 4-wheeling (didn't actually require 4 wheel drive, though I did do a little fish tailing getting back out)! We spent about a half hour at the river before the rain set in which was perfect timing. I don't think any of us wanted to linger there for too long, just visit for a bit and remember/celebrate my daddy for a few minutes. After our little river expedition we headed back home. The trip home took a bit longer because we started at the river which was about 25 minutes from Willow Creek and it was raining most of the way home, but we made it back safe and sound despite the little "hot car" mishap!
The River
Monday Tim and Al had to leave; Di drove them back to the Oakland airport to fly home. The visit was great, we got to do some visiting with friends, and spend some quality time with just us! I can't wait to see them again in a few weeks in Washington! You can read more detail about their visit on Tim's blog!
2 comments:
lovely synopsis! thanks for FINALLY posting that. . i thought i did mention the "nervous chickens" well today alani told her grammy that the birds aren't "scary birds, they're just a little tiny nervous birds." SOOO funny that one!!! it's almost patrick's birthday, get ready!
Yes, a nice summary of your trip. It's great you got that time together. And, the "nervous" chicken story is so very endearing and a crack up too. What a sweet and gentle soul our Alani is (takes after her mom and auntie)
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