Let me first say that when we were out of the car we had a great time.
But we were in the car way too much.
I really thought it would be fine (and it was) because leela is a good sleeper and she has never been much of a car seat fusser. Well she is now.
We headed up north to visit friends and family.
My cousin is going into the Navy so we wanted to go see him before he went in.
We also wanted to see some other friends in the area while we were up there.
So friday morning we get on the road at about 640am and we start off great.
Mom is in the back with the girls leela is snoozing dakota is happy about the adventure and very awake.
In important sidenote instead of taking the larger of my parents two cars somehow we (they) decided to take the smaller car. So as you can imagine the back seat was absolutely uncomfortable.
So they we go cruising along laughing, singing mama mia all seems right.
Then stop number one somewhere on the grapevine to switch drivers.
I start driving and dad takes a snooze mom is squished in the back entertaining the girls.
Stop two is about an hour after stop one, Leela needs to eat. Again more laughter because we pull in to this town, it is a sad town. Pull into a grocery store parking lot. My mom is running laps in the parking lot, dakota is pushing a shopping cart (dad send me some of those photos) she looked like a little cute homeless girl and my dad was taking her picture it was comical.
So leela eats and we get back on the road however the freeway, which is supposed to say the 5 says the 99. I was not paying attention and got us on the the 99 who knows how many miles back.
So we look for the right place to cut back over. In the midst of that stop three occurs, leela is done she is screaming mad and done done done. So mom and I switch places and I nurse for a bit and then we get on the road again but by this point leela is furious that she is still in the car seat. So at this point I do the lean over the car seat and nurse, totally dangerous but at that point we had already been in the car four hours and still had a ways to go.
I think there was another stop in there somewhere, I tried to drive again to no avail.
We made it to Larkspur, where the ferry stops crossing the sf bay.
From there my parents headed to jenner and my girlfriend picked me up to head to her place in santa rosa. Tisa has joey d. (4) and violet (2) so the kids were just thrilled to see each other as were tisa and i.
We finally made it to her place around 4 and we were thrilled.
The kids got right to playing and i got right to my first glass of wine, yummy.
It was great to see tisa.
For dinner we went to this awesome indian place, so so good.
And there was belly dancing.
And as we were sitting there waiting for the dance dakota turns around to the young man sitting behind us and says 'there is a belly dancer here'
to this he replies 'i know she is my girlfriend'
dakota was amazed as was joey d.
So out she came and the kids stopped eating.
After the yummy dinner back to tisas for more wine and bathes and bedtime.
The morning came and my parents came too quickly.
But we did have a nice leisurely morning, complete with breakfast tisa made and then lunch, thanks my friend!
So we left there heading for some Dennis and Sandy's house in sacramento. Lucky for us the drive was pretty uneventful.
Dennis and my dad have been friends almost their whole lives. Their two daughters, erin and kelli, our derek's and my age about and they were there too.
And lucky for us they have a pool.
So we got there got in our suits and visited in the pool.
Dakota who has been leery of big pools and dunking totally conquered that fear she was dunking and jumping in and loving it.
Sadly that visit was too short maybe, two hours.
From there we headed to our hotel literally unloaded our car freshened up and headed over to my uncle and aunts house for dinner.
My aunt and uncle live right across the street from a great but weird park.
Some the the structures/apparatuses were just way off but dakota could have cared less.
We got a nice family photo in and some good time chatting.
I do love my family both immediate and extended.
The next morning we did mcdonalds for breakfast.
I have to say I don't like mcdonalds but their breakfasts are not half bad.
Dakota got all dressed up to go, pretty cute.
We did a quick dip in the hotel pool but it was a bit too cold for her so we headed out.
The drive home was similar to the drive up except i stayed in the back the whole time
ouch.
But we were in the car way too much.
I really thought it would be fine (and it was) because leela is a good sleeper and she has never been much of a car seat fusser. Well she is now.
We headed up north to visit friends and family.
My cousin is going into the Navy so we wanted to go see him before he went in.
We also wanted to see some other friends in the area while we were up there.
So friday morning we get on the road at about 640am and we start off great.
Mom is in the back with the girls leela is snoozing dakota is happy about the adventure and very awake.
In important sidenote instead of taking the larger of my parents two cars somehow we (they) decided to take the smaller car. So as you can imagine the back seat was absolutely uncomfortable.
So they we go cruising along laughing, singing mama mia all seems right.
Then stop number one somewhere on the grapevine to switch drivers.
I start driving and dad takes a snooze mom is squished in the back entertaining the girls.
Stop two is about an hour after stop one, Leela needs to eat. Again more laughter because we pull in to this town, it is a sad town. Pull into a grocery store parking lot. My mom is running laps in the parking lot, dakota is pushing a shopping cart (dad send me some of those photos) she looked like a little cute homeless girl and my dad was taking her picture it was comical.
So leela eats and we get back on the road however the freeway, which is supposed to say the 5 says the 99. I was not paying attention and got us on the the 99 who knows how many miles back.
So we look for the right place to cut back over. In the midst of that stop three occurs, leela is done she is screaming mad and done done done. So mom and I switch places and I nurse for a bit and then we get on the road again but by this point leela is furious that she is still in the car seat. So at this point I do the lean over the car seat and nurse, totally dangerous but at that point we had already been in the car four hours and still had a ways to go.
I think there was another stop in there somewhere, I tried to drive again to no avail.
We made it to Larkspur, where the ferry stops crossing the sf bay.
From there my parents headed to jenner and my girlfriend picked me up to head to her place in santa rosa. Tisa has joey d. (4) and violet (2) so the kids were just thrilled to see each other as were tisa and i.
We finally made it to her place around 4 and we were thrilled.
The kids got right to playing and i got right to my first glass of wine, yummy.
It was great to see tisa.
For dinner we went to this awesome indian place, so so good.
And there was belly dancing.
And as we were sitting there waiting for the dance dakota turns around to the young man sitting behind us and says 'there is a belly dancer here'
to this he replies 'i know she is my girlfriend'
dakota was amazed as was joey d.
So out she came and the kids stopped eating.
After the yummy dinner back to tisas for more wine and bathes and bedtime.
The morning came and my parents came too quickly.
But we did have a nice leisurely morning, complete with breakfast tisa made and then lunch, thanks my friend!
So we left there heading for some Dennis and Sandy's house in sacramento. Lucky for us the drive was pretty uneventful.
Dennis and my dad have been friends almost their whole lives. Their two daughters, erin and kelli, our derek's and my age about and they were there too.
And lucky for us they have a pool.
So we got there got in our suits and visited in the pool.
Dakota who has been leery of big pools and dunking totally conquered that fear she was dunking and jumping in and loving it.
Sadly that visit was too short maybe, two hours.
From there we headed to our hotel literally unloaded our car freshened up and headed over to my uncle and aunts house for dinner.
My aunt and uncle live right across the street from a great but weird park.
Some the the structures/apparatuses were just way off but dakota could have cared less.
We got a nice family photo in and some good time chatting.
I do love my family both immediate and extended.
The next morning we did mcdonalds for breakfast.
I have to say I don't like mcdonalds but their breakfasts are not half bad.
Dakota got all dressed up to go, pretty cute.
We did a quick dip in the hotel pool but it was a bit too cold for her so we headed out.
The drive home was similar to the drive up except i stayed in the back the whole time
ouch.
