trillianstales: Sacramento and I've crossed the threshold to old age now

We left rainy Ohio to fly to sunny Sacramento last week. It was beautiful with temperatures above 100°F (HOT!) but definitely sunny and nice. We tried to bring some of our rain to CA since they are having a drought but that didn't work out so well (darn TSA!).

The kids at the Everest VBS at St. Joan Of Arc. I love the huge cut out of the Pope in the background

Matthew's favorite part of the plane ride was turning on and off the reading lights. This was the longest plane ride we took the kids on. Both ways we had a layover. They did great though!

Turning off the lights

We were in Sacramento from June 29th to July 4th. It was a fabulous trip! All of us plus Joel and Megan squished into Dave, Becca, and Charlotte's house. We had a blast!

Monday: We arrived late and the kids went to bed. Of course we stayed up and played a game!

Tuesday: In the morning we drove to the Jelly Belly factory and went on the tour. At different points on the tour you can try jelly beans at each stage of development.We had quite a bit of sugar that day. Of course we had to buy some jelly beans after the tour. Jenna was in heaven since there were individual jelly beans of the Harry Potter flavors. She also bought several boxes of Harry Potter Jelly beans and chocolate frogs. Sarah bought sparkly Elsa jelly beans and Matthew just got some regular jelly beans. For lunch we went to In-and-Out burger. Yum!

After lunch we swam in Dave and Becca's pool. I love their pool! The water is nice and warm and we really enjoyed having the pool to ourselves. It led to some rather interesting acrobatics in the water. This video captures Joel doing a somersault off of a rock into the pool. It is a little grainy but hopefully you can see the graceful way Joel glides into the water......
Tuesday night we played Madeira. It is a fun game with the added bonus that David let us take it home with us!

Joel and Sarah. Not sure what face David is making

Wednesday: We drove to San Francisco for the day. Erik, me, Joel,and Megan all bought tickets for the bay cruise. This boat cruised around the bay and Alcatraz. We even went under the Golden Gate Bridge. The cruise was incredibly windy and chilly. I brought sweaters but I think I actually needed a fleece! Dave and Becca took all the kids to the Exploratorium. It is a science center the kids really loved. Before the cruise we went to lunch at a rather fancy restaurant. Not somewhere we generally take our three munchkins. They lunch was beautiful including the kids meals. They ate every bite too!

We walked all around San Francisco looking for the entrance to the trolley cars. Just walking around the city was fun. Unfortunately we didn't get to ride them since Dave and Becca had all the kids and the Exploratorium closed early. The line was really long to ride the trolley cars. So we left the city, and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge then walked on it for a short way. The kids were exhausted by the time we got home. We still played games that night though.

lunch at Butterfly cafe in San Francisco

Bay cruise! Just a tad windy

Golden Gate Bridge

Thursday: We went to Old Sacramento Thursday morning and the train museum. It really was a nice museum with several trains including one that simulated the movement of an actual train. Jenna and Matthew went through that train with Jenna declaring it was like the Hogwarts Express! Megan, Jenna and I all wore our Harry Potter t-shirts so we could match.
For lunch we went to Dim Sum. This is something I really love! In fact, I requested that we could go to this restaurant. The kids seemed to really like it especially Sarah. There were several shrimp dishes and she loves shrimp.

We went swimming in the afternoon in the pool. Then had make your own pizzas for dinner. Delicious! Dave and Becca surprised me with a tiramisu cake for my birthday. Another surprise!!! What a treat! Obviously we still played games in the evening.

Matching Marauder's map shirts

Matthew in the engineer's seat

I was surprised by Dave and Becca with a tiramisu cake for my birthday!

Friday: David, Joel, and Erik went golfing early Friday morning. Apparently they did well even though Erik hasn't golfed in about 10 years. After that, Joel and Megan had to leave since they were driving all the way back to Minnesota. It was a long road trip but they did some sightseeing and had a good time. Friday evening Charlotte had her birthday party. Becca's family was there and we had chow mein and barbecued chicken. The chow main noodles are not supposed to be cut. This is to ensure long life. Luckily my kids have no manners and are not opposed to shoving long noodles in their faces rather than eat them delicately.

Charlotte had a great third birthday with lots of wonderful gifts and family with her. An amazing gift came from Becca's father. He created a carousel out of an erector set that lights up and moves. It was beautiful craftsmanship. I was so impressed!

While we had a wonderful trip, we did have one snag in the trip. We found out Sarah and Jenna had lice. Yuck! I ran out to rite aid and bought a comb and nix creme rinse. I gave Sarah 3 treatments and Jenna two treatments. We also combed through both girls hair every day for a few days to ensure there were no more nits. My that was a nightmare! I felt terrible for bringing lice to Dave and Becca's house. I can't imagine we will be invited back!

I've taken up a new hobby of creating signs out of re-purposed wood. We had some old plywood and pallet boards that I have created a few signs with. I gave one to Becca and Megan as gifts. I have several more I'll be giving as gifts too. It's been a fun project.

Megan and her sign

Becca and her sign

Happy Birthday Charlotte

Carousel

Saturday: We flew back Saturday exhausted yet blessed to see our family for such a great trip!

Sunday was my actual 40th birthday. This was a birthday full of great surprises and I loved it. Even though I've crossed the threshold into old age, it's been a great birthday. Hey - where's my cane!

On Sunday I washed everything, everything, EVERYTHING in the house with hot water and vacuumed all the carpet. If there is any more lice, I'm getting it! While I was doing that, Erik made me lasagna (my favorite food) for dinner and a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for dessert. The lasagna and cake were divine!!

Erik bought me a Henrietta Hen egg cooker. It makes hard boiled eggs in only 7 minutes. And they are perfectly cooked!! This shows he loves me since he hates unitaskers and the Henrietta hen is certainly a unitasker. He also bought me an induction cooktop so I can use it for canning. My electric stove top takes a long time to heat up but the induction cooktop is much faster. I canned 26 jars of jam in 4 hours with it!

Then on Monday Jen took me out to the Cheesecake Factory. That is my favorite restaurant but I haven't been there in years. This really was a fantastic birthday! I'm so thankful for my friends and family who made this birthday wonderful.