We left on Monday afternoon and returned on Saturday, so I am going to try and remember some highlights from each day. Overall, the trip was relaxing, eventful, and full of much needed family time. We only get together as a full family (my parents, my sister and her family, and my family) once a year so I cherish the time when it comes.
MONDAY: Monday was our travel day. We decided to leave in the afternoon just before Graham’s nap in the hopes of getting Graham to sleep for a big chunk of the 7 hour drive. I took Graham to the YMCA in the morning so he could get in some solid play time and our plan worked like a charm. He slept for the first 3 hours of the drive and was mellow the rest of the way. We stopped for a long dinner and let Graham do laps around the parking lot before getting back in the car. We got to Sacramento an hour past Graham’s bedtime but he was in a good mood and played with his relatives while I unloaded the car and got Graham’s bedroom set up.
TUESDAY: After a decent sleep-in and family breakfast, Nick, Graham, Grammy, and I headed to the park. Graham had loved the park last year, so we were expecting the same, but he wasn’t nearly as interested this year. After letting him run in an open field and play in his first true mud puddle, we gave up on the park and went to the fish hatchery. The fish hatchery has a ton of cool stuff to look at. Full size salmon climbing a ladder, rows and rows of tanks filled with baby steelhead trout, an interactive museum, etc. Graham squealed with delight when we threw in a handful of fish food to the steelheads and stared at the full-size salmon through the protective fence, but his favorite part of the trip was riding in the employee’s cart. A major meltdown ensued when we finally pried him away:
Nick and my dad went to lunch for a special father/son-in-law meal while I stayed home and played two intense games of chess with my nephew Cameron. He is quite the chess wiz, so I was proud of myself for beating him (even though he is only eight years old). After dinner we celebrated our first night of Hanukkah, even though the real Hanukkah is later in December. Cameron lit the menorah, we surveyed the loot, my dad modeled his new chef’s jacket, and Graham wasted no time opening his first present:
Earlier in the evening, Auntie Rachey gave Graham his own stuffed menorah and Uncle Andrew helped Graham play with his new set of mini construction vehicles:
WEDNESDAY: Wednesday, I woke to the smell of fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls:
My sister makes the best cinnamon rolls in the world (the secret is the moist, dense, potato dough that she starts with). My sister made chocolate babka the first morning as a cinnamon roll substitute but we quickly let her know that we needed the cinnamon rolls to make it feel like a true family get together.
Next, Nick, Graham, and I went for a visit to the Sacramento Railroad Museum. Wow! Boy oh boy do I wish we had one of those in Santa Barbara. It was sooooo cool. They had electric trains whizzing by in elaborate display cases, tons of full size train cars, and a full second floor of Thomas trains for toddlers to play with. Graham loved every second of his trip.
Watching the electric trains:
Checking out the life size trains, including a dining car where the employee taught Graham how to chime the bells to indicate the supper was ready:
Playing with the toy trains:
Graham even loved the cool buildings of Old Town Sacramento when we left the museum. He watched as the horse drawn carriage disappeared into the distance (you can just barely see it):
After all the excitement, Graham fell asleep on the car ride home. I was scheduled to go to lunch with my dad so I left my mom in charge to put Graham down for his nap (but I warned her that it may be difficult because of his cat nap in the car).
My dad and I had a scrumptious lunch at Mongolian BBQ and I was feeling good until my luck turned when we read our fortune cookies. My dad waved his hand over both cookies and chose the one that spoke to him. I read my fortune first – “It is time to step up your exercise routine.” My dad went second – “all of your dreams will come true.” Hum.
My bad luck continued when I came home and was informed that Graham had not napped and worst of all… he had learned how to climb out of his crib (you can read the previous post for the full saga that has ensued since this little discovery of Graham’s).
After dinner, we had our second night of Hanukkah. Looks like Graham is getting the hang of this present thing:
THURSDAY: Happy Thanksgiving. We had a mellow day at home that, of course, started with cinnamon rolls! While Uncle Andrew cooked the turkey, I tried to get some pictures of Graham, dressed up for Thanksgiving in his new robot sweater:
After lots of play around the house, Graham decided it was time for Daddy to stop playing the piano and take him for a walk. Graham marched right up to Nick, took Nick's hand off the keys and closed the lid of the piano:
Well, Graham won, so Daddy bundled him up for a walk outside, but Graham decided he didn’t want to wear his hat and mittens:
Graham went down late for his nap, because it took so long to get him to fall asleep (instead of climbing out of his crib) so he was still asleep when we started Thanksgiving. It was nice to get in some solid eating before needing to shift the focus to Graham. Yum:
When Graham woke up, he was pleased to be included in the festivities, but wasn’t so sure about his meal:
I loved the usual turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole, but we also had some great additions this year. The turkey was stuffed with a veal/gluten free stuffing (for my sister), we had baked root vegetables, squash soup with homemade dipping rye bread, and an apple pie and chocolate cake that we started eating a day early so we wouldn’t be too full to savor the taste.
FRIDAY: The big event scheduled for Friday morning was our annual family pictures. The hallway in my parents’ house is lined with a family picture from every year of my life. This year, we decided to hire a photographer to come to the house to take the photos (instead of going into a studio) and I was soooo excited for the improvement in quality of the photos (that I was anticipating). We scouted out some lovely spots in the front yard with big trees full of fall leaves as the backdrop. Everyone put on their coordinating outfits and we were set to go. One HUGE problem. Graham threw the fit of all fits and cried straight through the entire photo shoot. I’ll share the pictures when we get them, but I doubt we got even one good one :( I was devastated. After getting over the trauma of the family pictures, I enjoyed a long chat with my sister and spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for our last family dinner which included an awesome turkey soup (made from the leftovers) and matzo ball soup and latkes to go with the Hanukkah celebrating. Graham got the special treat of being able to open a present at the table. He loved his Disney bath toys so much that he kissed Mickey right away:
SATURDAY: My sister and her family left bright and early to catch their flight back to Seattle. We had a relaxed morning of packing because we planned on another mid-afternoon departure to accommodate Graham’s nap schedule.
Once we were packed, we said goodbye to my dad and headed off (with my mom in a separate car) to Fairytale Town. This is another WOW place. It is a small theme park dedicated to fairytales and geared towards toddlers. We posed at the entrance where Graham got to meet his beloved Humpty Dumpty for the first time:
Once inside, Graham took off running. Live sheep, the Little Old Women who Lived in a Shoe, Little Hiawatha’s Teepee, a castle that housed the Knights of the Round Table (but Graham didn’t want to sit on King Arthur’s throne), Captain Hook’s pirate ship, Jack and the Beanstalk (including the giant’s foot and some slides), the Little Engine that Could, a hippo water fountain, and so much more (including a chance for Graham to pretend he was a scarecrow, just like at Halloween):
Graham loved running along the raised crooked mile track but I would only let him do it once because I was worried about him falling. Daddy followed close behind:
But hands down, Graham’s favorite thing was a red tractor that he could climb up to all by himself. He visited the tractor twice before we left:
We had time for lunch before leaving town so we decided to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory. They have a caboose inside the restaurant and Graham sang about seeing the Little Red Caboose all the way to lunch.
We initially were seated inside the caboose, but then we decided it would be more fun for Graham to sit outside so he could look at it. He stared at the caboose straight through his bottle:
When his kid’s meal of mac and cheese and apple sauce came, he fed himself and licked his plate clean. What a big boy:
It was a great end to our trip:
We said goodbye to my mom and drove home with an exhausted little boy who was just as mellow and pleasant as on the drive out, and we are already looking forward to next year!
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