Tolomei Tidbits: California

This past Friday my Dad (he had driven up to Seattle the night before), the kids and I took a plane to Oakland, CA to visit my grandparents. Dad had found some reasonable Southwest tickets and thought it would be nice for my Nonno (Italian for grandfather) and Nanna to see the kids. It had been about two years since they last saw them. It is difficult for my Nonno to travel now as he had a major stroke a year ago November. He's made incredible progress, but traveling is still a little difficult.

The kids got a kick out of flying. They are so clueless to the fact that they've been on an airplane more than many adults we know in their little lifetime, they just don't remember it since it was when they were even younger and we lived further away.

Anyway, we had such a nice time visiting my grandparents this weekend. My Uncle John and Aunt Kathe also drove down from Northern Cali to spend the weekend with us. My cousin Rachel who now lives in San Fran spent part of Saturday with us, and my Cousin Ted who is home from Hawaii for awhile came by as well. It was so nice catching up with everyone and letting the kids have a chance to get to know some of my Dad's side of the family.

Friday night was a little rough in the hotel though. Gabi slept in the bed with me and even though I had put a pillow next to her to keep her from falling, she still managed to take a nasty dive in the middle of the night, hitting her head on the heater. Poor thing cried off and on for an hour and half after that, asking if we could go home to "Mama's house," and "sleep in my bed." Dad and I didn't get much sleep that night with all her fussing as she didn't fall back asleep until about 3 a.m., and then she had to be totally spooning me the rest of the night because she was so paranoid about falling. As you can imagine, it wasn't very comfortable with me in my pregnant state with her tiny little "heater" body next to mine. Emilio slept through it all thankfully, but I know my Dad had to deal with the wiggle worm's feet in his face and sides throughout the night.

On Saturday, we went and fed the ducks at Lake Merritt and then to Children's Fairyland . Pictures from Sat. will have to come later from my aunt's camera, as my batteries were dead. I'm also looking forward to getting some of the photos my Uncle John (who is a professional wildlife photographer) took of my kiddos, he caught some great ones!

That night we had torta, salami, lasagna and bread from our favorite Italian delicatessen, Genova. Delicious! Saturday night was a much better sleep in the hotel. I ended up having Gabi sleep in a playpen and she was fine with that. We all slept well that night.

On Sunday we were able to make it back over to Nonno & Nanna's apartment for breakfast before having to say our goodbyes and head to the airport. Besides being shoved repeatedly by a rude couple as I was boarding, and dealing with the grossness of their child throwing up multiple times across from us while we were in flight, our trip home was fine.

I'm so thankful that we had a chance to go down to California to see family before I'm no longer able to travel for awhile. The kids and I also had a great time just hanging with my Dad.