Back in September, we made a trip out to California to visit Elvin's parents. We had planned to leave on Thursday and return the following week. However, Gabriel came down with a cold, and then Karina and Eliana too. We almost called the trip off, but they all recovered and so we changed our tickets and flew down on Saturday morning instead.
We grabbed an early flight, so packed our car while it was still dark.
We grabbed our kids while they were still in bed and packed them into the car, still in their jammies. We parked our van and are taking a shuttle to the airport. This is fun for the kids.
The last time that Gabriel flew on an airplane, he was about one year old. So he did not remember how that went and he all this was new to him.
We kept him calm with the trusty iPad. He didn't want to sit on his on seat, which we paid for.
For the girls, we whipped out a new sticker book for them. That kept them busy for almost the whole flight.
After we arrived in the San Jose airport, there were hugs all around.
It was sunny and warm in California. So the kids jumped into the pool. They had really been looking forward to this, especially Eliana.
Gabriel at first didn't want to get in--he doesn't love the water. But after watching the girls have so much fun, he changed his mind and got in--in his pajamas!
Here is Karina enjoying herself.
Later on, Eliana wanted to show Yeh-yeh her piano skills. She has started up piano lessons again, after a hiatus during the summer, and has been making slow but steady progress.
For dinner, Elvin's brother's family came over and so did Elvin's cousin's family. We hadn't seen Elvin's cousin, Priscilla and her husband Augi, for over a year. And we had not met one year old Sylvie before; unfortunately, she was not very happy about posing for a picture.
We also celebrated several September birthdays, including Emily's birthday. By now, Karina, our sleepyhead, was very tired because we had woken her up early this morning.
We changed into jammies and she feel asleep in about 10 seconds, it seemed like.
The next day, a friend of Sue's (Elvin's sister-in-law) came over to take professional photos of our whole family and various combinations.
Gabriel, unfortunately, does NOT like posing for pictures. He will smile for you if you are taking spontaneous, candid pictures. But when it's a formal photo shoot, he will absolutely NOT pose for the camera. So here he is, running away from the photographer.
For a change of scenery, we took the photo shoot to a nearby park. The kids had fun playing around.
Gabriel enjoyed climbing up the climbing wall.
And we were able to get more photos... Here is a sampling:
Here is a picture with Eliana's in one of her classic laugh-out-loud moments. She does this every day.
We tried bribing Gabey with Pez candies. Here is Eliana floating one in front of him in hopes that he would pose for the camera...kind of how they wave sardines in front of Shamu at SeaWorld.
Here's one of the whole family...
We then went to the park...
Finally! Got one of the cousins together!
After the photo shoot, we grabbed lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. Gabriel enjoyed the meal and had baby corn for the first time.
Then the kids were back in the pool!
Eliana is learning to swim and is sort of reliable without a life jacket.
Eliana wanted to jump off of the diving board, just like what she does in swimming class.
Splash!
Elvin was at the bottom to make sure she floated back up to the top...
That afternoon, we drove to Stanford Shopping Center to take the girls to a very special store...The American Girl Store! It is two stories tall and is packed full of dolls, accessories, and more dolls.
It was pretty overwhelming, especially for Eliana. There were many many things to look at and admire. Each of the girls were allowed to pick out a certain thing, and Eliana simply could not make up her mind.
Karina, on the other hand, took 5 minutes and then decided that she wanted to get a set of twins. Our girls are so different!
Gabriel also, was fairly impressed with the offerings in this store.
And for dinner, we ate at In-N-Out. It brought back memories. The kids enjoyed the burgers and milkshakes too.
That evening, after baths, the girls got to open their presents from the day's outing.
Here is Karina holding her twin toddlers. ("They are not babies!", she will tell you.)
Eliana got a Rebecca doll, who has white pajamas. Eliana also got the matching person-sized pajamas.
The next day, we decided to go to Happy Hollow, which is a small amusement park and zoo for little kids. Our kids love that place and we go there every time we visit California.
The merry-go-round is a favorite of the girls.
We also took Gabriel on...but he didn't want to sit on an animal by himself. He was very unsure of the whole thing.
He did enjoy going on the cars that go round and round, though.
The girls also enjoyed it. If you sit on the red firefighter cars, you can pull on the rope to make the bell go "ding!"
We took a ride on Danny the Dragon. But only the girls. Gabriel started freaking out when we were taking our seats so Emily took him out before the ride started.
Gabey enjoyed playing on the huge play structure they have.
We also visited the snake lady giving a talk. Only Eliana was brave enough to pet the reticulated python.
Gabriel enjoyed petting the goats. He also thought the poo pellets on the ground was goat food and tried feeding those to the goats.
The girls also enjoyed pretending to be archeologists and digging up dinosaur bones that were covered with sand.
Afterwards, we came back home to Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai's house. After Gabriel got up from his nap, the kids entertained themselves by jumping on the bed.
Then back to the pool!
Gabriel was more amenable to getting into the pool this time...
The next day, on Tuesday, we drove to Santa Cruz to visit one of Emily's childhood best friends. This friend has a two year old boy, and also, 3 month old twins! Our kids were excited about meeting real live twin babies! A boy and a girl...
On the drive back to San Jose, the kids were exhausted and Karina fell asleep--she was pretty tired after 3 full days of fun and activities.
We flew back home, to rainy Vancouver. When disembarking the airplane, Karina put on her hoody sweatshirt, and made sure that her new baby doll wouldn't get wet by tucking the baby into her sweatshirt.
And finally back home, our little sleepyhead fell asleep early that night...
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