California

Some months ago we began planning a trip to California for Adalyn's third birthday. The final plan was for me to go out August 1st and get some one-on-one time with little Miss A while her parents took off for a few days (to celebrate their 10th anniversary!) and then for Ivan to fly out the following week, in time for the birthday festivities. Some things happened right before, that almost derailed our plans (more on that in another post), but thankfully it all worked out in the end. Yeah!

I had a couple days with Jon, Nat and Adalyn first and it was fun to get to do things with them. Like go to the library for story time, after which Adalyn not only picked out books but also helped check them out:

That evening we went to the weekly concert-in-the-park within walking distance of their place. The park is absolutely beautiful and lots of people were out enjoying the lovely evening, the live music, food vendors and their neighbors.

Then Jon and Nat left and I got to enjoy hanging out with Adalyn and the pets. Adalyn is such a ham!

I shared a couple other photos from this time in my last post.

Ivan arrived the day after Jon and Nat returned, several days before the birthday party. Getting away ourselves for two nights/three days was part of the plan, made possible because Jon and Nat let us use their vehicle. We drove north to Sonoma and thoroughly enjoyed our first get-away in a really long time. I chose the lovely airbnb accommodations based on the photos of the back yard. We were not disappointed!

Mostly we just kicked back and rested, but we did wander into Sonoma for lunch the two days we were there. We'd been talking about how much the area reminded us of Argentina, but Ivan was really surprised to find a tree downtown with the Argentine national flower!

Natalie put a lot of time and thought into making a list of things we could do and see but time constraints (and the fact that we were just really tired) meant we only did one: a tour and cheese tasting at Achadinha Farm.

Ivan met a kindred spirit in co-owner Donna, and we stayed a long while after the tour talking about farming.

Back at Jon and Nat's we were excited to hit the Saturday Farmer's Market with them. It's the biggest one we've ever been to and I was thrilled to find a gluten free bakery stall. Oh my word! Weeks later I still dream of their cheddar rolls and drool just thinking about their chocolate chip rolls. *sigh* But the star of the market is, of course, the bountiful harvest of fruits and veggies.

Saturday afternoon was the long awaited for birthday party! Adalyn is obsessed with all things princess so she had to wear her princess tutu and each toddler got either a tiara or crown to wear. They were so cute!

They had the party at the Junior Gym which was great for the kids to run around and have lots of fun things to do (and release all that energy!).

Our last full day in California was Adalyn's actual birthday and we headed south to the beach. It was a little chilly and overcast, but to me that's perfect beach weather :)

We ended the day at Sam's Chowder House where we stuffed ourselves on seafood. I love this particular photo of Jon and Natalie. They are such nuts!

Our trip home didn't go quite as planned. A two hour delay leaving San Francisco meant we missed the last connecting flight to Ft. Wayne, so the airline put us up at a Hyatt hotel near O'Hare and we caught a flight out the next afternoon.

We're so grateful for the time we got to spend with Jon, Natalie and Adalyn! Living across the country is hard for this Nina and Papa who'd love to see them more often, but it just makes the time we do have together even more special!