Surprise - California trip

The only way I can describe our decision to drive to California for a weekend was that we had a moment of insanity. But insane or not, on Sept 23 we loaded up the car with our two boys, and drove to California to see Spencer's family. We had not been to California since last summer and we really wanted Roman to have a chance to see his aunts, uncles and cousins. We left as soon as Roman got out of school that Thursday and drove until late that night. It took us about 12 hours to get there with all the stops we had to to make to feed Hudson and for Roman to go to the bathroom.

When we got there we all just fell asleep. The next morning we met Spencer's aunt Jill at this little cafe for breakfast so we could see her (even for a few minutes). I chose an omelet for breakfast. It was probably the best omelet I've EVER had. And it was so big I had half of it left. Roman had a mickey mouse pancake with a fruit face and sausage. He loved his too. (for some reason we forgot to get our camera out that morning, we were too busy talking and eating.) We went from there to Spencer's brother Steve's house to surprise him.

Before we went to breakfast with Jill Spencer and Roman went over to the cemetery to visit his grandparents graves. While they were there Spencer explained to him that Grandma and Grandpa were buried there. Roman was so confused. He got a little sad and said "Grandma and Grandpa died? But I love them!" Spencer had to back track and explain that it was his great-grandma and grandpa, it was daddy's grandma and grandpa. Since no one knew that we were coming we thought it would be funny if we sent Roman to the door alone. Spencer's dad answered the door and Roman looked at him and said "Grandpa I thought you were dead!" He asked "What?" And Roman repeated himself "I thought you were dead." So Spencer had to explain to his dad why Roman thought it was dead.

We spent the afternoon with Spencer's brother and his family and his dad and step-mom. Roman got to know their turtle and fed it dandelions (apparently a favorite treat of the turtles)

Roman didn't really know Evan and they were having a little bit of a hard time warming up to each other. But Grandma stepped right in and offered to take the boys to the park to play. She knew that would break the ice. So off they went. Roman wore Grandma's backpack for her.

They got to the park and had a great time playing together. Grandma sent us a picture so we could see that they were just having a great time together.

After they were done playing at the park they were so tired that Spencer had to go pick them up.

When Quentin and Ella got out of school we all went on a little hike (it was way too hot to hike so some of us didn't go all the way to the top) then out to dinner at Red Lobster. Roman fell asleep on our way to the hike and he was so tired we got him out of the car and were headed up the hill before he woke up.