A Long Post About My Week in Stockton

Goodness, I'm getting kind of emotional looking at these pictures from my last week in CA- the week (well Sunday evening- Thursday morning) with my family in Stockton.  I just feel so incredibly blessed to have the wonderfully loving and fun family I have (both the one I was born into and the one I married into!).  

Once the kids and I arrived in Stockton from Livermore (the Nyholms very sweetly let me borrow one of their cars for my time in Stoctkon), we were greeted by my Mom, Dad, and LAUREL!!!!  Do you know how excited this made me?  It had been way too long since I had seen her and we had a really great visit.  The kids were super excited to see her too-- she of course is so good and kind with my kids.

The next day we were going to go to the beach to escape the crazy heat predicted for the day, but for some reason I just wasn't feeling it.  So we made a "beat the heat plan of attack."  First up was a new Science Museum in Lodi that I found a groupon for.  It was really fun!  There was a lot to see, learn, and do.

  

  

Anna LOVED this Newton's Cradle display!

Checking out how tornado winds feel.  Anna looks a little concerned!

Reptile hanging out on Grandmother :)

This sign made me laugh :)

Oh I should include the drama of the day story!  I went out to the car that was parked on the street just in front of the museum to get some water, and when I came back to the museum, I realized I locked the keys in the car!!!!  I felt so bad!  We hated to call my Dad for him to get the spare key, because he had a super busy day at work (which was why he wasn't out gallivanting with us).  It would take a big chunk of his afternoon to come help us, because he works on the completely other end of Stockton and he would have to go home, get the key, then drive out to Lodi, help us, and go back to work.  So we were getting desperate.  Do we call a neighbor to go into our house and find the key and bring it to us?  That seemed a lot to ask of a neighbor, though I'm sure the Bushes would have!  My Mom has AAA, but she wasn't feeling too optimistic about that option, because a couple of years ago she locked her keys in the same car and had AAA come out to unlock.  The lock guy tried getting into the car for over an hour and finally gave up!  Apparently the 2002 Camry model is super hard/impossible to break into!  Anyway, we called my Dad, but told him we would have AAA come out and when he inevitably couldn't open the car, we would have my Dad come out.

Throughout all of this, we were feeling lucky that we were in the cool air conditioned museum and the kids were having fun.  So the AAA guy came out and he struggled and struggled (in 110 degree heat, I felt so bad!) for about 30 minutes.  A random guy walking down the street, saw the key guy struggling and told him he knew exactly how to get in.  He used to be locksmith and knew the secret to that year of Camry was to have two people try to unlock it at the same time.  You could see the relief on the AAA locksmith's face as he and the random "good Samaritan" unlocked the car!!  Yay!!!  We felt so blessed, and I was able to stop feeling so bad for creating this whole mess in the first place!  I was left wondering why all locksmiths don't know "the secret" to unlocking a 2002 Camry though- they need to get on that!

Finally in the car again, we ate our yummy picnic lunch and made our way to Tracy.  I wanted to go to Target to get some cheap running clothes (I had left one of my bags in Livermore), to See's, and we wanted to see a movie.  Tracy has a new movie theater I have never gone to, so this seemed like the best bet.  

I had a great time in Target without kids. :)  Wyatt and Anna had fallen asleep so my Mom stayed in the car (with the AC on of course!) and I let Jackson play with my phone.  

See's was up next.  Oh, See's how I love you!  I think I'm glad you are not in the mall here in Winchester, because I know I would buy far too much of you!

We saw How to Train Your Dragon 2, and I thought it was a pretty good adventure movie.  I say 'pretty good' because it's kind of hard to feel great about a movie where the mother abandons her baby boy.  We stayed really cool though!  (the boys really wanted to take a picture in front of the Transformers poster, so glad I have avoided the last few of those movies!) 

So my Mom had a little bribe going with the kids.  If they memorized a poem every day, they would get a little surprise that evening.  They did indeed memorize a poem while we were driving, so their surprise were those little fireworks snake things.  It was fun seeing how excited the kids were about it.

  

Mesmerizing fire! 

I can't remember if it was Wyatt or Jackson who pointed this out, but they were very impressed with this "Captain Hook mustache."

OK so anyone that knows me, knows that I'm kind of a scardy cat.  I really thought I would be too nervous to jog by myself in Stockton, because of the high crime rate there.   Finally though, I was feeling so blah from not exercising enough, so I went out on my own in the morning.  And guess what?  I loved it!  I didn't go anywhere secluded and I would never jog by myself at night (even here), but it was a lot of fun to run through all of the neighborhoods where my childhood friends used to live.  And every time I ran by one of these trees, the strong fragrance immediately took me back in time.  It was so surreal.  I hadn't even thought about those trees (magnolia?  I'm not sure the name) ever, but that smell just screams Stockton in the summer!

Speaking of childhood friends, I was able to visit with two of the best on Tuesday morning.  Melanie (whose parents' live right across the street from mine- now she lives in AZ) invited Molly and I over to swim and visit.  It was wonderful!  There's nothing quite like being with people that know your history, ya know?

This boy was in heaven playing in the pool!

  

Trying to get a group shot :)  Melanie and I both have three (hers are Cooper-7, Gavin-4, Kylie,2).  But Molly helps fill out even more with her five (Jessica-9, Jordan-7, Max-5, Carter-3, Kate-1)! 

I thought I had a picture of this, but I guess I don't, but I wanted to include it.  For quite a while, Jessica and Anna were sitting together on the rocks and she was being so sweet with Anna.  Anna knows a cool girl when she sees her and Jessica is just a sweet, responsible girl-- both of Molly's girls are, but I just loved seeing that moment :)

  

All lined up in age order :)

And here are three mommas!  Crazy to think we all are actual adults now with growing families of our own! 

Anna getting some piano time back at Grandpa and Grandmother's.

After our visit, we drove out to Fairfield to cross off another item on our CA list, the Jelly Belly Factory!  We all had a fun time.

We were all happy with our selections and ate way too much sugar that evening!

  

  

So this isn't a great picture, but just reminds me of one of my favorite evenings of the vacation.  My Mom and I went on a great, long walk and when we walked up to the house we saw my Dad and the kids having a great time playing together.  My Dad was holding the hula hoops and the kids were taking turns jumping through them or doing tricks through them.  I just loved to see everyone laughing and making memories.  We stayed out until it was way too dark to see, and I was left with such gratitude for the grandparents my kids have :) 

And I'm sure lucky for the grandparents that I have!  My Grandma and Grandpa Call drove down from Roseville to visit with us on Wednesday morning.  We filled up the inflatable baby pool and had a great time.  It's funny because the boys were SUPER excited to see Grandpa Call.  Frankly, I was kind of confused about this because they don't really know him.  Then I figured it out: between stories of him being in the army and fixing airplanes, seeing a young picture of him riding his motorcycle, and me telling them the "famous story" of him hurting his thumb (OK here's the quick rundown.  One day my Grandpa split his thumb vertically down while working with a saw.  He walked into the house and said, "Jackie, I hurt my thumb.  I may need to go to the hospital".  Well before he DROVE HIMSELF to the hospital, he took a shower to wash the blood off of him!  haha that story represents so much about my Grandpa!) the kids were in love with this guy!

  

One thing I was a little nervous about was my Grandpa finally meeting Anna.  He had seeing lots of pictures of her (instagram addict right here, I admit it!) and thought she was just my Mom reincarnated!  I guess the hair is probably the biggest likeness.  Anyway, I was nervous that Anna would feel uncomfortable from attention from someone she didn't know (even someone as loving and wonderful as my Grandpa).  However, I had no need to fear!  Anna loved visiting with him, and my Grandpa took as much interest in talking with my boys and as he did with Anna.  All around it was a great visit :)

I don't have very many childhood pictures at all, so while visiting my parents, I wanted to snap some shots of pictures. I thought I might as well include them in the blog book.

My Grandmother and Grandpa Clements.  Such wonderful people.  My Grandmother turned 101 this summer! 

   

 

Me and Emily Pittman dressing up haha

Now this was super random to find in my parents' garage!  I had never ever noticed, but apparently its always been there.  My Dad happened to be in GA during the '76 election (or Democratic national convention?)  Anyway, he got this poster then which I think is pretty funny because I would be very surprised if he even voted for Carter!  I would describe my Dad as a practical independent that leans right, but will vote more with the issues than party (I kind of love that he voted for Gore in 2004 while I voted for Bush-- he wasn't a fan of  the war in Iraq.)  Anyway, I just found it so funny to find this picture

This was a fan chart that Kathryn hand wrote for my parents' anniversary.  She gave it to them while we were camping and I loved it so much. I actually took it to Office Max and had a copy made so I can hang it up in my house.

Wednesday afternoon, we went to Ghiradeli, because I felt I hadn't gone to enough candy shops already ;)  The kids and I split this sundae bad boy and it was delicious!

And then Thursday morning, it was time to drive to Oakland!  I was excited to get back to Erik and our summer routine at home, but I was so sad to leave family.  I need to figure out a way to transfer Winchester to Northern CA and the my life would be perfect :)

I was bummed out to find that our flight was delayed by an hour and a half due to storms in the east and fog in the west.  We found ways to entertain our selves in the airport though, and then the actual flight went just fine.  I feel like a very blessed girl to have had this wonderful trip home.  We got to see and do so many fun things, but most importantly we strengthened our relationships with parents, grandparents, cousins, siblings, aunt and uncles!