On Holiday (part II)

Sacramento

While we were sad to leave the cold weather of the coast behind we welcomed the Redding heat and smoke, from surrounding fires, with grace and departed Monday afternoon for Sacramento. I wanted the kids, and myself to beable to visit with loved ones that we'd left behind when we moved, so we planned for 3 nights in the "City of Trees". Let me start by thanking my selfless father for letting us use his more fuel efficient car for the week.

I had forgotten how much I loved our old home. We lived just north of the Elk Grove city limits but that's what we called home and it is so beautiful. Trees everywhere and green grass...oh how I miss landscaping! The first two nights we stayed at our friends the Dresser's house. It was great to catch up with them, learn of Jennifer's pregnancy (congrats again) and see Olivia and Aaron playing with their old friends. With the three of us adults loving the Olympics, the kids got to stay up way past bedtimes and enjoy playing with one another. Juliana (their 4 year old girl) and Olivia had become great friends before our move, so it was fun to see her having so much fun with her friend again. Tuesday morning I treated myself, along with my girlfriend Jennifer to an awesome workout at my old gym, California Family Fitness. It was great. We joined in with a body sculpt class being taught by Barbara (possibly the most fun instructor EVER!) that I had attended 3 times a week prior to Las Vegas. It was great to have some reminders of great excercises to really make you sore, and as always, Barbara delivered. (Now I have more things to use at the gym with my neighbor Karen, she's thrilled I'm sure!) The kids loved it every bit as much as me if not more. The gals in the playroom are great with the kids and adore Livi and Aaron. They were so suprised to see them and grateful to see Livi doing so great after having heard the scary news and seeing the blog. It was great to catch up with them. One of the women has recently lost her mom to pancreatic cancer so it was nice to talk to and empathize with her about what she had gone through. Also, another of the women there had battled leukemia when she was a child, thank you Tracy for sharing your experiences with us. Driving back to the Dresser's we passed mine and Bill's favorite deli, "Mr. Pickle's". Jenn and I got the kids settled with their lunch and then I went and picked up a more "mature" sandwich from only the best deli...ever! It was a blast to beable to catch up with the whole Dresser clan and stay the night like we had several times before while Bill was in training. They're definately like another family to us.

We also had the opportunity to visit with our old neighbors and stop in to see our house. We have great renters in it and when I walked in I was a little sad. They have done a great job decorating and have really kept everything very nice. I asked the lady of the house how she liked the area, she said she loved it and hoped we wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. I wanted to tell her right then and there that they could sign a 5 year lease as far as I'm concerned, or at least until the market turns around, but I can save that for another time. Some dear friends that we had wanted to visit were AWOL, they had more than a few missed calls and messages left from me, but we were able to catch up with the Hall's. Josie Hall (age 4) is the first self made friend Olivia ever had. Livi met Josie at the gym where they had started hanging out. After a while they introduced eachother to thier mom's and the rest is history. Josie has an older brother Isaac (age 6) and a younger brother Owen (age 2). Josie and Owen are each barely older than Olivia and Aaron so it is really nice to all get together and play. Owen was such a cutie and kept reffering to Aaron as his "best friend" even when Aaron wasn't being such a great friend. For example, Owen would say, "Mom, my best friend hit me" or my favorite, and soooo Aaron, "my best friend's eating my food!" We unfortunately didn't get any pictures of these blossiming bossom buddies but it was fun nevertheless. Isaac was great as always but found himself as the awkward 5th wheel at times. He did do a great job at getting the kids involved in fun activities like play-doh, dress up and puzzles. The kids enjoyed a full afternoon of play together while Tamara and I were able to catch up on eachother's busy lives. For dinner we made waffles while the girls enjoyed eating them in matching p.j.'s. (By far, the best way to do a sleep over without having to do the whole through the night thing. It was a fantastic time had by all and one that won't soon be forgotten. Thank you Hall family for all the fun.

Our last stop on our Capital City journey was to Uncle Sam and Aunt Nikki's new house in Natomas. It was so great to see them on so many levels. I finally got to meet, hold, kiss, my new nephew Cody who was born in March! What a cutie. It was such a great unexperienced dynamic to be staying with them as before we never had becuase we lived by them. Their oldest son, Joshua, who I still think needs to go into modeling was so fun to be with. The kids had such a blast. Nikki said it ws the first time she had ever seen Josh play "with" someone as opposed to alongside of someone. The two boys are only 6 months apart and such peas in a pod. Both wild and crazy. They were flailing their bodies over the couch and jumping off of the coffee table, (why have rules when there's so much funto be had?) and racing cars across the kitchen floor. Josh would say, "You ready?" and Aaron would answer with as much annunciation has he could muster, "Ya!" This would repeat 4 or 5 times before the cars would actually get pushed and they would chase after them. So many smiles!!!

Because it was that time of the week for Livi's needle to be changed, we were able to be needless for the day and go swimming in thier club's pool. She also was able to enjoy an oversized bath with her cousins before her Aunt and Uncle helped me reaccess her. She did sooo great and even made me cry with how brave and strong she has become with the whole ordeal. Aunt Nikki is always so great with Olivia. They've always had a great bond with eachother and in true Aunt Nikki style Livi was pampered as no other niece could be. An actual mani/pedi-cure complete with a soak and two coats of paint!!! "For the wedding." (Two coats definately cannot be an everyday routine in our house. Special occasions are just fine!) And to top it all off the kids were over exuberant with the cooking demonstration put on, our second night there, before our drive home. Despite the air conditioning being down and indoor temperatures reaching a cool 90 degrees at night, we all had a great time.