I have more photos and videos to add so please check back later on this post.
Christmas;
Before the onslaught;
Here they come!
Talia gets a Holiday Barbie;
Papa gets shark pot holders;
We then went up to Arbuckle, instead of Sacramento. Marshall's youngest brother Jon and his wife Lea were hosting this year.
Davina says goodbye to the dog before getting in the car Xmas day;
Ronnie with Evan and Lea's nephew (wish I remember his name! so cute!!)
Davina chowing down. Note Christmas cracker hat (since Lea is from Guyana, she has some British traditions);
More present opening! Look at the nice hug Maria is giving Emily;
Davina and Maria playing;
Ronnie and Talia with Evan and his sister Emily;
Mother, Mary (Mark's wife) and Lea's mother;
Mother & Guk
Guk & Will
Family Photos!!!
The Pfeiffer gang (Carolyn and her 7 children)
Plus wives, husbands and girlfriend;
The grandchildren;
The Edun clan (Lea's family);
We brought Evan home with us and he stayed for three nights. The next day we headed to the Exploratorium in S.F. http://www.exploratorium.edu/
This is a sort of sound game where you try to walk over the stones making the least amount of noise and there's a register that gives you your score;
Davina loves the fish. When I ask her which one of a whole tankful of identical ones she liked best, she pointed to one and scared the whole lot;
This is some sort of tube where the kids run around and make this little tornado inside. I have to admit that a lot of these attractions are difficult to describe!
Here they are intrigued with something I've forgotten even what it was...
More baby loves doggie pictures;
Baby loves doggie videos!
The next day, Marshall took Evan, Ronnie and Talia to the aquarium. Daniel and I were going to see Cirque du Soliel (my parents Xmas present to us) that evening and I thought it would make too long a day for us so Marshall handled it alone. So...I don't have any pictures.
The next day, we met Carleen, who brought Emily and Carolyn down to Fairfield to give Evan back. This is a kind of half-way point and we had lunch together, then bought some Jelly Bellys;
Daniel and I took the kids into San Francisco on our own. They loved Chinatown!
Monkey statues!
I call this "See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil and don't put any Evil on your head!"
There were too many people on the bridge! A beautiful Sunday right before New Years', I guess it wasn't too suprising...
So instead of the kids in front of the bridge photo, we ended up snapping this in the Marina. Davina lacked a certain level of cooperation;
For New Years' itself, we booked for the Claremont;
http://www.claremontresort.com/
From the outside, it's beautiful but it's poorly run, overpriced and not in great shape. We had to change rooms and were still a bit unhappy. The food in the restaurant was good though. It was a set menu for New Years'.
This was the first time Daniel and I had been child-free. My parents kept them in Walnut Creek, not far but it felt weird.
Last sunset of 2007;
They had a cool gingerbread house, I wish I could have showed the kids.
Nice Christmas tree too;
Cute decorations too, dressed for the evening...
I didn't take many pictures of the actual dinner and I don't like the way I looked!
On the way home the next day, we stopped in the hills to take a few pictures;
We also stopped in Lafayette to visit Daddy (Daniel doesn't like taking the kids to cemetaries). It was very different from his family's cemetary in Benfeld.
We gave the crown and hat from New Years to the kids;
Daniel went home the next day and we celebrated my birthday on the third. I had some of my travel partners. Barbara made her famous crab. Dave came with his wife Shan and of course, infamous Todd was there and brought a Grinch costume and what he called a Victorian Santa outfit. The hat was a big hit.
Dave and Shan brought a cake;
Group shots!
The day before we were supposed to leave, a big storm hit the Bay Area. It really messed up the flights. Vicky couldn't drive in to say goodbye and we couldn't really get out much. I was sick so calling hurt my throat. Everything was a bit messed up towards the end so I didn't manage to get everything done that was on my list.
I wanted to at least get the kids out of the house but our options were limited. There is a natural history museum for children that they've visited before. It wasn't much but didn't involve driving too far or being outside;
This was stuffed but they were allowed to touch it. Davina kept saying "I'm being gentle..." even though it was dead!
They brought out a bunny to pet;
Too bad this is fuzzy! They were playing with a puppet;
Ronnie and the CA flag;
The next day we flew out. We had to wait 2 1/2 hours for check-in. Barbara came to say goodbye with Ysabelle, who was in China during the same time and had only just arrived (Barbara said coming to see us was to combat her jet-lag). She had to stand with us in line.
We had to immediately go through security so that was kind of a bummer (we usually stop and have lunch-not this time!)
When we arrived in Frankfurt, only one of our four bags arrived. They showed up two days later. Luckily I had Davina's car seat with us so no worries on the 2 hour drive home. The next day the kids went straight back to school This actually works best for us.
