love of local in Utah
Thanksgiving in California
We haven’t been to California in a few years and got invited for Thanksgiving. So we hopped on a plane and went! It was nice to be on a plane without a crying child. I still have two kids that I have to watch their feet. And that somehow need to pee 10 times on a flight. But no crying, that is a big step.
One of my favorite things about my in-laws house is that they live in a neighborhood that is one of my favorite places to walk around in. It is such a beautiful place with really wonderful trees, plants, flowers, etc.
We always love to see the Brown California cousins. Nicole & Jacob we babysat all the time while we were dating. It is always so weird to see them adult sized. I’m glad they seem to still like to be with us.
Zack & Allie are so great at playing with my kids and helping them relax and have fun. Allie is hilarious and Zack is the only kid I know that makes me sad I don’t have a boy. I rarely feel like that and he really is honestly the only one that makes me feel that way!
My in laws have a fun tradition of taking their grandchildren out when they are kindergarten aged. They take them to lunch and buy them a back to school outfit. One fun secret about Shae is she rests her hand on you ONLY if she feels comfortable. So Mom, notice that hand?
Tyler’s brother Troy is a principal at a local high school in California and had the girls come visit him at work. He gave them books from his current book sale and won major brownie points.
One day we did some field trips and went to go visit butterflies! I’ve wanted to see that forever because don’t you know? Vanessa means butterfly. There are spots in California where you can see Monarch butterflies settled in for the winter. There weren’t tons of them there on the day we went. But you can see one of the branches and get the idea.
Then we went close by to explore tide pools and got really lucky! Uncle Troy helped the girls find some cool things. And I helped Shae & Reagan not fall to their deaths off the side of the cliffs.
One day just our family headed to San Fransisco. Tyler didn’t want to go and didn’t make it too fun. I think next time I will fly in a couple days earlier and hang out there with the girls. We love big cities, wasting the day walking around, and just going with the flow. We did do a bus tour that took us over the famous bridge and we were FREEZING cold. But it was still a cool experience! I also took them to a Chinese restaurant that they were all so upset to be at. But after getting the food and figuring out it was delicious, they were fine.
Thanksgiving Day I did nothing. It made me uneasy, I don’t like the feeling of not doing anything. But we did eat a delicious feast. And our favorite part, we got to see Grandma and Grandpa Middleton. That makes the whole trip worth it 🙂
CA Thanksgiving 2016 phone clips from Vanessa Brown on Vimeo.
Sounds like you need to take a “me” trip and do all the things you want to do without a crowd of complainers. 🙂 We loved having you. Don’t wait so long to come see us again.