TEN & ELEVEN

If only we could all look so cute while we travel. 

 2019 week ten and eleven

When we landed in California, the pilot let the kids sit in the cock pit and look at all the buttons. 

After a quick stop in Oakland to see an old friend from University (Hello Roxanne!) we stopped in Sacramento to see my brother Jared and Aundie. We had a long lunch and long run around a park chasing geese and racing through the wet grass. 

Finally at Oma's house. This is what V did for most of her vacation. 

This is what T did for most of his vacation. 

The kids had their hearts set on hiking because there were mountains. We were not able to go into the mountains, but splashing around the puddle of the remains of a burned down house was pretty fun. 

Then we hopped a burned down fence and actually hiked around the scarred hills for a little while. 

It was beautiful and terrible to see the burned hillsides. 

The roots were burned out of this tree. There were huge tunnels left in the mud where they had once been. It wasn't hard for V to believe some goblins or trolls lived in them. 

After a few days of being too excited to sleep well, they finally crashed in this glorious 3 hour nap. 

Oma gave Theo some new tractors and construction cones and he was just thrilled. He pitifully sobbed when the biggest one just wouldn't fit in our suitcase. Oma sent it to him in the mail and now he wont let it out of his sight. 

Veronica LaVelle Cole visiting Colette LaVelle. 

Just a little loose-tooth selfie, and then...

*pop* out came the tooth! 

She was THRILLED! She put the tooth under her pillow at Grandpa Dean's house and the tooth fairy came with $5 because the first tooth is special. Subsequent teeth will draw less reward. 

Picking oranges off of Grandpa Dean's tree in the morning after Theo slept SO well once we figured out he had an ear infection and got rushed to the urgent care Saturday evening at 8pm! We only just made it before they closed. He had a much nicer trip once that was sorted out. I wish he would tell me his ear is hurting and not just act like a wild animal for three days. Poor thing.

Cleaning out the rental car scored me some fancy new sunglasses. These will probably be the most expensive sunglasses I ever own (and luckily they were freeeeee!) 

Watching Spongebob with Oma and all three dogs. 

Walking the dogs on our last day. 

We got home on Tuesday night and spent the next three days sorting out our piles of laundry and empty fridge and seemingly endless errands. But on Saturday we got to have a bit of fun for our friend Jewel's birthday! She had a zoo keeper come with animals to pet. 

It was very exciting. 

Quotes:

Theodore

"Want to hear me make a scary voice? It's very quiet like the scary voice in my ceiling! There's a person in my ceiling and it talks to me. It tells me to go to sleep so I guess it's a good ceiling that tells me the right things to do. I think it's a fire fighter in my ceiling talking to me."

"When I grow up to be a police officer I will have a pet turtle and I am going to keep it at my police office!"

"The ferret smelled good! It smelled like macaroni and cheese!"

Veronica

Me "You're so big now you can blow your nose properly!"
V "Yeah, I can probably do backflips over pianos now."

"Maybe it's all the spongebob that's making me arguing."

"OOh! I hope spongebob gets naked now!"