Surprise Trip to the Golden State

While I was at Amy's recovering from my surgery, we compared our calendars and realized that the last weekend of June was the only time that our schedules matched up this summer for a trip down to Bakersfield. We decided to make a surprise for the parentals. We left Wednesday after I was done with work and stayed the night in Vegas. Then we headed down to B-town Thursday morning. Here's us road tripin'...
The kids were really good. If Sophie got restless, we would just keep a steady flow of graham crackers and pretzels going her way. If Jack got restless, he got iPod time. I made a playlist for him with "I Gotta Feeling" and "The Time (Dirty Bit)" by the Black Eyed Peas repeated over and over. Those are his most favorite songs ever. He was in heaven!

Then we finally got to grandma and grandpa's. Of course, my mom wasn't home when we got there, and it was like 105 degrees outside. So we pretty much had to call and tell her to get her bootie home because we were on her porch. The surprise on my dad was much more awesome. He got home from work, and Jack came running in and said, "Hi Grandpa!". My dad just stood there and stared at him trying to figure out how in the world he was there. It was awesome!

Jack's favorite toy and grandma and grandpa's is the train. He plays with this for hours. Here he is looking through the tunnel.
Jack also found a new love this trip...the globe (or "erf" as he calls it). I love that he loves maps! We learned where Brazil, Canada, and Australia were of course so we could see where everyone went on their missions. He already knows all his states, so those mission are already covered.
Sophie's favorite thing at grandpa and grandma's is eating. Haha! Woman after my own heart! She actually made all kinds of developments on this trip. She is now a full blown crawler and doesn't do her inchworm army crawl too much anymore. She also started pulling herself up to things. She'll be walking before we know it! And we swear that she has started saying "Jack" or something like "Jack". Amy says she probably hears her say "Jack" 100 times a day, so it would make sense it would be one of her first words. Ha!
Here is Sophie in her strawberry swimming gear playing with her jewels. She is the cutest little buggy on the erf!
They also love spending time with grandpa and grandma! Jack was all about checking the garden every morning and picking plums off the neighbors tree that weren't ready yet. Sorry neighbors!
There is nothing cuter than kids at bath time!
A trip home to Cali is not complete without a trip to the beach. I love it there! We headed down to Santa Monica, and it was lovely! The kids love the beach too!
It was such a great trip! It's always nice to get out of the normal routine and spend time with these two at my home sweet home! I miss CA! I also always 100% love spending any time with Amy and my Jack Jack and Sophie Bug!
The trip home went smoothly too. We split it up again and stayed in Mesquite. Count me in for a roadtrip to Cali anytime. For more pics of our trip you can look at Amy's blog post too at www.grossens.com.
I had to include this one little video. One day Jack was trying to talk to me while he was choking on his strawberries and tried to copy his voice. He thought it was the funniest thing ever! It became a joke for the rest of the trip. It makes me laugh every time I watch it, and I love that it starts off with him picking his nose. Priceless!