HOME SWEET HOME
Home sweet home. Nothing beats going back for the holidays. While I have lived away for nearly 12 years, Northern California will always be where my heart feels is home. Taking my little family out there is always such a treat and leaves us with more wonderful memories that jog me back to when I was a kid.
It may have been mentioned here a time or two, but I grew up in a very colorful home. Literally as well as metaphorically. My parents are far from normal in only the best ways! Almost every wall in our home was painted a bright and fun color, different from one wall to the next. There is leopard and zebra printed carpet throughout the house between the checkered tile flooring. My dad has painted beautiful and symbolic murals throughout the home. You can't help but feel warm and happy in those crazy walls that mirror my parents wild and fun personalities. Also, I grew up in a rock band with my sisters where we traveled around playing in coffee shops and amphitheaters with my parents cheering behind the speakers. Life was fun and my childhood was different than anyone else I knew. It took me a few years to realize that I didn't have a "normal" childhood but an extraordinary childhood. I really feel that all the chaos and excitement was huge in preparing me for life with a special needs child which is also not "normal" but extraordinary. Normal bores me anyways.. ;)
Back to our trip! Because my parents live so close to so many wonderful places (San Fransisco, Yosemite, the redwoods, Lake Tahoe, Monterey, etc...), Scott and I decided to spend one day of each trip out to my parents sight seeing with our kids. This trip we chose San Fransisco where we spent one night and one amazing day playing tourists. I've been many times since I grew up so close but I loved taking our little family around that fascinating city. We drove down Lombard street, played in Golden Gate park (so many amazing things to do there), ate dinner in Little Italy while disrupting a lot of other dinners with our loud and crazy crew, drove across the golden gate bridge and took a super fun trolly ride which resulted in the sweatiest and longest walk to find a trolly back. Did I mention being stroller-less on that long walk?! We had an absolute blast but were plenty ready to make the hour drive to my parents at the end of that day. Unfortunately on Thanksgiving weekend "hour long" drives out of the bay area take four hours... We love these exhausting adventures with our kids. I can't tell you how many stares we got and how many "Wow! You've got your hands full!" comments we heard while hauling three littles around a big city... but we truly enjoy these experiences and are happy that our kids are learning to adapt every where we go.
Once we got to my parents, we stayed in sweats and ate good food all week long. I loved watching the boys (husbands) out on the sports court bonding over some friendly competition. Since my dad doesn't have boys of his own, he sure loves having son-in-laws to wail on playing basketball and watch football. We girls played some of their games but mainly chatted, played cards and kept kids alive. My parents heated their pool into one giant hot tub where we all came together for swims that turned us to prunes every night before bed. We watched movies and laughed as a family enjoying being together and feeling thankful for one another. Our Thanksgiving feast was beautiful and we all felt exhausted and grateful.
Wishing so badly that I took more pictures with my sisters and parents to go along with the memories in my head. When I am having too much fun goofing around with sisters, stuffing my face and laughing, I tend to forget to pick up my camera. #inthemoment
