California

 
The summer flew by! It's been the whole summer since I last posted!  We were in and out of town this summer and somehow it is time for school already.  I thought I liked to travel, but the boys really loved our summer trips.  We arrived back from San Francisco at 1am from one trip and the boys were utterly disappointed that I wanted to spend a day in DC to unpack and wash our clothes before re-packing, loading the car and facing a 6 hour drive to Connecticut.  When we got back from Connecticut they were devastated that they had to wait a whole 5 days to get back in the car and drive another 6 hours to Cleveland for the annual Labor Day Olympics.  The status of our car is reflective of how Carlos and I feel after so many long car rides.  Pretty beaten up!

It was a very nice summer despite the fact that we didn't go to Latin America this year.  The boys enjoyed lots of Nationals baseball games and the trips to California, Connecticut and Cleveland were fun for everyone.

About 12 hours after landing in San Francisco we headed to Target to pick up all the things we had forgotten!  Classic.  Despite feeling like I had packed up the whole house there were a few key items missing.  Somehow that list ended up including baseball bats and Sofia lobbied hard for this baseball helmet....

The weather in San Francisco was freezing in the mornings, but gorgeous by the afternoon.  Tia Veronika's house looks so awesome compared to when we saw it over Christmas and the location is ideal.  There are woods close by and the kids loved going hiking there.  I was pleasantly surprised how much the boys enjoyed hiking and for how long they could last.  Tia Veronika not only gave us all dental visits, but took the boys all around and took Charlie to Six Flags amusement park.

Sofia hiking

Sofia by the Bay

I had a work trip to LA so my mom came with me to help out with Sofia while the boys went to Reno with Carlos' mom.  Sofia had fun with my mom and then we drove up the coast and stopped in Santa Barbara on our way to San Francisco.  Sofia made a straight line for the water and had no fear of the crashing waves.  While in SB we also got to meet my friend's baby Eloise who is super sweet and we are looking forward to many girls trips in the future.  Sofia was not so happy about sitting in a car for another 5 hours to SF...nor were my mom and I as we rolled into SF around 2am!  Nevertheless, we made it back in time for my cousin's wedding which was another fun highlight of the trip.  It was beautiful and perfect and fun as always to see the family.

After my work trip we spent a couple of days in Sonoma to visit Carlos' old friend and were spoiled by their generosity.  We stayed in their vacation rental which was awesome and couldn't help but enjoy some good wine.  That said, most of our stay in Sonoma was consumed by Train Town which is a funky little amusement park.  The train takes you all around the property and stops so you can feed the animals and wander through a mini-town before heading back for the rides.  Charlie and Diego were in heaven.  It was Diego's first roller coaster and he loved it.