FUN IN CALI

Jim and I went to CA the first week in March.  Kelly was presenting a class at a work conference, so Jim and I attempted to "hold down the fort".  It began with Sophie's VB tournament in Sacramento.  Kelly was still home for this.  We had a great time.  Sophie's team THE DEFENDERS are a very good team.  They play every weekend and do quite well each time.

 Action shot.

 Nearly every day, we entertained the troops at the park.  We went to Crystal's house and  her 2 would head out to the park, just 1/2 a block from her house. Our train of bikes, scooters, and motorized tractors would travel to the park.

 Grandpa Jim and his playgroup.  He chases them all over the play structures and they LOVE it. Sometimes other people at the park stare, but we ignore them.

 THIS IS the most fun pet store I have every been to.

 You can feed the fish and practically pet them as the surface for the feeding frenzy.

 You can open several of the doors and pet the animals.

 This one was having a bad hair day.

 They wander all over the store and you can see Dylan really likes the big tortoise.  This one goes slow,

and in this video the lizard looks slow, but the potential for fast and furious was freaking me out a bit.

 We took Dylan to his first T-ball practice.  Uncle Ryan was coaching and Payton and Owen are on the team also.

 Two Rookies.

Last minute words of advice from dad before Dylan goes up to bat.

 After Kelly got home from her conference, Jim and I were supposed to go visit Jim's aunt Lorna, who lives in Nevada.  It is about 3 hours away.  But we were super disappointed when a storm came in and dumped 10" of snow over Donner Pass. We decided it would be better to go over the 7,000 foot pass later in the year, with nicer road condition.  Instead, Jim and I took a little road trip down "memory lane".  My parents used to take us to the Nut Tree, in Vacaville, when we were kids.  It is a many mall shopping outlet now, but it just had one store when I was a kid.

 I used to ride the rocking horse.

and the train.

 The Jelly Belly store is new and American Gothic is one of my favorite pictures.  This is done all in jelly beans.

 The "sugar monster", otherwise known as "Mr. Sweet tooth" really liked this store.

 After shopping and lunch at the Nut Tree, we headed to Napa, where I grew up.  This is the side of the house.We didn't have the fence when I lived there.

 And the front.  The address is  1 Chapel Hill Drive

And it was across the street from the Mormon or LDS church, were I went to church.

We visited the cemetery, where my grandparents and parents are buried.

 Grandpa and grandma

 dad and mom

 We visited my junior high, Silverado and my high school, Vintage, home of the Crushers.

 Then we went and visited my sister and  her family and had dinner.  It was a really nice day, touring down memory lane.

 A few days later, we left to come home. All the grand kids were great, Addy, Sophie and Dylan we love you!! And Alex, Payton and Owen, thanks for helping grandpa and grandma entertain your cousins.