Home Again!

Last day in the south bay, we tried to do a little photo shoot but it was just too sunny...

with mama Elda

With my sister, B-I-L, and mom

gotta love Caleb's (blue) expression, "are we done yet?"

Eli walking with uncle "Mikey!" and "tia yeya"

Doesn't Eli look like such a big kid here? Like he could be 10 years old!

Please, can I watch dis?

Next we moved on to the east bay to visit Phil's brother and family...

At the water fountains.
If I had known the temps in Cali were going to be 15-20 degrees above normal I would have packed swim trunks!

Thomas got cold, how sweet!

Caleb

When Caleb went missing it was no surprise that we found him with the chickens trying to hug and kiss them!

 If all you saw was this sweet smile you'd never know what whippersnapper Eli is!

So handsome : )

Getting in some more bike riding

6 out of 7 Pitts grand-kids!

Even though I easily could have stayed another two weeks, it's good to be home! Every time we roll back into town after a long trip I get this warm fuzzy feeling at the sight of a beautiful city nestled in the green hills with lots and lots of green trees (and not to mention a snow caped Mt Hood in the not too far distance). It always reminds me that I LOVE living in Portland : )

We got back home Saturday evening after 12 hours on the road (9 driving hours + 3hrs of stopping). The boys did exceptionally well on the drive to Cali but not so great on the way home. Two weeks prior to our trip I had been getting them all excited and filling their heads with what was going to happen soon and all the fun we would have in Cali. So naturally they were bursting at the seams with excitement when I woke them up at 3:30 am in the morning and found my mom and sister sleeping on the couch. We ended up leaving at 4:30am and arrived at about 5:30pm (11 driving hours + 2 stopping hrs). I was nervous enough that I splurged for a portable DVD player just in case they were terrors in the car but honestly they didn't really need it. We turned it on just to try it out and let them watch bob the builder. On the way home it was a different story, even though the drive up is 2hrs closer the DVD player was essential! They watched a movie, then charged it up again and played another full length movie. Getting it was a good call : )

As I mentioned the temps in Cali were well above normal, which was fine by me since I enjoy 80-90 degree weather (I draw the line at 95 though) but I just wish I had known it was coming so I could pack accordingly! I packed half light sweater weather clothes and half summer clothes, so of course, we pretty much only used our summer clothes. The last 5 days or so were super windy, boo!, which I blame for the terrible allergies I had, at least I didn't have them the whole time.

We miss everyone a lot and had so much fun. I've made up my mind that next year I can do this trip alone with the boys and will stay longer!

I still have a bunch more pictures from the rest of our trip to look through, so more coming up!