"I'm a Man, I'm 40!"

My goal is to finish blogging our year by the end of this one... so I better get busy!

So as I mentioned Dave turned the big four-oh this past August.  And while we celebrated in a low key fashion on the actual birthday, he had the bash he wanted a week later.  Thanks to our friends Brian and Stephanie for lending us their house and beautifully redesigned pool for the day.

We catered food from a local Mexican Restaurant

The kids were in the pool all day long!

Dave's Softball friend to the left, and longtime friend Nicole on the right

Heather & Stephanie

Travis & Jonelle

 So many of Dave's friends came throughout the day.  A couple of funny guys decided to add upon the "I'm a Man, I'm 40" theme Dave had going by decorating a pair of speedos.

Funny Men....

Auntie Rana, Uncle Matt and Cousin Avery

Dave & Nicole

 Even Dave's parents made it up from LA for the party.

And the kids are still swimming!  Who knows what Drew is doing in that picture...

And then Dave does the walk of shame... in Speedos!  He had to put on quite the show at first.

And then he took a plunge.

Drew kept coming up to us asking why Dad was in a bikini...

And then time for cake!  I have to admit our local Safeway Grocery Store did a great job with freehanding it!

After many hours the kids decided to get out of the pool and they roasted marshmallows.  It's the usual suspects for the kids..

L-R: Mason, Troy, Drew, Zionna, Charlize

Dave said he had the party he wanted.  We were glad his parents could make the quick weekend trip to spend time with him.  Drew was even reading some poetry to Abuela!

Abuela, Drew, Tata

And Daddy had to get in there too...

We Are Thankful

Every year we alternate where we spend Thanksgiving and Christmas - this year Thanksgiving was with Dave's Family (which means his family has Christmas next year).  So we headed to Los Angeles to spend it with Tata and Abuela. 

While we were expecting not to make the 6-7 hour (non-holiday weekend) drive at about 3am Thanksgiving morning - we managed to get an early start on Wednesday since we both got off work early and I found a killer hotel deal in Bakersfield.  It was nice to break up our trip - even if we were driving with the crazies.

So we pulled in to Tata and Abuela's on Thanksgiving afternoon and we were able to help out setting up and preparing everything. It was a smaller gathering this year. 

That would be our little Jedi  - we brought his "light saber" to LA with us (just the cardboard wrapping tube) but when we got to the hotel and he whacked it against a light post, the light saber came apart.  Tata fixed it with some red duct tape.  Drew is a happy Jedi.

Or is he an Angry Bird Star Wars nut?

I didn't get many pictures expecting to see all the family again on Friday, so the only other Thanksgiving picture I got was Drew with his cousins.

L-R: Drew, Summer, Henry

The kids played so hard together and all had a great time!  I think this was the first year everyone played together as well as they did.  Here's to many years to come!

Dessert anyone?

On Saturday just before we left, we managed to meet up with Tata at the park to get some of Drew's wiggles out.
L-R: Tata, Daddy, Drew

Abuela went to visit family in Mexico after Thanksgiving dinner.  I wish I'd have gotten more pictures, but I guess I was too busy being Thankful for the family we were surrounded by.

Silver Anniversary

Better late than never... we celebrated Tata and Abuela's 25th anniversary/vow renewal 3 weeks after the first attempt.  So while I was down in Southern California for work and Dave and Drew were coming down, they had the Hawaiian themed party that weekend.

I was a bit late - along with the camera because of work, but here are the pictures I managed to capture.

The "first dance"

Prepping for the vow renewal.  The Ring bearer - Drew gets ready.

"Bankers" - the Best Man from 25 years ago 'officiates' the ceremony this time around.

Exchanging the vows

Here comes the ring bearer...
This could've been the first or second attempt.  Not enough cameras were ready so we did a "re-do".

Awwww....

Speeches...

Trying to keep the 4 year old occupied and out of trouble during the lengthy speeches

And there was some dancing after the speeches.  Clearly I had a willing partner...

The reason that Tata and Abuela are together today - David's Brother Bobby and his wife Norma.

 L-R: David (Tata), Norma, Bobby, Yolanda (Abuela)

And our final goodbye.

L-R: Me, David, Drew, Dave Yolanda

Hot Fun in the Summertime

I shared with you the other day the adventures we had at Dodger Stadium, but baseball wasn't our original intention for going to Los Angeles last weekend - it was to see Tata and Abuela, Dave's parents!

Friday night, Tata and Abuela came to the hotel with dinner and some adult beverages so they could spend some quality time with Drew.  The next morning Drew read Abuela a story - you know to show off a bit.

That day we went to the Dodger game, and afterward headed over to Tata and Abuela's house to watch another game... football - Soccer that is.  US vs. Mexico.  Guess who this group was cheering on?

It was a divided group as we watched the game from the front yard - about half rooted for the US the other half for Mexico - who ended up winning.

Drew only napped for about 30 minutes from Dodger Stadium to their house, so he was a little feisty to say the least.  In trying to take a picture of he and Tata he would only make weird faces.

And a bit later on he was beyond ticked that I wouldn't let him ply outside the fence.  You couldn't tell that he was mad or anything by looking at him...

He did however pose with his cousins, Jasmine and Henry as we were leaving for the night.

The next day we met up with Tata and Abuela at Jonathan and Claudia's house - Drew's Aunt and Uncle and enjoyed their pool!  It was definitely warm in the sun!

Little Henry - who is about a year younger than Drew - was too small to join everyone in the pool, so he had his own pool.  And loved splashing everyone in the big one!  They of course returned the favor (you can see Drew's orange water wings in the big pool).

L-R: Dave, Drew from behind, friend of Drew's cousin Johanna, Henry & Tata

But alas we had to make the long drive home - so we needed to say our goodbyes.  I love this shot of Drew and Abuela.  We were hoping to make a few pit stops on our way home and visit a few friends who live along the way, but Drew had enough and was quite the beast (until he finally fell asleep - thankfully for 2 hours).   

We decided to take the 99 all the way home - we usually take I5 - but with some road construction on the 5 it seemed to make the most sense.  On the way to LA - the road construction detour allowed us to have a potty break at our friend's Mel and Chris' house outside of Bakersfield.

Highs and Lows in SoCal

We managed to have a really good time in Southern California despite a few tummy ailments.  For those that aren't my "friends" on Facebook, Drew had a blow-out on the drive down to LA (followed by my trying to clean his clothes/car seat in the hotel bathroom, only to find that the sink was clogged and maintenance needed to be called).  Then the tummy troubles spread to me, and now Dave picked it up.

But like I said, we did find some rays of sunshine on an otherwise troubling trip.  On Black Friday we did walk around the mall (I wanted to use an awesome coupon I had for a book), and Drew managed to meet with Santa.  There was no line.  And I mean NO line - we walked right up to Santa and took a few bootlegged photos.

We also met up with Tata and Abuela (Dave's Dad and step-Mom) for some lunch and afternoon fun.  Drew played with is cousins for a long time and we helped decorate Tata and Abuela's front yard.

L-R: Drew, Tata, Henry

Joanna and Drew

That evening we went back to the hotel and had some drinks at the Managers Reception at the Embassy Suites (one of the best things about staying there!).  Although I think someone had too much juice cocktails....

The next morning after breakfast we stopped by Tata and Abuelas again, to say hello and drive over to Griffith Park, where we've tried to go for the past three visits to SoCal, but never make it due to time, weather or other excuse.

It was awesome!  We enjoyed the train and a picnic, while Drew wrestled with Tata and wore himself out (Tata too I'm sure).

Then it was time for the L.O.N.G. drive home.  There was a big accident at the Harris Ranch exit on I5, although we experienced dead stopped traffic MUCH further back (just north of the 58 all the way to 198).  And we had a milestone.  Because I5 was a parking lot, and Drew had to go, but was remembered our frustration with his blowout on the way down - he was reluctant to go in the pull-up we did have on him this time around.

Instead he peed in a cup!  Yes a proud moment for this Mom & Pop, whose kid won't pee in anything that isn't porcelain - yes we're raising a potty snob.  We'd have opened the door and let him out on the center divide to go, except it was pouring rain.  We finally made it home around 9:30pm and happily went to bed.