Visitors

Ama Joon giggles with Ada all week

Ama Joon came for a week-long visit (Ada’s grandma Samii) — and boy, did they ever have fun!  The first three days were spent with the two of them giggling, giggling, giggling all day, literally.  Like two peas in a pod.  Ada took all of the play that Ama Joon could muster, and boy she did a great job!  What a big shift from corporate life, huh Ama Joon? She quickly became an expert at having a tea party with stuffed animals, rolling a ball of yarn around the living room floor, tracing out Persian nursery rhymes on Ada’s hand, telling stories, building legos over and over again, and giggling.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

– All four of us going to pick peaches from an orchard in Brentwood, which was super fun!  The peaches were gorgeous, Ada pulled the wagon & picked her own, and we were awestruck by the freshness & fragrance of them all.  We then, over the course of the next 3 days, baked 4 pies and 1 cobbler with our peaches.  Yum!  Yum!  Yum!   Ada had a lot of fun with all of the hubbub in the kitchen.  And we had fun eating our creations.

– We had a fun excursion to San Francisco, with Ada and Ama Joon taking on the train adventure with gusto!  We all did pretty good.  Hamid managed to do do some shopping & we had an excellent lunch at the top of the department store looking out on Market Street

– Ama Joon, Ada & I went to Fairyland, one of Ada’s favorites — and now Ama Joon’s too.  They & we had a blast: riding the carousel, running down the Alice in Wonderland tunnel, playing hide and go seek in the Wonderland cards, going on a train ride, and showing Ama Joon all the little details that Ada knows about the place.

– We decided we hadn’t had enough of farms, so we went out to Farm Fresh to You farm tour (another hot day) and picked figs, tomatoes, went on a tractor ride, and cooled off in the shade of a big tree where we could listen to the bluegrass music.

– and Ama Joon got to see the kid-chaos of having 5 families over for a little pre- preschool get-together.  Chaos reigned, but no one cried, and a lot of pie was eaten

Ada is reeling in the joy of having so much love and attention from her Ama Joon.  They read so many books, laughed so much, and really had fun together.  Thank you Ama Joon!  Much love from all of us.  See you soon next month!

 

Yummy peaches

The peach pickers

Hi, peach up there

Happy lady

Listening to bluegrass on the farm

Ama Joon & Ada doing grandma-granddaughter yoga

Isn't this better than checking emails?

Try this Ama Joon...!

Ada & Ama Joon reading a book

Time for a pool party in the front yard

I love you Ama Joon & Ada!

Lots of family fun

Kendra & Brian & the “little peanut”

We had a wonderful visit with Auntie Kendra and Uncle Brian, Ada’s godparents. We picked them up at the airport on Wednesday afternoon and the adventures lasted until the next week. We certainly showed them a lot!

  • On Wednesday, we went to the windy Golden Gate Bridge, and Ada enjoyed it from the vantage point of Mama’s backpack, followed by visiting the sites in SF.
  • On Thursday, we headed up to Napa/Sonoma, and enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Coppola winery overlooking the vineyards on a gorgeous afternoon.
  • On Friday, we had a blustery day on Muir Beach in Marin,where Ada learned to play velcro tennis ball-catch with Uncle & Auntie Raisin (in the tradition of Auntie & Uncle Pickle), and we watched Iman jump on the ocean rocks with Uncle Brian. We had grilled yummies from Hamid who loves his  grill, with Ada channeling his enthusiasm by running in and out of the house bringing out toys one-by-one to Hamid & Brian in the backyard, and feeling pretty proud to be out there with her dad & uncle.
  • On Saturday, we had an overnight stay in San Jose in a hotel (i.e. yipee! pool! — did you know I think you can gauge the quality of a year by how many times you go underwater?  really, try it!) following on Lilly’s 6th birthday party with a professional marionette puppet show (Ada liked the puppets kind of… she watched first from the chairs with other kids, then from the porch being held in daddy’s arms, and then finally from inside the house looking out of the window in dad’s arms again…)
  • And on Sunday we spent the day at the boardwalk beach in Santa Cruz, where Kendra, Brian & Hamid walked the warf and cliffs overlooking the surfers. Ada and I joined after Ada’s nap, and she flew an octopus kite, put her toes in the water at the beach, and got amazed by the giant straws in our crazy island drink for Brian’s birthday.

A lovely visit – so much time to catch up, after having not lived in the same geography for 20 years. It was great to see Brian, Kendra & Ada to get to know each other. It was great to see family. We will always remember Brian calling Ada ‘little peanut’ and Kendra picking so many picking meyer lemons!  On the day they were leaving, Ada said, “I love them”. Have a great trip back Kendra & Brian!

At the Golden Gate Bridge

A beautiful foggy day at the GG bridge

The magestic view from bridge to the sky

Ada's having fun!

The Peacenik

Visiting Coppola Winery

Beautiful grounds & civilized lunch

Kendra in the sun

Do you like stickers?

Muir beach

SF summer?!

The pup & Brian

Kendra's beach self-portrait.

Pickle!

Ada's first vantage point for the puppet show

Ada's final view...

Brian's crazy birthday drink.

The day is getting better.

Kendra loves lemons! The last day.

Ada and her Baba Bazorg

Ada’s Baba Bazorg came for a visit & they had a blast laughing, jokes, and stories. They went to the beach, a farm, a community dinner, and rode the cable cars in San Francisco, all in 3 days! He even humored Ada by spending almost a half an hour in our closet, after Ada would put him in there over and over to ‘hide’. She would proceed to come and find him, surprised every time! A willing playmate! Ada will be talking about Baba Bazorg and his visit for a long time!

Ada loves her Baba Bazorg

Ada & Baba Bazorg at the park

Ama & Ada having a laugh

Ama visited for two weeks, and they became great pals!

A typical morning:

Ada and Ama having breakfast

Ada telling a joke

and having a belly laugh!

Ada’s favorite joke is “pickle driving a hat”. If you can’t laugh at that, you really have no sense of humor! She’s is a real ham.