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!