Day 13 (friday)

On our last day in town, the children made bead necklaces, crowns, and bracelets while the adults tried to decide what to do.  The beach water was still contaminated, so that option was out, so we finally decided to just leave it up to the kids.  Aaron gave them several choices, including a day in San Francisco, Carmel, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Happy Hollow, and the Oakland Zoo.  Not a bad selection. 

Guess what they chose? 
To go back to Gilroy Gardens!  The best part about this was that it was "bring a friend day" and enough of our family members that went had season passes, so it didn't cost us anything to get in. Score! 3 Cheers for a free day of extreme fun!

We decided to check out the other side of the park that we didn't make it to the week before, because the kids were too busy going on all the rides (since they had no lines).  They ran through the waterfall a bunch of times. This was Corbin's favorite activity of the day. There was no shortage of joy on this child's face as he ran laps around everyone to go through the falls again.

 The kids went through the rock wall maze. I took photos from the bridge above them.  Hey look, there's Paul and HolleeAnn...no making out, guys, this is a family place!

I don't know which of my children keeps playing with the new camera, but my sd card is full of these photo bombs of my dad. Hysterical.

 Quincy and Corbin took the sky tram while Reese and the boys hit the Quicksilver rollercoaster several times.

I love me a belly rubber.

The hot air balloon ride is one of my favorites. Quincy went on it twice. Once with Aaron and I and again with Auntie Amy.

 A cross section from a Giant Sequoia.  We really want to make a trip up to see the giant redwoods sometime.

And finally, cruising in the autopia cars.

For our last night in Ca we got more slurpees from 7-11 (ICEEs are just not the same thing) and hung out while the cousins soaked up every last minute that they could with each other. 

We let them stay up until almost 10pm (and regretted it the next day when the meltdowns of overtired kids kicked in while traveling) and they played games.  Reese learned how to play Farkle, and won her first game. She saved the score sheet for bragging rights (proof that she is totally my child) and asked me to post a picture of it, so Parker and Steven would never forget that she beat them. 

Quincy spent the evening in front of a pad of sketch paper at the table drawing pictures of dogs, mermaids, and dolphins. Corbin took up residence at the base of Uncle "Buddy" Paul's leg and requested to be dragged everywhere.  Paul clocked it as his workout for the day and obliged.

We brought back an extra suitcase of Ca goodness, a fat load of seashells and books, and many memories of a wonderful vacation in California.

Day 5 (thurs)

Day 5 was awesome.
We went to Gilroy Gardens and played all day long.
Guess who loves roller coasters? My kids, that's who.
I couldn't be more proud.

 Corbin LOVED the little autopia cars.  The best part is that there was NO line, so he rode them several times.  It wasn't easy to get out of that tiny convertible!  After that, we opted for the 1920's ford model t's instead.

 Waiting for the duckie paddle boats.  Notice Corbin sucking down a soda.  He was quick to figure out which family members like to have "juice" on them 24/7 and he warmed up to them quickly.  He pretty much lived on soda, chips, and watermelon for two weeks straight. 

That last picture is my favorite.  I am loving my new camera.  I scored an optical zoom lens camera in the clearance section at walmart for $60 (yep 75% off baby!) and it's great. Those kids were spinning in that tub so fast that you couldn't even make out their faces, but the camera did a great job at capturing the moment perfectly. Brock, Reese, and Steven are all about a year apart from each other in age and they had a lot of fun together.

A big shout out to Auntie, Uncle and cousins who took my kids on roller coasters, since I wasn't able to do it.  Reese loved telling Aaron that she took Jordan on her first roller coaster.  I know Jordan wasn't looking forward to the thrill rides, and I'm glad she bucked up and tried them out for my kids.  Thanks, J!  Watch out, girl.  Next time it's: "you. me. giant dipper. boardwalk!"

G-town

On Sat, July 24th, I joined 101,000 garlic lovers at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
I grew up volunteering on "Squid Row" and doing pre-prep for Gourmet Alley, washing and slicing peppers and onions for Pepper Steak Sandwiches, washing and chopping basil for the Garlic Pesto, moving kegs to raise funds for the waterpolo team, washing buckets, and squishing frozen squid with the "Squid Squad" for Calamari to benefit the GHS Chamber Choir. It brought back a lot of memories to be there again.
I think it had been 7 or 8 years since I's had a pepper steak sandwich.
7 or 8 years too long.
I pretty much ate my way through Gourmet Alley.
Garlic Ice Cream.
It is a real thing.
It's actually not so bad...sort of like if you were to put a mess of Garlic Salt in a Wendy's Frosty.
Ok, that sounds disgusting, but not when you think about how awesome it is to dip a french fry in a Wendy's Frosty.

Don't act like you've never done that.

I love this Garlic Buttered Roasted Corn so much, I wanna take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant.


And for Tia, I will now deliver the requested goods:
A photo with Mr. Garlic.
And for the record, dressing like a garlic bulb does not make it ok to smell like one. There was a serious hybrid of garlic and schwetty old man coming from those pits of his.

So many choices, not enough room in my belly. We will go back before another 7 years pass.
Garlic Bread, Garlic Fries, Garlic Pesto, Garlic Calamari, Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms......and later that night, a BAD case of Garlic Breath!

Totally worth it.