Ava's first Bay Area visit

This video pretty much sums it up... Ava talked to her goat and we spent a lot of time in the car. Pretty much every time Ava woke up she was in a new place, meeting new people. It was a lot to ask of a 4-month old and she ended up getting a snarfly runny nose.


We drove down to the Bay Area on Wednesday. It was incredibly hot. It took 7 hours this time; it normally takes us 5-1/2 to 6 hours. We had dinner with the Parodis as soon as we got there, then visited my dad in the hospital. (The Parodis' 2-month old daughter is SO cute and mellow! Her uncle made her a onesie that says "James Brown is my godfather" on it. Adorable!) Ava didn't nap between 5 and 11 p.m. so she was super tired and super cranky by the time we made it back to my parents' house. She then proceeded to sleep 7 hours straight, which made us pretty nervous since we're used to only 3 hour stretches.


Thursday morning we visited my dad at the hospital, then met Janessa and her 2-month old daughter, Jenna, in Walnut Creek for lunch. We had a diaper blowout (all over Ava and me) and then a meltdown at the restaurant. That was not fun. Then we went shopping at Whole Foods and then back to my folks' house. Jenna is a doll, despite being fussy due to colic and reflux. Janessa is a great mom and has the patience of a saint. :) That evening we had the Horvaths over for dinner, and their almost-2-year old son, Julian, is a ball of energy. It was nice to make dinner, visit with them and not have to worry about going anywhere for the evening.

On Friday, we took Andy to the BART station so he could get to SF State in order to take an exam to get back into the graduate program there. Then my mom and I visited my dad in the hospital. (Of course Ava was there, too. She went everywhere I went.) He received 2 doses of chemo that day. Then Mom and I went shopping at Macy's to find a dress for Jules' wedding. None of my old dresses fit quite right anymore, even though I have reached my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess the weight has just rearranged itself. Then we picked Andy up at the BART station, got food from Los Panchos (mmm!) and went over to Heidi's house for dinner. It was nice to see Heids and her dogs, Madison and Reuss, but we're sorry we missed her husband, Mike, who was out of town.



Saturday morning found us driving again, this time to Fremont to see Andy's family. It was his Grandma Pauline's 90th birthday, so we had a little party at her retirement village. People in attendance included Roger and Louise (Andy's uncle and aunt), their daughter-in-law, Miho and her 3-year old daughter, Kiarra. Their son Matthew was there, but their son Randy was in San Diego (thanks to the Navy) and daughter Darcy had a wedding to attend. They all had plans to drive to San Diego to see Randy the following day. After that birthday party, we drove over the bay to see my family in San Mateo. At Mary Ellen's condo, we celebrated Rich's 60th birthday with those two and Marcia and Joanne, all of who are my dad's cousins. We gave my mom a call from there and found out that my dad had been discharged from the hospital--good news I guess. It seemed silly for him to be discharged so soon after 2 doses of chemo, but hey, I'm not his doctor. Then we drove to Mountain View, where we had dinner and spent the night with my friend Elizabeth, her husband, Brian and their 19- (or so) month old daughter, Adriana. She's as sharp as a tack and has a pretty wide vocabulary in sign language.




Sunday morning we drove back to my parents' house in Martinez. Then we drove across town to see my Grandma Bev's best friend, Ruth. She's the closest thing Ava has to a great-grandparent on my side of the family. Then we went to a different part of Martinez to see my brother's new house. It's a big newer house and he has 3 roommates to help him with the mortgage. After Bob's house, we drove home to get ready for Jules and Sean's wedding, which was later that evening. For some reason, I had it in my head that the wedding started at 6:30... it actually started at 6. Had it started at 6:30, we would have been there in plenty of time, but as it was, we just barely made it as Jules and her parents were walking in. We took a seat near the back once the processional was over. Good thing we made it when we did, because the whole ceremony lasted about 5 minutes. During the reception I was able to catch up with some junior high/high school friends: Sara Bonner, Steve Cox, Matt Smart, Mike Davis and Allie Rostkowski. That was nice. We left early because of Miss Ava's bedtime... in our childless days, we would have stayed and cut a rug all night.




On Monday, we packed up and left my folks' house a little before noon. We stopped at Los Panchos again for lunch, and ran into an old junior high/high school friend there: Erika Raun-Linde. Then we headed north. It took us NINE hours to get home! Part of the reason it took so long was we were stopped for construction in Laytonville for at least 45 minutes. Ava screamed all the way home from Scotia. (That's usually a 45 minute drive without stopping.) We stopped often to try to soothe her, but nothing worked. It was a nightmare. We finally made it home around 9 p.m. Halfway through Eureka we stopped to quell Ava's shrieking. I walked her for a few blocks, and Andy called our friend Sara then. She came over while I was putting Ava to bed after we had made it home, and she brought tasty chocolate-mint ice cream sandwiches. That was our dinner that night.


All in all, it was a good extended weekend. I'm not calling it a vacation because no part of this trip resembled a vacation except for the fact that we weren't at work. There were some trying times, but I'm glad we got to introduce Ava to friends and relatives. I don't know when we'll do it again... maybe on a smaller scale next time. A few more pictures can be found on our flickr site.