October 28, 2021 - November 9, 2021 - Trip to California to See Kids and Grandkids

We flew out to California on October 28th. The primary purpose of this trip was to help take care of grandson, Free, while daughter, Erin, recuperated from thyroid surgery. 

Before heading to Erin's we spent a couple of days in Mountain View with Annie, Adam, Violet, and Wren. On Sunday Erin, Kellen, and Free came to Mountain View for a pre-Halloween visit and pumpkin carving. Here is a picture of Kellen and Free watching the pumpkin carving in the back yard. Kellen is crazy about his little brother.

Of course, mama got Baby Free into the act. At four months old he was dressed up as Lennie Kravitz. Here are a couple of pictures.

We dressed up for Halloween and for the "Monster Bash" at the city park. I was a pickle, Kelly was a butterfly.

Here are the girls in their outfits. Wren was "Stay Puff" from "Ghost Busters". Violet was a mermaid.

We also attended a Halloween Parade at Violet's pre-school. It was crazy watching the teachers trying to organize all the kids. It was like herding cats.

Adam and Annie dressed up as well. Here is a family picture from two different days.

Kelly and I passed out candy at the house while Adam, Annie, Violet and Wren went "Trick or Treating". We hadn't passed out candy for years because no kids ever come to our house. Because of Covid what people were doing was putting the candy in a bowl out on a table near the sidewalk. We then sat back by the porch and greeted all the little ones as they came by for a treat. It was fun to see the kids enjoy the evening. There were lots of great comments about the carved pumpkins, apparently that is not a big thing in this area.

After Halloween we headed to Tracy, California, to help take care of Free while Erin had surgery and recuperated. She and Larry had a two-hour drive to San Francisco for the surgery. The surgery was delayed by over an hour, and then it took 3.5 hours rather than the 1.5 hours estimated. The operation went well but they ended up keeping her overnight. Larry had to drive back home, then back again the next day to get Erin. We learned yesterday that the biopsy of the growth showed no sign of cancer. Great news! 

Erin couldn't drive for a week and she can't lift Free for two weeks. While there we took Kellen to and from school each day and hung out at her place enjoying our visit with them while taking care of Free. Free is the cutest little guy. He is always happy and never cries unless he is wet or hungry. We so enjoyed the time with him. Here are a couple of pictures. He may start cutting teeth early because he drools non-stop and wants to chew on everything!

Our flight home was uneventful, which is nice. The worst part was the three-hour layover in Denver. We arrived at the airport in San Jose at 10:30 a.m. and got home at 12:30 a.m. A long day. 

Upon getting home I winterized Homer for storage. Next is putting Homer in the shed and bringing Marge home to pack for a winter in Florida. This year, for the first time, we are going to take three days to get down there. I hope the trip down isn't freezing cold. It is no fun sitting in a cold trailer for hours waiting to go to bed each night.