The best parts of our trip was anytime we got to see our CA family and friends. Above, we met up with the Cummings family. Katie and I met in 6th grade and have been friends ever since. I was there when she met her husband, Mark, when we were 15. We were in each other’s weddings. Her oldest, M, and Brian are 2 days apart. And her twins, E and L, are 2 weeks younger than Emily. Our kids had a blast at the Burbank mall on those jumpy trampoline things and then playing in the little kiddy zone while we chatted for hours! We met up with them again at the end of our trip for a fancy food truck dinner and playtime at the park.
Below, is my Grandparents house on Buena Vista Street in Burbank. My Grandparents both passed away earlier this year and their kids were busy getting the house ready to be listed for sale. I knew it would probably be the last time I got to see it, the inside at least. And I was right, the house sold last week. My Grandparents purchased the home in the 1950s and were the original owners. When my Dad was very young (he was #4 out of 4 kids), they had outgrown the 3-bedroom home and so my Grandpa added a large family room and master suite to the back. I have wonderful memories of spending Christmas morning in this house with our whole family, eating Grandpa’s undercooked cheese eggs and throwing wrapping paper balls at the ceiling fan. Those were some of the unspoken family traditions. It was Christmas morning. You ate undercooked cheese eggs. You got a tiny stocking full of money from Grandma and Grandpa. You unwrapped gifts and threw the paper balls at the ceiling fan. Grandma would get all nervous and tell everyone to stop. Grandpa would record the whole thing. That was Christmas morning with our family and I still miss it. Every Christmas morning since then just seems like a fake!
We hung out at Great-Grandma’s house in Burbank as much as possible. Above, the kids took her for a walk in her back yard and let her watch them peel bark off of and climb her beautiful, giant Crepe Myrtle tree. And below, they took turns swinging in her beloved yellow, “banana” swing. And one day, we took her to the dentist where my mom took the picture of Grandma, Me, and the kids in the waiting room.
One day at Great-Grandma’s house, my Aunt Claudia stopped by and I got some pictures of Emily with her hair twin! Those curls!
Here we are below with our friends, the Browns, at the Grove and the beach in Santa Monica. They drove out from Arizona to visit. Jen is one of my oldest Air Force friends. She was one of the first people I met when we arrived in Germany in 2002. Her son, D, I held as a newborn, and he just turned 10 years old! We lived just one town over from them in Arizona, and my kids really had fun playing with D and A, then and now.
Apparently I missed the memo that an indoor trampoline park is the new bouncy house! Those places are awesome! We bounced until exhaustion twice with Aunt Laura and Uncle Allan. The kids favorite was swinging into the foam pit and Brian still talks about how Uncle Allan taught him to jump off the trampoline walls.
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