Cali part 2

Okay, after we kissed and hugged and refrained from beating the living daylights out of Ty, (you must read the last blog if you haven't yet) we went to Curtis and Jane's church, then off to San Francisco to see the sights. What a fabulous city! We had such a great time (after I got carsick on the way and threw up in Jane's Taco Bell cup and chewed on some of Ty's Dramamine). We saw the sea lions at Pier 39 and took pictures of Alcatraz and I got some new sunglasses that didn't have a scratch down the middle of the left eye. You can tell that didn't bother me for 11+ hours the day before. Then we had some ridiculous chocolate sundae's in Ghirardelli Square, holy delicious.After San Francisco we went back to Jane and Curtis' place where they had a surprise waiting. They found a Power Wheels truck at a garage sale for $5 (for real) and after getting a new battery for it, it became Jake's favorite part of the trip. He drove that thing around the parking lot, up on the sidewalks surrounding their condo, he drove it to the pool when they got to go swimming, and wanted to drive it home to Oregon. Jane's "big pool" aka not our kiddie pool that fills to about the boys shins, was pretty awesome with the new water wings I bought them. Talk about the highlight of Ty's existence. Jake loves the water too, but Ty is part marine wildlife, I'm quite sure of it. The next day started out with me being sure Ty was officially in our room, in the flesh, and then packing up to leave for the beach. Just outside Monterey is an adorable little community called Pajero Dunes, and it was simply the greatest. This house was RIGHT on the ocean, and had the most luxuriously comfy bed I've ever slept in. I'm thinking the sheets may have cost more than our mortgage payment. We got to put the kids to bed and stay up late playing games with Jane and Curtis, and it was really the best. Have I mentioned the fact that I love my in-laws? Sisters, brother, mother, father. Every last one of them is just wonderful. It was only about every other sentence that we tried to get Jane and Curtis to move to Gresham. One more picture of my cuter than cute niece. She'd just gotten her two little ponytails taken out before she fell asleep. Don't you just want to squeeze her? This vacation within our vacation was really wonderful. We even saw a sea lion on the beach, just feet away from us. And roasted marshmallows in the fire pit right outside their beach house. And the kids and Dan and "Uncle Curti" jumped the frigid waves and came back with teeth chattering. It is still the West Coast, people, let's be honest.
Another little Ty special happened when I found him out on the front porch of the house, peeing through the very narrow slats on the deck, the spray dangerously close to the walking path between houses. Shorts pulled down to his ankles, the contrast between his tan lower back and stark white nakedness was pretty doggone amusing. Just how many times have I scolded that child while trying to hold back a smile?

When we came home from the beach, Dan's other sisters Becca and Jenny and Becca's boyfriend Jared were waiting for us, and soon Gram and Pops Stump arrived. The whole Stump family together. I could just feel the love bursting out of my mother-in-law Ann. We had an early birthday celebration for Jake and baby Bec (don't you worry, I'm not forgetting about Jake's bday blog, his party is on the 6th so I'm waiting for pictures). And then we went to check into another hotel to get some good sleep before going to Great America the next day.

Too bad good sleep was not going to happen at this hotel. First of all, we were checking in at around 9pm, an hour past the kids bedtime. They were running on fumes, as were we. Of course they didn't actually have the room with 2 queen beds that we had reserved (have you ever seen that Seinfeld..."I know why we have reservations." "I don't think you do. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to HOLD the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.") Anyway, very long story we ended up with a king bed and a couch that had a pull-out bed which was about the size of one of my legs, but both kids ended up sleeping on it after waiting for them to bring us some sheets and blankets. Again, very long story of us hearing our next door neighbors yelling at their crying child and having the crying child bang against the walls and their door. It was not terribly soothing, but ended eventually.

What you're really waiting for is this: GREAT AMERICA. Ann and John watched the kids while us adult kids got to go to the park. Do you know when the last time was that I went on a roller coaster? Long long ago. I realized that as we were hanging upside down on the Invertigo. Listen to the blurb they write about it:

Invertigo: Face fear - and your friends, as you race through loops and boomerangs, and then back again! First you're pulled up 138 feet above the ground. Then, speed down the lift, and shoot up into a "boomerang," a 180-degree turn with double inverted side-winders. Exploding out of the boomerang, head into a 72-foot-high vertical loop before rocketing to the top of the second 138-foot lift. You'll have just enough time to catch your breath before you do the whole thing again in the opposite direction.

They also didn't mention that if you face your brother in-law-Curtis, you just may get spit on as he's dangling above you. Did I mention he's a youth pastor? The always-gonna-think-spitting-in-people's-faces-is-funny type of guy. You just have to love him.

Great America was awesome. The longest wait we had was about 10 minutes and it was to ride Psycho Mouse which was...well look at the title folks. Because we went on so many coasters in so little time, we decided to cut out early and head back to San Fran for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on the top of Macy's in Union Square. Good decision. Mmmmmm. And they were even celebrating national cheesecake eating day or something like that, so the slices of cheesecake were half off. Mmmmmm. Snickers Cheesecake. I'm actually starting to salivate thinking about how delicious it was.

The next morning it was time for us to head home. So I'll wrap it up. We made it home. Utterly exhausted. But completely happy. There, was that to the point or what?

Thank you Curtis and Jane! Crazy stories included, we really could not have had a better vacation. In fact, if it didn't have crazy stories, it wouldn't truly have been a Stump Family Adventure. We'll do it again soon, I promise!