The 1st Monday in May - weekend with my parents

Well, here we are at Monday already. I have mixed emotions as this day has arrived...first, my parent head back home from Minnesota today. We had a really great time with them over the weekend (more about their trip with some photos a little later in the post) - I know that the kids enjoyed being with their grandparents and I know my parents loved every minute they got to spend with their grandsons. So, as we said good bye last night, I became very sad that their visit had to come to an end. Yet (here is where the mixed emotions plays in), now I feel that I can get back to my routine of things...with the trip to DC behind me, my parents visit behind, and the choas of the hockey clinics/track schedule figured out - I feel that I can get back to some sort of "normalcy" (whatever that is) for a little bit before summer vacation and DH's job change really hits. I just feel like I have been treading water for the past few weeks and just need to come up for air and get caught up a little.

Well...like I said it was wonderful having my parents here. I enjoyed spending time with them by myself on Friday afternoon as we went to Livermore and enjoyed a little wine tasting at Steven Kent Winery. My boss's boss pours over the weekends and he gave me 2 VIP wine tasting passes, which we were able to enjoy a sampling from both the general "flights" and the reserved "flights". It was most enjoyable (thank you boss's boss).

My dad and I outside the winery by the vineyard

That evening, we grilled up various meats and enjoyed a nice family dinner at home, followed by a walk around the block. It gave us all a chance to catch up and visit. While grilling the meat, my mother thought it would be nice to have some fresh lemon in her tea, so we had the boys try to harvest some...did you know that a hockey stick is also a good device to harvest fruit?

I thought it might be fun to see if any of our oranges would be ready too...but had second thoughts about letting the hockey players harvest them.

On Saturday, we all went to see the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" in the Imax 3-D. It was very entertaining. Afterwards, Grandpa took his grandsons golfing for a couple of hours while my mother and I went shopping.

Yesterday, we took a dray trip to Half Moon Bay (which is on the coast of California...if you have ever hear of the famous Pumpkin Festival of Half Moon Bay where they look for the largest/heaviest pumpkins, this is where they hold it every year). Our destination was Moss Beach, were, during low tide, there are these wonderful tide pools that you can investigate and see things like:

Starfish

Sea Anemone - which if you are lucky & you don't fall in, you can actually touch it and watch it pull itself back into it's hidding place.

Matthew trying to poke the sea anemone

Harbor Seals - some of the area around the bay was roped off because it was mating/birthing time for the harbor seals. We enjoyed watching them swim around and lay in the sun.

After walking around the beach for a couple of hours, we decided to find somewhere to warm up (the wind off the beach was very chilly and strong) and grab a bite to eat...before heading back home for naps.

So now that the weekend is over and Monday is upon us, it is time to move on and get ready for the week ahead. This morning I get to go up to Matthew's school to watch him in a little skit...tonight is a track meet followed by a hockey clinic. Back to routine :)

Thank you for visiting and remember:

Live, Love, Luagh and Stitch often! Lisa