Santa Cruzin'

Ahh, California.  What a lovely state. Why must it be clear across the country?  Our trip to the west coast was successful and the wonderful week we had made up for the challenge of getting home.  I was sick, had only slept 4-5 hours, and oh yeah, was traveling with a 1 and 3-year old.  The latter is difficult enough but with the other two factors working against me, I was VERY happy to be home.  Thankfully, flights were mostly on time and kids were mostly good.  Hard to ask for much more than that.

Jackson was mostly terrible at night (and continues to be), but that's all I'll say about that.

We stayed in a house in Santa Cruz with my parents and my brother Brad's family.  Brady and his cousin Emma (who lives in Portland) got along like old pals and it was fun to see their cousin bond grow.  The other cousins had a slightly different experience.

Emma and Brady are both super easy going.  Reese and Jackson are what you call, "strong-willed children."  Somebody take a toy from Brady at this age?  No biggie, just slip him another.  Brave enough to take something out of Jackson's hand, or think you can ignore one of his many requests (illustrated by grunting and pointing)?  Good luck to you.

I think these videos accurately illustrates the contrast between the cousins' relationships.

 

 

 

 

The main event was my cousin Maggie's wedding, which was beautiful and more importantly, kid-friendly.

 

The day after the wedding, I served as a fill-in for the "Warf-to-Warf," the biggest road race in California.  Eric is still on the Injured Reserve list, so I suffered through 53 minutes of pain.  I've never run 6 miles in my life, but made it through and felt good after the race.  "After" being the key word.  It was a unique environment with beautiful views and good bands along the way.  I just wish I was able to enjoy either one of those.

The rest of the week was spent on the beach, the Boardwalk, family events, and all around Santa Cruz.  Eric and Brady hit up a Giants game in San Francisco and Eric came back looking a little haggard.  I probably looked similar!  Vacation certainly takes on a different meaning when you have children.  I'll let pictures tell the rest of the story.