Family Time

I borrowed this pic from their mama, cuz it's so cute!

Sometimes I miss having family around.  The last time like that, I went to R& R's for dinner.  My 2 yo nephew saw me arrive empty handed, smiled his most winning smile, and said.  "I wuv you- when you bring the pirate game."  Great.  I blew it.  But I redeemed myself by inviting the boys over to my house for dinner.  I don't know who was more excited- the boys, or their parents who got to go to a (mostly) grown-up dinner.  I brought the pirate game home from work, along with everything in the cabinet I thought would win them over.  Turns out the bean bag chair and a pizza would have been enough!  Love you guys!

We had a surprise for them, too.  My mom happened to have her first free weekend in, well, recent memory.  What she didn't have was reliable transportation.  Really, parents?  If a car can't get you to the grandkids, it doesn't count as grandma's car! But as she is resourceful and decided on Friday she could come up from Merced on the train.  I was already on my way to work, but thankfully the house was reasonably clean in honor of the nephews.  So Grandma got to come to our little party, too.  Even better!

My cute mom.

On Saturday, I commandeered grandma for myself.  We went exploring in Old Town, checking out the shops and food. We even went on the Sacramento Underground tour, which I've been wanting to do since it started earlier this year.  I had heard that the buildings and streets of Old Town were raised due to flooding, but I had no idea how it could have been done.  Well, now I've seen it for myself.  It's not that much to look at, but I liked the history.  Our tour guide kept saying he went to tour guide school, but I'm not so sure he ever got past the "look at me! I have a microphone!" stage of development.  Worthwhile, but not epic.

After putting my mom back on the train, I went to a bbq with the the Dunnaway/Keys crews, who together represent the only people to treat me like family even though they don't have to.  To top it off, on Sunday Amber came back from 3 weeks working in LA.  It's nice to have people around to love you- even if you do have to bribe them with pirates!