Santa Clara Trip

We got to spend Jackson's winter break in Santa Clara. It was so nice to go home. It still feels like home. It felt so right driving around to all my old places. Spending time with Grandma was so nice and normal. It felt like I had never left. And my dear friends, oh how I have missed them. I wonder when a new place begins to feel like your place? My Santa Clara friends are some of the closest I have ever had. I guess that happens when you spend such life changing times with people. We had a great time while we were there...minus the fact that I was sick as a dog pretty much the entire time. I coughed enough for the whole town of Santa Clara. Bummer. Life goes on though. Jackson also celebrated his 6th birthday with an evening at (lame) Pirate Island pizza. He was pleased as punch to have all his friends around and was totally spoiled. Buddy and Sally were so nice to drive out with the kids and visit while we were there. It was so fun to see them. Drew came down too. The guys had hoped to bike, but it rained and their plans were squashed. We decided to go bowling instead. I thought it would be fun to bowl with my children...not so much. Jackson is such a bug when something is hard for him. And, the kids just wanted to play the dumn video games. Thank heavens for good company. I wish we lived down the street from family. Wouldn't that be delightful? The kids begged to have me take their picture with this lizard thing at the airport. I told them we could do it on the way home and they didn't forget. the kids loved spending time with their grams! Paige playing Barbies with her cousin Ava. The pirate ship pinata...we went back and forth about what to do for J's big day. We weren't sure whether Pirate Island was still open. We went to the Jen's to hit it open. It was quite a hit. Did I mention if snowed while we were there...we can't get away from the stuff... Grams paid the kids $.10 for each pine cone they picked up. The kids has money signs in their eyes. The snow didn't stop them from their hard work. This was right before Jackson quit for the 28th time because he hates bowling so much.