Cali Trip Day 5

Monday, February 7th, 2011
Our last day in sunny California was filled with good times with my mom, but also some errands. We started off the day by going through my kid stuff in the attic; pulling out what we’d like my mom to bring up to Seattle when Tadpole is born (books, a few stuffed animals, lego duplo blocks), putting aside some things I don’t need to keep any more, and looking at all the toys Tadpole can play with when she’s older. Some of the things will stay at Grandma’s house so Tadpole and her nieces have something to play with when they visit, while others might come to our home once Tadpole is a few years of age. It was fun going through all the old toys and telling Andrew about them all. He had fun checking out how a few of the toys I grew up with worked. Two boxes we did not pull out were the My Little Pony box, and the Barbie box. Tadpole can wait until she’s at least two to be exposed to some of those. Of course while going through all this the animals wanted to help out.

Shika is my cat, and Hoshi's half sister. But since she's a twin to Bree (my mom's cat), she lives at home with my mom

Bree doesn't like staying still. So in order to take a picture of her I had to hold her

Auzzie!!! Our "puppy-dog." He totally still thinks he's a puppy even though he'll be turning 14 this summer

After that fun rollback in time we went off to run a few errands, and to make sure Andrew got his In N Out.  Then we went to one of my favorite places in the world: Kelly Park. Sadly the Happy Hollow part of Kelly Park was closed for the day, but the Japanese Friendship gardens were open!

Japanese Friendship garden. They'll finally be getting more koi later this year.

 We took a nice stroll through the garden, and my mom took some pictures of Andrew and me in our “love shirts.” I really wanted maternity pics of us in the gardens, and am happy we got some great shots! And Andrew took a few of me and my mom. ^_^

Showing off our "love" shirts

Giving our love to baby Tadpole

Aww, Andrew loves me! <3

Me and my mommy. ^_^

The garden just started to get a hint of my favorite scent that resides there: the sakura (cherry blossoms). Some of the sakura trees were just starting to be in bloom. I LOVE the smell of them! I anxiously await them blooming in the Seattle area so Andrew and I can go on walks just to smell them. 

One of the many types of sakura at the garden.

 I really wish Monday was longer; that we could have hung out with my mom more and done more things together. But I am happy for the time we were able to spend with her (and the sun). We left that evening from warm and sunny California, to cold and damp Seattle. We’re totally happy the Cali sun followed us up north for a few days!

Our trip was a blessed time with family and friends, celebrating Tadpole’s life in anticipation for her to enter the world. Thank you again to everyone who blessed our little one, and us, with gifts while we were in Cali! We are so thankful and overjoyed!