Great Grandpa Roger and Susan Visit

We had a great visit with Jeff's Dad and Susan visiting, and the kids were ecstatic having so many grandparents!  It was a wonderful visit, but as always - the time does go by quickly.  Jeff picked up Roger and Susan Thursday night at the airport.  Friday my parents took them to lunch and on a scenic sight seeing tour - and in San Diego - that can take a few hours between Balboa Park, Harbor Island and and Cabrillo.

Saturday Roger treated us all to the Birch Aquarium which was very cool.  Can you believe we'd never been?!  It was very kid friendly and all the small little sea horse and sea monster creatures were so neat!  We loved it. We got to see the sharks fed, play with the current water game, and stick our hands in the tide pools.  The view from there down to La Jolla can't be beat.  

From there we went to Soup Plantation for lunch, which both Roger and Susan loved and said would be a great chain to introduce back in Michigan.  It's also one of my favorite places that's healthy, quick and reasonable for the kids too.

Sunday we went to church, and then brunch in Encinitas.  We watched a football on TV while the girls played, and can you believe it - then the weekend was over?!  Looking for our next get together and so happy to have had this one.  It was really a nice time and the girls had fun.

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year East Coast Style (by 9 PM!) at a kid-friendly (BYOPnP [bring your own pack-n-play]) party at Maaike, Paul and baby Max's house!  It was fun!  Grandma and Grandpa came and all the kids, babies and animals got along well.  We watched the ball drop on TV, had some noise makers and drove home.

We all got up early on Jan. 1 to drive to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl parade.  This year we drove near the start of the parade, parked, and walked.  We didn't exactly know how far we were from the parade route when we started walking - but fortunately there were porta-potties along the way as it was 1.5 miles away!

We nudged our way into the crowds and found a great viewing spot for Grandma and her chair, the double stroller, Guinness, Grandma, the girls and Jeff and me.  This year's them was based on Dr. Suess's book, "The Places You'll Go".  There were some amazing floats, and some great bands from around the world.

The girls loved it and napped on the way up and back.  Guinness had fun too and in between watching the big floats and dancing to drum beats, the girls played with him.  It was cute to watch them take turns holding his leash.

It was a great new year.  Best wishes for 2013!!  Love to you all.