What an amazing weekend we had to celebrate Grandpa’s 80th birthday! It felt like we were a zillion miles from home, even though it was only a half hour south of San Francisco. We had the perfect little house that let us hear waves and feel the ocean breeze, cook meals when we wanted to, and enable Brendan to sneak in and wake up his Grandma and Grandpa. The best part of the trip was just being together, but here are some of the other memories that will always stay with me:
– Mom’s spaghetti and meatballs. It was Dad’s celebration meal, but somehow I got to have my favorite meal (and take home leftovers!). Grandma also made a delicious Italian Cream birthday cake covered in coconut – and then she let Brendan decorate the top all on his own.
– The weather. It was cold and drizzly until our last day (when of course, it was perfect out), but that made it extra fun to hunker down and cuddle inside. We got to enjoy the fire pit outside (which for Mommy meant one thing: s’mores). There was a huge deck on the house, and luckily Daddy thought to put Brendan’s bike in, so we made many laps around the house.
– Somehow, even though it was Grandpa’s birthday, Brendan had a gift to open each day. I’m not sure whether the giant excavator or the giant light up stick was the biggest hit. We sent the stick home to be enjoyed at Grandma and Grandpa’s house (to spare our house and dog) but the excavator is one of his favorites and even takes a bath with him every night. Along the same vein, we brought Grandma and Grandpa their souvenirs from Disney World, and one of them was a puppet that Brendan picked out for Grandpa. It’s a dragon that was aptly named “Greenie”, and Brendan had so much fun playing with his new friend.
– The beach at our house was a tiny one down some steep rocks – but it was so pretty to head down and listen to the waves. Especially while still in our pajamas. One morning Daddy was holding Brendan and a wave came up and splashed him – Brendan talked about it the rest of the trip.
– One day we headed out to a bigger beach. It was freezing cold out, and close to nap time – and Brendan only let us put him down once to examine his excavator (moment documented below). At one point I looked around and Grandma was trying to build a sand castle, Grandpa was flying a kite, and Daddy was trying to get Brendan to “enjoy” the beach while I took pictures. So after a full 20 minutes, I laughed and declared that we were having ‘forced fun’ and that it was time to head home. He did enjoy the kite – it’s one of the things he always tells people about when he is talking about the trip.
– While Brendan didn’t love the ‘official’ beach trip, he did love the pumpkin patch. It’s one of our two family favorites – and being there in early September meant that we had the run of the patch. Brendan spent enough time to pick out three pumpkins (two for him, and one for Grandma) and then he spent the rest of the time with the goats.
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– Brendan woke up at least once each night and wanted to cuddle with Mommy and Daddy, and just as he has done in the past, he woke us up by giggling upon the realization that we were all sleeping in the same room. It’s the absolute nicest way to be woken up. Even at 5:30 in the morning. With all the excitement, he didn’t nap as well either. In fact, he made it clear that he didn’t want to miss anything by climbing out of his pack and play for the first time ever. Rob and I heard a peculiar noise, and went in to find him pushing the pack and play around the room. We asked him what happened, and he happily showed us:
over and over again….
– We went out to eat a couple times, and Brendan was so sweet about sharing his food with everyone at the table. We discovered he has a love of oyster crackers (the kind you put in soup) when the waitress brought him a small pouch of them to snack on. He went around the table and handed an oyster cracker to each of us, even though it meant that he gave away his very last one. We thanked him profusely, and then got him another pouch.
– Brendan thoroughly enjoyed his Grandma and Grandpa. It was all we could do to keep him out of their room until a decent hour (7:30) and he kept them busy from the moment they were awake. The first day we were there, Grandma happened to sit in one chair, Grandpa another – and Brendan sat in the chair between them. From that moment on, everyone was instructed to ONLY sit in those seats. If I had the audacity to try and sit in Grandma’s chair, I was promptly reminded that it was NOT my chair, it belonged to Grandma. Daddy and I took advantage of this connection to sneak off for a few moments and we found an amazing little beach where we will surely return.
– Perhaps my favorite memory of the trip happened one morning when Grandpa was in the bathroom. Don’t worry, I’ll explain. The house had pocket doors throughout, and particularly in one of the bathrooms, it was very hard to close the door completely. There was almost always a little crack showing. I had successfully kept Brendan out of Grandma and Grandpa’s room, and suddenly I heard a very quiet, “Hi Grandpa!”. I went around the corner and found Brendan peeking through the crack – so excited that he found Grandpa.
Vacation takes time to get ready for, and time to recover from – but the memories sandwiched in between are the things that last a lifetime. Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thank you for sharing your birthday with us – we hope you enjoyed yourself as much as we did.
