The drive down on Thursday afternoon-eve was surprisingly not nearly as painful as I had anticipated! We stopped midway in Ukiah for wings (and caught some of the Warriors-Cavs game), which helped stave off some of Iver's boredom and all of us in the back slept in the car for some time after dinner (Niall slept about 4 hours of the 6-hour drive!). We stayed at a lovely, comfortable house in Pleasanton we found on AirBnB.
Katherine and Kelvin's dad flew up from Orange County to spend the time with us and our boys!
On Friday, we checked out Happy Hollow, which had a small zoo (although I'm not a big zoo fan) and then climbing structures/rides for the kids.
Jaguar
Meerkat
Reunion
Iver adores carousels!
We couldn't get the little ninja to sit still for any photos!
On Saturday morning, we headed to Oakland to see our wonderful residency friends, the Lees. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast of belgian waffles and strawberries before Mason and Sophia had to go off to Chinese school. Iver loves these big(ger) kids!
Check out these side-by-sides in which Iver and Niall wear the same outfit about three years apart:
(left: Iver at 2.5 months; right: Niall at 3.5 months)
While Hanh took the kids to their school and Mason's violin lesson, Wai-Kiu took us to the Oakland Zoo.
Sun bear
Tigers (Molly, Ginger, Grace, and Milou) were a hit
sleepy hyena
Strawberry snack
Riding the gondola
On Saturday evening, the grandparents and auntie took care of the boys while we attended Apurva and Natasha's wedding. Apurva, Kelvin's roommate from UCLA, is a wonderful friend, and served as groomsman in our wedding and Kilimanjaro climbing buddy, and we were thrilled to celebrate with him. They (who currently live in Seattle) got married at Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton.
The bride enters
They looked so happy!
We enjoyed conversing with many of Apurva's fellow "PODNation" friends (an e-mail "thing" he does), some of whom we'd never actually met in person but felt that we knew. The Indian food at the reception was delicious, and while we didn't stay late enough to participate in dancing, we had a great time!
Iver did great without us! Katherine took him to a park and an ice cream shop.
(I mean, who wouldn't with this cone??)
the boys
Selfie!
We headed home on Sunday-- and stopped at Vichy hot springs to break up our drive (which I'll document in another post). While I had a rough last week in clinic, it was so nice to get away and I feel so refreshed. We had a great, sunny, warm weekend in the bay with our wonderful family and close friends whom we don't get to see enough, and the long drives were very bearable!
