Fortieth Fête

A little over a week ago Son Tony had a milestone birthday. Because of scheduling commitments it took a couple of days, but we finally got around to celebrating it as a family.

Since the birthday boy and his family live in California, it required his parents and one of his brothers to hop on a plane to get there. On July 5th Hubby Tony I were at the St. Louis airport bright and early. (Son Donald flew by himself.) The flight was uneventful, and we arrived at San Jose airport as scheduled. We picked up a car and got ready for fun.

The family wasn't gathering until mid-week. Three house guests were too many for Son Brian and DIL Nicole's small house, so we checked into a motel nearby. Each day we drove a couple of miles to spend time with Brian and company. While there, we: 

• Played board games with the grandsons and completed a large jigsaw puzzle.

• Gathered at a park in Los Gatos for a photo session. (I was unaware that some JCPenney Portrait locations offer outdoor photography, but it was a wonderful option. The photographer did a great job of organizing our group of 13, which included some cranky toddlers. I'm excited to see the proofs when they arrive.) The entire clan ended up back at Brian's for lunch.

• Drove into San Francisco, where we visited the California Academy of Sciences to see the rain forest and aquarium displays. We also went to the Maritime National Historical Park where I stuck my feet in the ocean, and Ghirardelli Square for ice cream.

• Went to a hot pot conveyor belt restaurant for lunch. Each seat in the booth had its own heating element. Everyone ordered their preferred broth and meat, then chose additional items to cook from the selection that passed by the table.

• Visited Topgolf

On Wednesday we packed up our things and headed towards the coast to meet up with Son Tony's family for the next portion of the trip. Each family had a cabin at the Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay KOA. The six grands swam and played. The entire group came together for meals. There was a campfire, s'mores, and a birthday cake.

However, the perfect trip had a less than perfect ending. Before we arrived Grandson Ell had a 24-hour stomach flu, and then Grandson Dee had the same issue shortly after we got there. Both snapped back to normal quickly. Tuesday Donald spent a half day alone at the hotel with intestinal issues (which he attributed to too much hot pot). On Wednesday afternoon Hubby Tony developed an issue and quarantined until it passed. Thursday night after dinner Grandsons Dee and Jay got sick. 

Everyone was checking out on Friday morning, but Brian's group just packed up and left early. Later that night we learned via text that Grandson Ian had also joined the throw up club.

The plan was for Tony, Donald, and I to drive to Son Tony's house for a couple of days before our flight back home. The three of us talked it over and decided to change our plans and fly out early. Thursday morning we packed up the car and headed back to San Jose. Traffic was lighter than expected, so with our extra time we detoured over to the Apple campus and stopped by the visitor's center. The building is pretty much just an Apple store and cafe area, but there was a nice deck on top of the building and an interesting AR (augmented reality) model of Apple Park.