On April 6th Vivian turned one year old and on April 25th Dan turns 32. Frank and I flew down to Southern California this past weekend to celebrate . We flew down on Saturday morning April 18th just before the party and stayed for four days. We had two weekend days with Dan, Carrie, and Vivian and two days when they had to go to work and daycare.
This is the party invitation that started it all. The festivities definitely had a daddy/daughter theme.
Saturday, April 18th:
Vivian is all dressed up in her tutu and "1" onesie, ready to party.
In the photo pair on the left, both Dan and Vivian had their encounters with a roll of toilet paper. In the right pair, Dan is wearing Mickey ears during his first trip to Disneyland and Vivian relaxes in his lap as she and her daddy drift through Disney's "It's a Small World" attraction.
Dan and Vivian have similar fashion sense with their black hats. Dan enjoys his ride-on duck and Vivian likes her ride-on vehicle, too.
"Hiya. I am waiting to come out of my crib now," say both daddy and daughter on the left. On the right, they both seem to chill quite well in their infant seats. There was a pair of poses with Santa and a pair of poses with toes in the sand but the wind would not cooperate with me getting pictures of them. In this case, action shots would not have conveyed the information!
People brought gifts for Vivian and Dan. It became obvious without looking at labels that "pretty in pink" was for Vivian and "tall and wine bottle shaped" was for Dan.
Of course there was food and drink at the party. There were lots and lots of Fajitas, lemonade, and of utmost importance, birthday cake.
The birthday cake was in the form of many, many, pretty cupcakes baked and painstakingly iced by Carrie's mom and sister.
Vivian can attest to the fact that those chocolate cupcakes were g-o-o-o-d!
She even begged extra off of Dan's former roommate Stan. How could Stan resistsharing, giving his cupcake to her?
Sunday, April 19th:
Sunday started with church in the morning. After dismissal from Mass, as the congregation filed out, Vivian manage to crawl underneath the final pew of the church and wedge herself between it and the glass wall it backed up to. Behind that flash in the center is a reflection of me, climbing in and amongst the shrubs and bushes of the outdoor landscaping trying to get a photo of her from the outside looking in.
For the evening meal we had tri-tip and asparagus that Dan grilled down at their home development's community center. Here are Dan and Frank enjoying the pool together. I really like this father and son shot.
That evening we walked with Vivian on her tricycle to a local park where she played on the climbing structure. Dan and Frank played H-O-R-S-E on the basketball court there. Even though it was Dan's birthday celebratory weekend Frank was merciless. He beat Dan at the basketball game - twice!
Monday, April 20th:
During the day on Monday, Frank and I ran a few errands for Dan and Carrie while they were at work. These errands helped us learn where their local Home Depot, Target, and Ralph's Grocery stores were. We did some grocery shopping for some meals we were going to cook and I "helped" Carrie with some laundry. Due to a mixup in the notes she left me, I managed to fold and hang up a pile of dirty laundry and re-wash a laundry hamper full of clean stuff. Oh, well. It was an excuse for a good laugh. Other than that, we just hung out at their place.
Per Dan's request, Frank made Tuna Noodle Casserole (TNC) for dinner Monday night. Frank still set out a bite size portion of tuna on a plate for me like he does when he makes TNC, but to some extent I was I replaced. Instead of ILY sprinkled in paprika on top, the casserole read VIV.
As is the tradition, the TNC was accompanied by tiny sized peas.
Vivian approved wholeheartedly with the peas, the TNC noodles, and the bits of tuna. She scarfed them all down in record time, barely coming up for air. Her dad approved, too. Dan came home for lunch Tuesday to finish off the leftovers!
After dinner was bath time. This was up to Dan, and Frank helped, since Carrie teaches at CSULB (California State University, Long Beach) on Monday nights. Here is Grandpa reading to Vivian in the tub.
Once Viv was in bed and asleep, Frank, Dan, and I played a few games of Swish and a game of Set Cubed.
Tuesday, April 21st:
Dan and Carrie went off to work again. It was the last day of our four-day visit so Frank and I decided to take a tour of the USS Iowa, docked at San Pedro in the Port of Los Angeles. It was just over an hour's drive away and we left late enough to avoid morning rush hour traffic. It was interesting seeing all the offloading cranes and containerized freight not far from the roadway. We did not see any of them in action though, despite it being a weekday.
The sheer volume of goods that enter and leave this country is amazing.
We had an even better view of the containers and cranes from onboard the USS Iowa.
The USS Iowa battleship is known for its three turrets each with three 16 inch diameter guns. Seeing the way the highly trained and practiced crews loaded the packets of powder and shells was very impressive, especially when we were told that the process had a repetition rate of four times in two minutes! The range was 25 miles with an accuracy of several feet. This photo shows the hemispherical depression made in the surface of the water beside the ship from the shock wave when these were fired.
As we left the ship, I turned around and took a final photo. We had toured most of it that was above the water level – upper decks, overlooks, mess halls, galleys, sleeping quarters, gun turrets – in a self-paced tour with docents stationed throughout to answer questions. We enjoyed ourselves. I learned a lot and Frank was pleased to see first hand a lot of what he has viewed on television in some of the WW-II documentaries he watches.
I took a slew of photos of some examples of craftsmanship onboard the ship and posted them in my quilt blog. Please see them at the link http://dianeloves2quilt.blogspot.com/2015/04/craftwork-aboard-battleship.html. We exited through the gift shop (of course, there is one) and picked up our photo.
We got home in plenty of time for me to make Dan his second meal request – my spaghetti with sausages. We stopped and bought a cake for him and had a small, low-key celebration after Vivian was in bed.
After a rousing, enthusiastic, rendition of Happy Birthday, subdued in volume so as not to wake Vivian, Dan blew out his candles. We cheated just a bit by not loading the cake with 32 candles. We spent our final evening hours visiting by watching a few recorded episodes of Jeopardy, acknowledging how little we knew. Then Dan switched to Saturday Night Live's version of celebrity Jeopardy so we could all laugh more and feel smarter.
Wednesday morning, April 22nd:
Frank and my flight left at 12:45 pm so we would not need to leave for the airport until after rush hour. The Orange County airport is only about 20 minutes away, anyway. We said our good-byes to Dan since he was off to be in at work by 7:00 am. We enjoyed some last moments with Vivian while Carrie got ready to go off to work herself. One of Vivian's gifts, primarily from Grandpa, had to be a train of some sort, so here is her first remote control toy.
I felt she definitely needed a pink engineer's cap and apparently she agreed.
Frank and I took her outside on her tricycle for twenty minutes or so and then Vivian had a few last minutes of play at Frank's feet. "Oh Grandpa, what big feet you have..."
After Carrie and Vivian left, we finished our packing, loaded the car and headed to the airport. Frank actually liked the car we rented. I took a photo of the brand so we maybe could remember what it was - a Hyundai Azera. I did find it strange that we got a car from Nevada when we were near Los Angeles. At least the plates made it easy to locate in the various parking lots.
The birthday cake was in the form of many, many, pretty cupcakes baked and painstakingly iced by Carrie's mom and sister.
Vivian can attest to the fact that those chocolate cupcakes were g-o-o-o-d!
She even begged extra off of Dan's former roommate Stan. How could Stan resist
Sunday started with church in the morning. After dismissal from Mass, as the congregation filed out, Vivian manage to crawl underneath the final pew of the church and wedge herself between it and the glass wall it backed up to. Behind that flash in the center is a reflection of me, climbing in and amongst the shrubs and bushes of the outdoor landscaping trying to get a photo of her from the outside looking in.
For the evening meal we had tri-tip and asparagus that Dan grilled down at their home development's community center. Here are Dan and Frank enjoying the pool together. I really like this father and son shot.
That evening we walked with Vivian on her tricycle to a local park where she played on the climbing structure. Dan and Frank played H-O-R-S-E on the basketball court there. Even though it was Dan's birthday celebratory weekend Frank was merciless. He beat Dan at the basketball game - twice!
Monday, April 20th:
During the day on Monday, Frank and I ran a few errands for Dan and Carrie while they were at work. These errands helped us learn where their local Home Depot, Target, and Ralph's Grocery stores were. We did some grocery shopping for some meals we were going to cook and I "helped" Carrie with some laundry. Due to a mixup in the notes she left me, I managed to fold and hang up a pile of dirty laundry and re-wash a laundry hamper full of clean stuff. Oh, well. It was an excuse for a good laugh. Other than that, we just hung out at their place.
Per Dan's request, Frank made Tuna Noodle Casserole (TNC) for dinner Monday night. Frank still set out a bite size portion of tuna on a plate for me like he does when he makes TNC, but to some extent I was I replaced. Instead of ILY sprinkled in paprika on top, the casserole read VIV.
Vivian approved wholeheartedly with the peas, the TNC noodles, and the bits of tuna. She scarfed them all down in record time, barely coming up for air. Her dad approved, too. Dan came home for lunch Tuesday to finish off the leftovers!
After dinner was bath time. This was up to Dan, and Frank helped, since Carrie teaches at CSULB (California State University, Long Beach) on Monday nights. Here is Grandpa reading to Vivian in the tub.
Once Viv was in bed and asleep, Frank, Dan, and I played a few games of Swish and a game of Set Cubed.
Tuesday, April 21st:
Dan and Carrie went off to work again. It was the last day of our four-day visit so Frank and I decided to take a tour of the USS Iowa, docked at San Pedro in the Port of Los Angeles. It was just over an hour's drive away and we left late enough to avoid morning rush hour traffic. It was interesting seeing all the offloading cranes and containerized freight not far from the roadway. We did not see any of them in action though, despite it being a weekday.
The sheer volume of goods that enter and leave this country is amazing.
We had an even better view of the containers and cranes from onboard the USS Iowa.
The USS Iowa battleship is known for its three turrets each with three 16 inch diameter guns. Seeing the way the highly trained and practiced crews loaded the packets of powder and shells was very impressive, especially when we were told that the process had a repetition rate of four times in two minutes! The range was 25 miles with an accuracy of several feet. This photo shows the hemispherical depression made in the surface of the water beside the ship from the shock wave when these were fired.
As we left the ship, I turned around and took a final photo. We had toured most of it that was above the water level – upper decks, overlooks, mess halls, galleys, sleeping quarters, gun turrets – in a self-paced tour with docents stationed throughout to answer questions. We enjoyed ourselves. I learned a lot and Frank was pleased to see first hand a lot of what he has viewed on television in some of the WW-II documentaries he watches.
I took a slew of photos of some examples of craftsmanship onboard the ship and posted them in my quilt blog. Please see them at the link http://dianeloves2quilt.blogspot.com/2015/04/craftwork-aboard-battleship.html. We exited through the gift shop (of course, there is one) and picked up our photo.
We got home in plenty of time for me to make Dan his second meal request – my spaghetti with sausages. We stopped and bought a cake for him and had a small, low-key celebration after Vivian was in bed.
After a rousing, enthusiastic, rendition of Happy Birthday, subdued in volume so as not to wake Vivian, Dan blew out his candles. We cheated just a bit by not loading the cake with 32 candles. We spent our final evening hours visiting by watching a few recorded episodes of Jeopardy, acknowledging how little we knew. Then Dan switched to Saturday Night Live's version of celebrity Jeopardy so we could all laugh more and feel smarter.
Wednesday morning, April 22nd:
Frank and my flight left at 12:45 pm so we would not need to leave for the airport until after rush hour. The Orange County airport is only about 20 minutes away, anyway. We said our good-byes to Dan since he was off to be in at work by 7:00 am. We enjoyed some last moments with Vivian while Carrie got ready to go off to work herself. One of Vivian's gifts, primarily from Grandpa, had to be a train of some sort, so here is her first remote control toy.
I felt she definitely needed a pink engineer's cap and apparently she agreed.
Okay. This is it the last picture I made Frank pose for on this trip. We had a great time. We really did. I think the reason for the expression on Frank's face is because I dared to pose the question, "Would you consider parting with your 1997 Chevy?"
Glad you had a good visit. You are always welcome to spend time with Vivian - even if we're at work! She doesn't have to go to daycare. We want her to really know her grandparents and love spending time with them!
ReplyDeleteOh - I was surprised that you don't know where I teach. Although, maybe you're confusing it with where Dan got his MBA. But, I've taught at CSULB, not UCI, for nearly ten years. I wish I taught at UCI - the commute would certainly be much shorter!
Whoops! I stand corrected on where Carrie teaches. It is California State University Long Beach and not University of California Irvine.
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