Thanksgiving!

Yes, I know it's been a couple weeks. I'm sorry! I've been busy! I'm going to post a lot of pictures and not a lot of writing to catch up.

My parents flew into Burbank a couple days before Thanksgiving. They swung right into the local-grandparent roles and picked up the Goose and Arlo from school as I wrangled Oscar to a pediatric neurologist (no worries, he's fine).  

Evan wrangled the turkey. Since we have a small crappy wall oven, we decided to grill the turkey this year. 

That's 2 cups of butter mashed with a lot of herbs. That's a big honking bowl of Thanksgiving.

My small living room with a smaller dining nook wasn't going to accommodate our extended table. So we moved things around a bit. We shifted our couch into the dining nook, the chairs into the den, and the extended table into the main room.

We loved it so much we decided to keep it that way!

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. Our friends Trish, Alberto and Stella joined us. The grilled turkey was delicious and the roasted cauliflower with anchovy breadcrumbs was a hit.

The next day we went to Long Beach. The Goose and I had visited it with her preschool and I made a mental note to return with grandparents in tow. We explored the aquarium and my folks took us out for a yummy lunch. 

Petting the sea urchins. My favorite thing about this aquarium is the plethora of touch tanks.

Oscar petting a sting ray.

The aquarium isn't all fishies. They have a aviary that reminds me of the budgie section at our beloved Turtleback Zoo. You can buy a $3 cup of nectar to feed the parrots.

Oscar made a friend.

It made him a little nervous. Can you blame him?

 

Out on the harbor. Man, I love this crew.

My sweet husband and eldest son in front of the lighthouse.

Plus your humble narrator.

Bed and breakfast! Plus burials at sea!

Here's me dad, valiantly keeping the kids from going into the drink.

 

Back to the aquarium. My favorite touch tank: the jellyfish.

Next on the list of Sharing Our Favorite Places with Sampi and Grandma Betsy: The Autry.

And then to Santa Monica, to the farmer's market and the bike path and the beach.

The awesomeness of grandparents: face painting? sure! balloon animals? why not! Three bucks to feed the animals? OF COURSE!

This is Arlo bonding with a baby pigmy goat. Can you stand it?

Evan and the kids and I went to the beach while Mom and Dad rented bikes and rode up and down the Pacific. It was cold (for us) -- about 60 degrees, so I didn't bring bathing suits. So the kids stripped down to undies and went in the drink. Arlo dug out a Monster Island for his creatures.

The Goose dug a trench to the sea.

Oscar B was deep into the 5th Harry Potter book and had his priorities straight.

You can tell that we had a really great time with my folks because I don't have a lot of pictures of their visit! We spent a lot of happy mornings and evenings around the table with them.

And, proving that I am just like my mom, she is almost always covered in children.

Thanks for the visit, Mom and Dad. I always say that I never would have had a third kid if my parents didn't live two hours away from us, and weren't the kind of grandparents that would step in and be a constant influence on my family. And then we ended up moving 3000 miles from them.

I'm still glad we had that third kid, nonetheless. I miss my folks every day, but we seem to be doing okay even though we don't see them as often as we would like. But we have room for that RV outside our house when they're ready.