A GRANDY VISIT!

The tale end of our summer was packed full of lots of fun including this next installment:

A VISIT WITH THE GRANDYPARENTS!

 We started off with an old fashioned visit to the zoo. This first pic is a classic featuring a Penn State cat friend! This portrait is destined to make the family calendar this year! 

(reminder: click on photos to enlarge)

 As you can see everyone enjoyed the animals quite a bit!

 After a day at the zoo and some down time, Patrick rolled out to join the Grandys and Laura at the ball park to watch the Giants play a bit of baseball. I stayed behind to get everything shipshape for heading to the beach the next day.

Part 2 of the Grandy Visit: Rio Del Mar Beach

We rented a house in Aptos just south of Santa Cruz, actually a mile south of Capitola (a popular small surfing town/beach area). The place we stayed was in walking distance of Rio Del Mar, a mellow beach area that proved GREAT for digging.

Here are Patrick and Alston celebrating our arrival at the beach house, waiting for the Grandys to arrive with Laura and Eliya.

Grandypa sprung right into storytelling and began bequeathing selections from the family's prized "Thomas" collection.

Grandyma and Grandypa braved the fog with smiles.... wait, I think I see a sliver of blue peeking through at the horizon?!?

Aunt LoLo did her best best to shovel up some fun.

Eliya wowed everyone with a special breakfast of shaksuka.

Grandyparents could no longer resist the urge to dig....or were they just trying to stay warm?

Grandypa developed a new technique to keep Alston still!

A visit to this area would not be complete without a visit to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The rides, bad food - what is not to like!

Alston seemed particularly curious about the log flume ride. He stood watching the logs go around and crash down the flume for quite a while. Deeming Alston was tall enough to ride, Patrick and son charged on to the ride without a 2nd thought. Patrick says Alston LOVED it, requesting to go "one more time". I never have had any interest in those stupid "rollercoaster" photos, as who wants a photo of themselves making terrible "rollercoaster faces". But this photo result was hysterical! (and clearly could not be resisted! Thanks Grandypa!)

Grandypa relived his childhood on the carousel.This is an old school carousel, where you grab the rings and throw them at a clown face. Grandypa had some pretty good aim! (Alston can be sighted peeking around on the lower horse next to Grandypa)

We had one last day of relaxation at the beach house to wrap up our lovely visit. We were sad to see the Grandys go but all good things must come to an end. And we'll just have to look forward to another visit come Thanksgiving! It can't come soon enough!

**Special thanks to Eliya for some of the photos, which I pirated!