California Day 7

On Friday, I tried to give us a slow morning at the hotel since the kids and I had been go-go-going for days. Then we drove into town to take the children clothing shopping to buy light sweaters to ready us for some anticipated cool weather. I hit some great 40% off sales, but was reminded why I do not take my children with me (and certainly not three simultaneously) to shop for clothing.

Then we got lunch at a burger joint where my maternal stress level probably did not leave a good impression with the many childless university students who were eating around us.

We spent the afternoon at Grampa Neil's making final preparations for my mom's memorial. So many details! I have learned so much through this planning process. One of our last projects was making the photo poster boards to display, and it was a real delight to see so many snapshots of Mom's life. (Above, John is all boy these days, so made instant friends with his new Uncle Steven, as he did later with his cousin Eli.)

Friday is when the rest of our extended family arrived from from New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and Oregon. We enjoyed a garden party hosted by Lynne, a family friend of 30 years. Her garden is a masterpiece and the weather was incredibly pleasant (and remained dry!).

Lynne was a delightful hostess who thought of every detail.

At night, Chris took the bigger kids back to the hotel to get them into bed and I went back to Neil's for some more memorial preparations before collapsing into bed. Sleep has been shorter and shorter each night on this trip!