California Days 3 and 4

Day 3 (Monday) was spent leisurely at Grampa Neil's house, with the bulk of time passed playing in the back yard. We visited the florist to select flowers for Mom's memorial, shopped at Target, and did a couple loads of laundry. The kids took a glorious afternoon nap for several hours, during which I selected many photos of my mom for the photo poster board at her memorial. We drove home for a hotel picnic dinner of leftover pizza.

Day 4 (Tuesday) was full of adventure, and definitely sapped my energy!

The children woke at 4:50 a.m. (but who's counting?) and Chris went to morning Mass, so after breakfast, I took the children for a walk in Old Sacramento, right outside our hotel, so they wouldn't just sit and watch cartoons.

It was neat to see Old Sacramento empty in the refreshing chill of the morning except for delivery men bringing crates of produce to the restaurants.

We picked up Grampa Neil and drove to the Jelly Belly Factory (45 minutes west of our hotel), which offers free tours all day--and free samples of gourmet jelly beans! I took this tour as a school child, so it was with fond memories that I took my own children there.

Yes, in fact, Mary was sulking about something.

Former California governor and U.S. president Ronald Reagan has a big connection to jelly bellies, as his use of them to quit smoking made these candies an institution in the gubernatorial house. Then when he was elected president, the press corps was introduced to Jelly Bellies and, in fact, the candies received national attention and sales went through the roof. There were at least a half dozen portraits of Reagan done in jelly beans at the factory.

We were not allowed to take photographs while on the factory tour. It really is a fascinating procedure! I was so grateful to have a second adult with me, especially when a certain little boy had a potty need halfway through the 40-minute tour. Grampa Neil was able to escort him out and rejoin us on the tour later. After the tour, we ate lunch at the factory cafeteria before driving home.

At that point, it was about 12:30 and we had a two o'clock appointment with the general manager of the restaurant where we are hosting Mom's memorial. I wanted to see the venue in person and talk over last details with her. It was an important meeting I couldn't miss, but the timing was dreadful: right in the middle of the kids' much needed nap time. I was already very tired from maneuvering the children by myself through breakfast at the restaurant (making sure the children stayed seated at a table by themselves while I went back and forth from the buffet getting our food) and a tour of the factory and now I needed those bunchkins to take a nap, as I had been so bold (foolhardy?) to make dinner plans for us. It was an impossible proposition to me that they didn't nap, which made me tense, which probably fueled the bad situation.

I figured we could drive around till the two o'clock meeting and the children would nap in the car. But it was not to be. I think they were so overtired by then, they were wired and getting wild. Mama pulled the car over once and probably should have done so more than once.

So we parked at the restaurant and walked a block away to the old Davis Boy Scout cabin to let the kids play in the grass. These sweet pictures don't show how much stress I was feeling and how badly the children were not listening at that point. Those poor little ones had been awake for nine hours of nonstop activity at that point.

Mary found a tree to climb . . . of course.

Brother followed suit and climbed higher.

To which Mary insisted she could climb just as high, I said 'no', and then she climbed just as high perfectly successfully.

We went to our meeting with the restaurant manager. I had the baby on my back, where she cried most of the time, and I had Mary strapped in her stroller, where she bucked and screamed at much much of the time (in this nearly silent restaurant with only the sound of tinkling wine glasses and hushed conversation). Deep breaths, deep breaths.

Back at the car, I nursed the baby, having forgotten to do so since, well, waking? Can you believe it? She was eating solids and drinking water, but at 14 months she still nurses every couple of hours, so my frenetic forgetfulness might have contributed to her general bad mood.

We dropped Grampa Neil at home and drove to the hotel--but first I spaced out and missed my exit, so I burst out the not quite accurate statement, "Oh no! Now I'm lost!" I was stressed out that I'd have to weave my way through the grid of downtown streets when my regular exit dumps out immediately at my hotel. John, the little peacemaker who doesn't like tension, said, "I can see the Tower Bridge! It's that way! Mama, you're driving away from our hotel. Why are you driving away?" My little helper kept an eye on Tower Bridge in the distance and kept guiding me toward it (as if I didn't know where I was going, which I did). When we finally drove up to the hotel, they screamed in triumph, thinking they had led me from being lost in the jungle to civilization.

The children did not fall asleep in the car. It was now 3:15 and I had to leave by 4:00 to get to our dinner. I trudged us up to the hotel room, where we approached to find the cleaning lady in the midst of her job. I almost burst into tears. She asked if I could take the children down to the lobby for ten more minutes and she might as well have asked me to climb Mount Everest. I blinked back tears, told her 'no,' started stammering about how long the children had not slept as I plunked them on the couch with strict orders not to move a muscle and turned off the cleaning lady's soap operas on our television.

I knew it would be its own terrible outcome if the children finally fell asleep and 30 minutes later I had to wake them from a deep sleep cycle to haul them downstairs. I made the executive decision to get the kids cleaned and dressed and back down to the car ten minutes later. I drove around for an hour and half while Mary and the baby slept! It was short, but so needful and helpful!

We met at the home of family friends, the C----s. They met my parents as soon as they moved to California nearly four decades ago, so I've grown up with this lovely couple.  I love them so much, even if we go a few years without seeing each other. The kids and I swam in their well-heated pool, then ate the best eggplant Parmesan I've ever had (including at restaurants).

Amazingly, the kids stayed awake for the 45-minute drive back to the hotel and weren't asleep till after 9:00 p.m.