Day 2: California

As glad as I was to be tucked into bed after our travel day, I would have enjoyed actually staying asleep longer. Alas, my body alarm woke me up at 3:00 a.m. local time because I usually wake at six.

Tiny Pink Kitty goes grocery shopping at 8:00 a.m.

I wanted to try to set the children's body clocks to local time as soon as possible, so when they woke at six, I fed them and had them at the grocery store by eight.

Both tired children understandably threw tantrums in the store. There was a time I would have cared a lot more about my three-year-old flopping on the dirty floor of the grocery store for the world to see, or having to carry out my one-year-old screaming and writhing over my shoulder, but having gone through this behavior with four children now has some benefits: this is real life!

I wanted to keep the children awake so I took them promptly to a playground. They perked up, except when swinging too long and I'd see them to start to glaze over with readiness for nap.

Unable to push their sweet, time-confused bodies any longer, I had them home, fed lunch, and asleep for nap by 11:00 a.m.

And that's when flowers arrived from my dear husband who remembered that today was the anniversary of our engagement, as well as my Confirmation and First Holy Communion!

Davis has much unique--some
might say strange--artwork

All of us refreshed, I took us for a walk through my hometown for about an hour. This is a college town, which makes for such an interesting combination of hippies and liberal politics, a sub-culture of some folks who choose homelessness in this pleasant climate in order not to be kept down by the restraints of a job, in contrast with a high level of education among the populace, plus many, many rental properties but also an exceedingly high cost of living here. It's really fascinating to toodle around here people-watching, at least to me!


Then I met up with my sister, her two daughters, and our dad at the famous Davis Farmers' Market! This is a truly wonderful farmers' market, a weekly event for which much of the community turns out. What fun!

The three girl cousins, all with M-names

Grandpa meets Joseph and makes instant friends
by throwing wood chips back and forth!

Four cousins on a spinning thing: nobody threw up,
which is more than I can say for my husband back at home and his carsick girl.

Joseph and Margaret eating dinner al fresco with Grandpa

Yes, they both finished the entirety of their ice cream cones.

And Joseph even got to try soda pop--
but only because I wasn't looking!
That's what grandparents are for.

Margaret got a lady bug balloon,
but Joseph was terrified of the balloon lady with her clown makeup.
You win some, you lose some.