We're back....

from our globe trotting. We all had a fantastic time, especially sam who fell in love with every dog he met and delighted in playing with cousins and making new friends. We had a busy time so have come home shattered. Still not quite sure what time or day this is. Poor sam is so out of sync that he didn't get up until 12:30 today, I was beginning to wonder if he would ever wake up.

Everything about our trip was so great that it is hard to say what the highlight was. Yosemite was breathtakingly beautiful and we would have gladly spent the whole trip there if we could have. The camping facilities weren't brilliant but the scenery more than made up for it. Lots of wildlife, though we didn't see any bears. We saw deer, chipmonks, ground squirrels and a coyote. Sam got into hiking and managed a couple 5 mile hikes. My dad and stepmom camped a short drive away from us so we got to spend time with them in the park. Sam was thrilled at seeing them again and so were we.

From Yosemite we drove to the santa cruz/monterey area where the highlight for sam was undoubtedly the monterey bay aquarium. It really is outstanding and we spent the better part of a day there. We also spent time in santa cruz and carmel and went to a state park to see some giant redwoods. Sam was delighted as we had a gopher take up residence next to our tent and whenever we were eating it would pop up. There were also lots of tree frogs around and sam couldn't believe his luck when one jumped in his shower one morning!

Next it was up to the wine country to camp with my dad and do a little wine tasting. we also met up with my uncle. We stayed at an excellent campsite-complete with petting zoo, pool and playground and dad and amy watched sam for us while we hit the wine trail. M did the tasting while I did the driving. We bbqed with dad everynight and he even did a proper breakfast for us in the morning. Oh the joys of having a motorhome! It was so wonderful to see them and sam adored spending time with them. We were all very sad when we had to say goodbye. They headed up north whie we went down to the bay area.

Took sam to his first baseball game and he had a blast. He was really keen to catch a foul ball but unfortunatey we were sitting in the wrong part of the stadium. Next time we will get tickets behind home plate. He is now a confirmed As fan and was gutted when is baseball cap was stolen out of the rental car. We spent two days playing in SF-dad came down on the first day to go with us to exploratorium. It is a hands on science museum and sam was well and truly in his element. Not sure he understood all the experiments but he had fun doing them. I think we all did. We also go to spend time with my cousin medea and her family. They kindly took us out to dinner and sam fell in love with her boys all over again. Her sons are 15 and 10 and talk about hero worship. Sam was enthralled and spent the whole evening playing with them (we brought lego!) and was gutted when we had to go. I was impressed at how patient max and dylan were with sam, they didn't seem to mind the fact that he was 5. they all got on so well that we adults were able to catch up on everything.

We said goodby to M on father's day as he had to return home, while we went to spend a few days with my aunt and uncle. It was so nice to see them. we had a pool party the first day, my cousin and her 5 year old son came as did a friend of my aunt who had 3 children. We were in the pool all afternoon and you have never heard so much laughter. I think sam drank half the pool between giggles. The children all got on really well, no squabbles or tantrums at all. The next day we went to the Jelly belly factory, where they make jelly belly jelly beans. We did a tour of the factory and then headed off to the shop for lots of free samples. I think that sam had more jelly beans in one morning than he has had in his whole life! His fav were the root beer ones.
we were also able to spend the day with an old school friend and her husband. I hadn't seen her for many years so it was nice to be able to visit in person. Sam loved playing with her cats and dogs, though not sure they felt the same. We visited a ghost town and the local zoo with them, but had to call it a day when temps climbed over 100. I love the heat but it felt like we were baking in an oven. At least it was not humid. We had a wonderful visit with my aunt and uncle and were so sad when we had to go. I hope that we will be able to go back and visit soon.

So now we are back to reality and all that entails. This week is pretty quiet-my main job is to plan the 4th of July session I in charge of for our home ed group. Am distinctly short of ideas-except maybe for a game of softball. Sam thinks we should make a giant paper mache model of the US but I think that is was too ambitious for one session. I will do some posters about the flag, the national anthem, the declaration and so forth but am short on things for the kids to actually do. Off to trawl the internet for inspiration.