Once again, the blog has been neglected. But you know? That’s ok. I have so much to catch up on. Been a very busy couple of weeks for me. Starting with a visit from these folks:
My only sister, Andrea, and her cheek-a-licious son, Bennett. My gosh… those cheeks… I hadn’t seen these guys for a whole year. Bennett was kind enough to hang on to the cheeks for that year so I could have one more chance at smooching them.
These guys are a riot. You can just tell from that picture, can’t you? Full of personality. I realized when Andrea was out here that the thing I like best about her is how easily she laughs. For real. Not little chuckles, but she laughs a lot. And when someone is laughing, it’s easier to join in. I love that.
We went to San Francisco with these folks:
Jami (our sister-in-law) and Trenton (another cheek-a-licious nephew… am I the cheek-a-luckiest auntie or what?).
With four kids and three adults pregnant with three babies (not me… Jami’s carrying one for each of us), we didn’t get a whole lot of touristing done. We did get some delicious clam chowder and steamed crabs and, of course, a huge Ghiradelli sundae. Food-centered touristing… the best kind. Which leads me to ask… how can three little dudes with chocolate on their faces following such delectable delightfulness look so dissatisfied? 
I did find a couple other things besides food that interested me. We happened upon a really cool little music store that had the strangest instruments, ever heard of a Hurdy Gurdy? Me neither. And across the street was a cool little shop that sold Matryoshka dolls. I’ve always had a fascination with those things. Check this out:
That blue set has about a million pieces. I wanted it. But I couldn’t drop like $200 on it, so I ended up buying a five piece one for $20. The lady was so cute… she loved her little shop. She was so excited and talking so fast that we couldn’t tell if she was speaking Russian or English. But it didn’t matter… I love seeing someone with a passion. She was delightful.
The next day, Mom came and joined the party. Yay! I gave her some chocolate from Ghiradelli as an early mother’s day present. She conveniently left it behind when she left. Sorry Mom…
We had a great time. We went to the Mystery Spot (SO mysterious!) and the beach, flew kites, celebrated a Cinco de Mayo birthday for one awesome little dude: 
Oh man. Right now, I want to start typing all that stuff about how I can’t believe my baby is three and how that rips my heart out and makes me happy at the same time, but instead, I’ll just say he turned three and move on. {sigh}
Sunday was a hang-out and chill day, Monday we went out to lunch and shopping and Mom had to head back. Tuesday involved going to a place filled with bounce houses and a trip to the park/zoo that resulted in this adorable picture:
I was tired. My sister didn’t fly all the way across the country to sit around my house while I sat at the computer like I would’ve been doing if she hadn’t been there. But apparently, I was not too tired for a little of this: 
Apparently Andrea and I coordinate not only our dance moves, but our facial expressions…
(those pictures were taken with two different cameras at two different times…
The highlight of our girls night out was not the sundae we enjoyed at the end, but at laughing at my dance-off with one of the employees who offered free tickets to challenge him, and even more tickets and free admission if we beat him… he acted like he never played the stupid game and then creamed me. Look how serious he looks here.
My victory comes in the fact that although I looked like a bigger fool during the dance off, he looks like a bigger fool in this picture I’m posting on the internet. TAKE THAT, dancing dude.
by Shannon Montez
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