Vacation to Brian's Parents' in Pleasanton, California

After we left Arizona we completed our long drive out to Pleasanton, CA to our Anderson grandparents' home.  It was hot much of the time there, especially the first day when we went to the Alameda County Fair.  We went for a few hours in the morning and then came back in the evening for a few more hours.  Grandma joined us for the evening outing.  One of the things we (mostly our boys) enjoyed was a motocross jumping show.

 

Check out the video of some of it.  It was impressive.

This was a fun photo to take of how much our kids were amazed by it.

 

Brian and the boys did some racing of solar powered cars.



In the afternoon we got out the slip n' slide to beat the heat.  Lucas and Marcus had fun being pulled along it.

 

This video gives you an idea of how much fun Marcus was having.

 

When we came back in the evening we spent time riding the rides.



 The ferris wheel was lots of fun for some of us and not so much for others.  Travis was a bit frightened of it.  It did seem a bit scary sending just Lucas and Travis alone in one of the seats but they lived through it. 

Marcus and Brian went on another seat and Marcus was just having the time of his life.  He loved it.  Brian was a bit nervous of the height but was glad that Marcus was having such a good time.

 

 Angela also got to do her share of riding.  This airplane one about made her sick since Marcus was at the controls making it constantly go quickly up and down.



Another day we went to the beach.  It was a very nice day, sunny but not hot.  We didn't really do any swimming but we played in the sand, played with crabs, collected shells and got our legs wet.  Here's Brian and Marcus.

We got a family photo on some rocks nearby the small beach we were on.  There was a bunch of people surfing in the area.

Here's the lovely Angela enjoying the sunny beach.

Travis really wanted to get on this rock right near the crashing waves.  He couldn't do it without Brian getting fairly wet lifting him up onto the rock.

Here's Angela and Brian...

...and the kids enjoying the sand...

...and grandma and grandpa having fun too.

Brian finally convinced the boys to play some games in the waves as they came up on the beach.  Gotta love Travis' hiked up shorts.

We went to another location where Brian went often with his high school friends.  It has a bunch of nice tide pools in the rocks and a decent secluded beach nearby as well.  Here's a photo of water shooting out of a blow hole in the area.

We enjoyed a fun 4th of July with a nice fruit and angel food cake that Angela put together.

We also saw the fireworks in nearby Livermore and then did some small ones of our own in the backyard.

Here's Grandma having fun with a sparkler.

Travis had a raingutter regatta coming up for cub scouts and he really wanted Grandpa to help him build his boat for it.  Here they are designing and building Travis' boat.

We also enjoyed some time at the parks in town.  Grandpa even launched a baking soda and vinegar rocket.