Submarines and Beaches

We were blessed to have Jesse's parents, my mom, and Jesse's sister and her family come down for Atreyu's baptism. They all came down a few days before and we packed those days with a lot of activities. None of them knew that I was pregnant and we had fun surprising them all. Jesse's parents came first and the kids and I picked them up at the airport while Jesse was at work. I wore a loose fitting shirt and Jesse bribed the kids by telling them that if they didn't say anything to Grandma and Grandpa about the baby then they could pick out a treat. When Jesse got home, the kids hadn't said anything and we were waiting for Bernie to get out of the shower. Atreyu went up to the bathroom and told her we had a surprise to tell her and she knew right away. We told Eddie that we wouldn't be able to go on the cruise with them and that's how he figured it out since that's the way we told them I was pregnant with the baby I miscarried. It was fun seeing their surprise and excitement.

Two days later I went to the airport by myself to pick up my mom. I wore a shirt that said "Surprise..." and had little baby feet on the stomach. I walked to the escalator to meet her and gave her a hug. She hadn't noticed the shirt so I backed up and pointed to it and the shock and amazement on her face were worth all the times I had wanted to tell her but didn't.

The kids didn't know that their cousins were coming down and we told them that we had a surprise for them later in the day. We started in San Francisco and toured an old submarine. Atreyu was fascinated with it and thinks it would be so cool to work on one. I was also fascinated with it but there is no way I would ever want to live on one. There is no natural light, everything is very tight, and the diesel fumes were starting to give me a headache after only 30 minutes on board. It really helped me to appreciate what all those men did for our country.

We then grabbed some food and headed over to Crissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge. As we were pulling up, we asked the kids to look in front of us and there were their cousins getting out of their suburban. The kids were so ecstatic to see them. They all had fun playing on the beach and that's when I showed Janell and Cameron my shirt. I never thought we would have the youngest grandchild on that side of the family but that's how it's looking.