September | 2018 | Chere's Blog

Above – Visiting Great Great Grandma & Grandpa.

Below – Visiting Great Great Uncle Jon. Uncle Jon was a character. Really.

The photo below is the other side of the tombstone – Jon’s mom and dad.

Jon’s got a great view!

Photos from Robb, Alo and Kando’s last visit – in Great Grandma’s back yard.

Scooting at Liberty Station.

Super Heros.

Swimming at Ron’s.

Cannon Ball …

Here’s Sparty’s version of a cannon ball …

Christening the new bedroom. This was early on in the project (several weeks ago).

On the drive back to Walnut Creek. I think this In-N-Out Burger is a recurring stop.

Back in the Bay Area on an outing at Knowland Park Zoo, Oakland. Three happy boys. The kids love it there!

I was going through some boxes of photos (and other miscellaneous treasures) in my mom’s garage and came across this classic photo of my dad (on the left) with one of his fireman buddies (nicknamed Suzy). This photo was taken circa 1954, around the time I was born. I remember my dad working on a fire boat when I was very little, but it wasn’t this one. It was pretty cool having a dad who was a fireman. He had a lot of time off to spend with us. He was pretty handsome too.

Mo and Maya, a match made in heaven. Mo is Maya’s gymnastics coach, and these two have created quite a bond. The look on Maya’s face tells it all. They’re looking at a video Bruce took of Maya doing some great feat in gymnastics. I have a lot of great videos I’ll share if I ever get my act together.

I love that smile. She is so proud of herself.

A very special occasion – Andy, Mo, JR and Max came to visit Great Grandma a few weeks ago. We got out the family heirloom Civil War era rifle with bayonet, which was (and always is) a great conversation piece.

The boys have grown up so much since we saw them last. They were perfect gentlemen and we enjoyed their visit tremendously. Word has it they’re coming back to visit again Sunday.

A little one-on-one time with Amma at Lighthouse Ice Cream shop with a walk to the beach.

Silly faces. Note Sparty’s Pune bracelet. During the month of August there’s an India holiday called “brother’s day” where girls give their brothers or someone who is like a brother to them these bracelets. They sell them everywhere. You may remember seeing photos when I posted from Pune. Well, I brought home a whole bunch of them, so there are plenty to last a long time, forever maybe.

Fun times hanging around the construction site …

Creating memories on Amma’s MacBook with LOVE and JOY!

Above – Amma and Sparty Oakland bound! Last year I took Maya on a special Oakland outing to see her cousins. Now it was Sparty’s turn (a couple weeks ago).

On the plane … Dorito’s and video games were all it took to keep this little one happy.

Below – First BART ride. The first BART tram is free, from the airport to the BART station. As soon as we got off the tram, a train was waiting and one of the workers said we could get on it, so we did. Right about the time the doors closed, I realized we were headed south – the wrong direction. LOL!! I was a bit frantic because I knew Robb was waiting for us (on his lunch break) at one of the stops. The best part of this mis-adventure was we got to go down and up a couple extra escalators, which Sparty thought was really cool and a lot of fun.

This BART went past the home of the Raiders. We were headed the right direction this time.

After we met up with Robb, Sparty feel asleep in the car so I dropped Robb off at work and drove to Robb’s house. After a nice little nap, we packed a lunch and went to the park.

Then a bike ride on the new bike Kando got for his birthday. Alo’s bike didn’t have training wheels, but this one has a handle bar rev mechanism that makes a way cool noise so it was the bike of choice.

Then a bbq dinner consisting of ribs, corn, salad and salmon.

It’s always fun to go to bed in someone else’s bed. There are so many things to make a kid smile here. The best part of this bedtime was that Alo and Kando would be arriving early in the morning and the cousins would have a whole day to play.

I spent almost all day alone with these little angels (ages 3, 4 & 4). I think it was pretty brave of me to take them to iHop…

After iHop we played. A lot. We rode bikes, played games, played cars, built train tracks and did all kinds of fun stuff, indoors and outdoors. I even got all three of them to take a nap. That was heaven …