Maxim asked the boys over to play in the morning.  Normally it would be a good opportunity for Stuart and I to play some tennis; Stuart was feeling better, but unfortunately it was my turn to get sick.  I did manage to go grocery shopping to stock up our fridge and bought something for us to grill in the evening.  The day was quite cool, so we had scratched off the idea of swimming at the cabana as it was the first weekend of the season.  But when the boys found out the neighbor kids were going swimming, they wanted to go too.  Stuart and I were fine to take them and told them that we were not going into the water.  Logan had fun using our neighbor’s noodle, but he was too hesitant to try swimming.  Connor hung around the edge and tried to practice until his eyes got irritated by water, then Logan let him have the noodle.  When it was adult swim time, they both got out of the water to dry up.  Later they noticed a small group of kids playing 4 squares, they immediately went over to join in.  With the number of hours they played 4 squares in a day, they still got drawn into it no matter where they are.

     We woke up on Sunday morning and hung out in the hotel room.  Stuart was under the weather, so I decided to take the boys out for breakfast and allow Stuart to sleep longer.  The boys chose to have pancakes, and once again we just walked up to the this quint town to find a breakfast place.  We had a good meal and we packed up something for Stuart as well.  Afterward we took our time and finally checked out of the hotel late morning.  The 3 of us wanted to show Stuart around this small town and especially a toy store we passed by.  It was a cute store; we looked around inside for a quite awhile, and each of us bought little something.  Next we planned on checking out the Power House by the river, but unfortunately it was closed on Sunday.  Our second plan was to go to the Train Museum in Old Sacramento as it was recommended to us.  By the time we drove near old SAC, the traffic was quite backed up, and at that time both boys were out sleeping in the backseat.  Therefore, Stuart and I decided to skip the museum this time and make our way home instead.  We managed to get home in great time, and the boys had the afternoon to play 4 squares again with the neighbors.  This whole trip was sort of impromptu and it turned out to be a fun little getaway. 

    After lunch, we checked into the hotel at Folsom which was less than 15 mins away from the Acostas in Eldorado Hills.  We were pleased that we could rest for awhile before going to the party.  After I took a short nap, I offered to take the boys to get some ice cream, and they both were willing to part from their tablets.  The hotel was within this cute little town called Natoma and we were only a few minutes from this famous ice cream shop.  I incorrectly trusted the GPS direction, and we ended up walking few extra minutes to the wrong direction before turning back to find the shop.  We were all happy to pick out the ice cream and enjoyed a cool treat. 

    Once we returned to the hotel, Stuart was up from his nap and we all got ready to head over to the Acostas.  It turned out that it was only two years since we saw them but it felt like longer.  We said hello to Romel and Julie, and caught up with many others from their families.  Both Logan and Connor grabbed a plate and helped themselves with food as soon as we arrived; later we joined them as well.  Once we were in the backyard, Connor got interested to go into the pool.  The weather was much cooler than usual, so it took Connor some times before getting into the water.  There was a Jacuzzi, but because there were other kids inside, Connor did not want to go in.  He finally immersed himself into the pool, and he was starting to play around by the edge.  Logan was playing with him and tossing the big ball back and forth.  At some point, Connor was getting too brave and thinking that he could swim to the middle of the pool to get it.  Stuart and I were worried that we would have to jump in to get him if he went for it but fortunately he agreed to move the ball with waves to one edge first.  Later Logan got slightly wet enough that he wanted to change as well.  Logan decided to get into the Jacuzzi and Connor followed.  They stayed in there for some time and Logan was first to get out. 

    Next it was cake time. Julie gave a little speech for Sofia for graduating from middle school and Bev shared some stories about how determined Sara was and congratulated her for graduating high school and going onto UCLA.  After the boys got cleaned up and had another plate of food, we let them play on their Tablets again.  They chose to sit in the corner at the garage while watching the bigger kids playing ping pong and darts.  The evening just went by while we chatted with others and the boys played.  At 10pm, we said goodbye to everyone and headed back to the hotel for the night.

   We decided to attend the Acosta’s graduation party at Eldorado Hills on Saturday and we made a hotel reservation for one night.  I got the idea from a coworker who went cherry picking at Brentwood the weekend before, so we planned to stop by there during our drive up to Eldorado Hills.  Connor loves cherries, so he was excited with the idea.  We hit a little bit of traffic but made it to the ranch smoothly and parked.  Even though Logan was not fond of cherries, he was as excited as Connor and I were.  We picked up a couple of buckets and walked into the orchard.  Some trees were still full of cherries while another type of cherry trees were quite empty.  It was fun walking around and picking out fruits.  I rinsed a few for Connor to try out too.  We were not planning on picking a lot; so at some point, we had enough fun and called it a quit. This was a nice detour to our final destination.

   This was a hot weekend and we did not want to do much.  The only thing we had planned on Saturday was going to a dinner at our neighbor’s house up the hill.  Andrew and Marilyn invited us along with other neighbors, the Ricchios and the Amiris.  We arrived along with Frank and Linda, and we all were served with wine and appetizers.  The boys were excited walking around their big yard and finding secret passages.  They also showed everyone how to work their fidget spinners.  The Arimis were quite late, so at some point, we let the boys started playing on their tablets.  Finally everyone arrived and we chatted some more over wine, then dinner was served.  It was a nice sit-down dinner and we took our time eating through the few courses of the meal.  The boys chose to sit at their own table instead of with the adults.  I also agreed to let them stay on their tablets as long as they did not forget to eat.  They both ended up eating quite a lot of dinner.  By the time we finished desserts, it had passed 10pm which was so late for the boys but of course the boys did not mind at all.  We thanked the hosts, said goodbye to everyone, then we walked down the hill to go home.

   On Sunday morning, the boys woke up at usual hour despite going to bed very late.  They started the morning having Maxim over for 3 hours.  Since it was so warm, we stayed home the rest of the day.  The boys spent some time in the backyard reading under the umbrella with Stuart, and later we all played some ping pong and 2 squares in the garage.  The boys however were still hoping to go play on the street, but it was just too hot.  We also played some Wii together.  During the day, Stuart also hooked up our new grill and we had a chance to use it to make us a tri tip dinner.  Stuart enjoyed learning how to use the grill and we definitely enjoyed the meal.  Finally after dinner, it was cool enough for the boys to go play outside with the neighbors. 

    My goal was finishing up all the preparation for Art Show and Open House by Friday, so I could bring them to the teachers on my day off.  It took me every evening for almost a week to work on the portfolios for all 57 kids in the 2 classes along with the artwork display for one of the classrooms.  Since the boys have been playing with the neighborhood kids after dinner lately, those were my work times in the garage while keeping an eye on them.  On Friday I was excited to have a day off to myself and I wanted to go shopping, but unfortunately I did not leave myself enough time to finish up the portfolios before the school day ended.  I had to recruit Stuart to help me do the gluing at the end, and I managed to wrap up and deliver everything to the classes.  My volunteering job for the year had ended and now I can just look forward to see the kids’ work at Open House next Tuesday.