Day 1: In which we visit the super-cool Marshalls

We left just before 9am on Friday morning. Here are the kids all settled in the car. They had brand new work machines and sticker books to play with, so they were much too engrossed to smile for the camera.



My handsome husband was more cooperative. :)



We spent the day driving. You wouldn't think it would take all day to drive from So Cal to San Jose, but it did. Every potty break took about 45 minutes, and there were so many potty breaks! Thomas is just starting to train, too, so although he was wearing diapers we were trying to be sensitive to his requests for the "pobby" as well. And almost invariably, as soon as we got back on the road after pottying, Josiah would decide to wake up and want to nurse.

Good times. :)

We were driving the final stretch in the late afternoon. There were fresh fruit and nut stands everywhere and we had not one dollar in our car. So disappointing, because we knew we weren't going to come back that way!

Disappointment disappeared, however, when we got to the Marshall's house. They have a DOG!!! Poor Tonks was terrified of our noisy kidlings.



We picked up unbelievably delicious food at a mexican/fusion/super-organic/green-friendly restaurant. Did you know that you can get "plastic" forks made out of potatoes? You can! Then we took it to a local park and let the kids run around and play while we ate and talked.

Linds and Nate are the awesome sort of people who, while not currently having children themselves, are fantastic with ours. And we've been friends long enough that even though we see them very infrequently, we can just sort of pick back up where we left off when we do get together.

Thomas really enjoyed Nate:



And both boys thought Lindsay was a stellar playmate.



The evening was too short. Linds and Nate, we love you guys and hope to see you again SOON!