Saturday and the Zoo

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel.  It is complimentary.  

Made to order omelet.

 We drove over to Sharon & Michael's.

This is a rental home.  It is very nice with a big back yard.  It is a 4 bedroom house so Sharon and Michael each have their own office. This is perfect since they both work from home.

We walked to Toasted to get some coffee before heading out to the zoo. 

Meerkats

Flamingos

Big butterflies in the tree.  There are a lot of decorations around that light up for the zoo lights. 

The tortoise was huge

Mountain goat

Monkeys

The center area of the zoo was for the elephants. We kept looking.  That was all Ella wanted to see.  We were mostly not successful.  

We finally saw one off in the distance. 

Zebras

Nathan, Ella, me, Nicole and Jamie

Ella, me, Nicole and Jamie.  

Me, Nicole and Nathan

Apparently, Nicole never wants to hold anyone's hand.  I felt so special.

Time for lunch at the Zoo Grill.

This was quite the photo op.  There was a line for people to take pictures.  Nicole really liked this and did not want to leave.

We headed back to the hotel so the kids could have their nap time.  I think that the adults needed it, also. 

We went to Trader Joes to get a few essentials and then headed over to Sharon and Michael's around 3:30 pm. 

Ella helped Nathan make thumb print cookies (or pb&j cookies) 

Cookies were done.  Peanut butter cookies with a dollop of jelly.

Recovering from hard work in the kitchen.

We ordered take-out from Cardamon Indian Restaurant.

George, Jamie and Sharon.  We got a lot of food.

Art along the way

Wouldn't that be fun.

Dinner was fabulous.  We had plenty of left-overs.

Story time before bed

Nicole

Once the kids were in bed we tried to come up with a plan for the next day.  We will see what we come up with.   We headed back to the hotel.

Glendale, Friday, Nov 4

 George, Nathan and I planned to go to CA to visit Jamie (my brother) and Pam.  Sharon (their daughter) and Michael and their 2 kids, Ella and Nicole have recently moved from the DC area to Glendale to be closer to family.  Both of their jobs are on-line so they could do this.  It is great for us because we could visit them all in one trip and not have to fly across the country.

 I met Joyce at Starbucks at 7:30 am so that we could have coffee before she drove George and me to the MAX station.  I was going to walk to Starbucks but it was pouring so I drove there.  We got to the MAX station close to 9am just as our train was pulling out.  Luckily it was not a long wait before the next train.  We had plenty of time at the airport before our 11:30 am flight.  It was a pretty uneventful flight.  Nathan had gone earlier on a different flight.  

PDX mural of Mt Hood

Waiting in the airport

Burbank airport

Even though Nathan left a lot earlier that we did he got to Burbank only about 1/2 hour before us.  We went to get our rental car, a Hyundai hybrid. Then headed off to Jamie and Pam's home in Glendale.

It was sunny in California

When we got to Jamie and Pam's, Ella and Nicole were still napping.  Pam does child care of her 2 grandkids every weekday afternoon.  

Sharon came over about the time that Ella was waking up. 

Sharon & Ella, Ella is 4 years old

Nathan, Sharon, Ella and Jamie

Jamie has one of my mom's carvings. 

Ella is warming up to Nathan

Then Nicole woke up.

Ella and Nicole

Snack time.  Nicole liked the chocolate and gave the strawberries to her dad.

Ella had to get her hair out of her eyes so she could eat more chocolate covered strawberries.

We went on a nice walk after snack time.  Ella stayed home with Michael.  

Jamie and Pam's house

When we got home it was time for dinner.  They ordered pizza and salad.  Jamie went to pick it up.

Gorgeous sunset

We stayed with Jamie and Pam a little while after Sharon and Michael left with the kids.  Then we headed to the Embassy Suites, Glendale to check in.  We have a very nice room, but there was a very noisy party going on.  They stopped around midnight.  I like these suites because I can get up and have the light on without waking everyone else up.  I get my morning coffee and time to finish my blog.