thanksgiving at ama’s house

phil miraculously got all four days off over thanksgiving weekend, so we took a road trip up north to visit phil’s mom and brother.  since our kids have three grandmas, we’ve decided to call grandma tsai “ama” (taiwanese for grandma).  phil’s mom was delighted with this idea since both kiddos were able to say “ama” to her.

it ended up being a jam-packed, yet relaxing little vacation.  i think phil needs to physicially get away from our city in order to really relax and feel like he’s on vacation.  so the time away ended up being refreshing for him as well, which was a great thing.

phil’s mom is a serious packrat.  nothing, i mean nothing!, gets thrown away.  phil’s room is just as he left it fourteen years ago, intact with all his postors stapled to the walls and oozing of teenage angst.  this tendency to hang on to everything actually ended up coming in quite handy for this visit because all of phil’s and richard’s old toys kept our kids very entertained for hours at a time.  all the toys are stored in a closet downstairs and it quickly became mikey’s favorite thing to poke in there to see what new treasure he’d find.

think i’m kidding?  it was like christmas morning with all these new, retro toys!

daddy and mikey engaged in an intense game of table tennis:

the whole gang about to enjoy our turkey dinner on thursday:

my cuddlebug:

on friday, we visited the children’s museum in san jose.  one of mikey’s favorite things was playing with this rubber band car.

he also enjoyed making a pizza there!

meanwhile, phil kept busy making cornhusk dolls for the kids:

on saturday, we went to a nearby elementary school to play and let mikey ride around on his tricycle.  mikey really loved going back and forth on this bar swing thingy.  he didn’t tire out and kept wanting to hang on there!
 

one thing i really love about northern california is all its different trees.  it was a nice surprise to see beautiful fall colors along tree lined streets.  so we got a bit of autumn after all!

after playing at the school, we met up with ama and richard for dim sum.  yum!  the food was delicious and the place was packed.  phil’s mom even went an hour early to wait and get a table for us.

allie was a bit pooped after our many days on the go!

after lunch, the fun continued!  allie went down for a nap and the boys decided to have a water gun war.  yes, that is mikey in pj’s because he got his other clothes soaked.

then they brought the fun inside when phil pulled out his old train set.  seriously, this day was packed to the brim with fun!

once we finally got mikey tired out, we put the kids in bed and slipped out for a date night.  woo hoo!  i’m seriously loving this whole grandparent dimension of our lives now.  phil took me to a hole-in-the-wall-ish place called florentine’s.  yummy bread and homemade noodles!  oddly enough, this was our first date in phil’s hometown.

and last but not least, our traditional picture outside the house just before leaving.

it was a great visit- the kids did really well with the long drive, sleeping in a different place, and even stayed healthy the whole time!  it was nice and relaxing and especially nice to have “normal phil” around the whole time!