fresno: take 1

 last sunday night we packed up our van and headed to fresno for a family vacation.  stew doesn't like to use the word vacation when children are involved, but in all honesty, it was a vacation.  i wouldn't say the first night was included in the vacation part.  we found out that asher doesn't like to sleep in the car. a crying baby and a 3 year old that likes to ask, "why is fresno so far away? are we there yet?  i want some water." doesn't make for an easy car drive.  fortunately stew had me laughing about most of it.

  my friend, megan, told me about a hidden gem on the way to fresno.  i was certain a little sonic would make the drive a whole lot better.  unfortunately, due to my lack of direction, a 25 minute detour through bakersfield wasn't exactly what we needed.  we did get a good laugh out of the gal working at the window.  she was stuffing some sort of food in her mouth as she was helping us with our order.  stew and i howled!  it was classy;)

 asher fell asleep 15 minutes before we arrived at the drakes.  no transfer was made:(  unfortunately asher sleeps in our closet and is used to sleeping in the dark with the door shut.  let's just say it was a VERY ROUGH first night.  he finally fell asleep in bed with me around 2:30am.  

 the rest of our crew was up early, playing and dancing.  

 the weather gave us a beautiful 100 degree day!  i love the heat and the fact that we played by the pool most of the day.

 emma did some face painting.

 and hand painting.

 later that afternoon we headed to the most incredible spray pad/park i have ever experienced.  there was even an icee truck.  that was a hit!

 these kids got along beautifully.  i honestly can't believe how sweet they were to each other, playing, laughing and encouraging each other(i am not even exaggerating!!).  it was beyond what i could've imagined.

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after dinner the kids were off to bed and we sat down with a glass of cheap wine(we're not picky!) and some delicious chocolate.  we talked for hours, laughing, discussing life and remembering our old times.  it was medicine for my soul.  jenny and i met before my senior year in college and the summer after jenny graduated from westmont.  we worked together at hume lake in different departments, but became fast friends.  we spent that summer getting to know each other, as we would spend our early mornings running around the lake and our evenings slurping down the greatest ice cream shakes.  14 years later, 2 weddings, 9 kids and countless memories, and she's still one of my dearest friends.  i feel lucky to call her friend.

more to come on our trip...