Busy Family Sunday

Late Sunday morning the twins headed to Sacramento to visit ZiaNonna, who had a hip replacement. She was doing very well and moving around. The Lopezjoneses brought her lunch and wished her a speedy recovery.

Then they drove down the road a bit to visit their new baby cousin Adalynn.

After saying hi to the baby Ada and Navi immediately went outside to play with Jaxton and all his cool backyard toys.

After the quick visit with ZiaTosha the Lopezjoneses hurried back to the bay area, stopping in Corte Madera to celebrate a birthday. The twins decorated a cake baked by GrandmaAnnie for...

Grandpa's 91st birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Neighborhood Walk

Saturday morning Navi and DaddyQuique took a walk in The Mission stopping for a morning bun at a favorite pastry shop on Valencia Street. They also stopped to see the new future site of his school. He was excited to see the large playground space!

Back To The Norm

Ada and Navi began 4th grade this week. PapaJason and DaddyQuique accompanied them on the train and walked them to their first day of class.

Lucky for them they have the same teachers as last year and the addition of one new student. The next day the dads walked the twins to the bust stop and they, continued like last year, took the bus on their own to school.

Wednesday the twins had a dentist appointment in Corte Madera, since they were in town they headed to Nonna and Grandpa's house for dinner. Nonna had a little task for them, which they were happy to help with.

A last minute pre-season soccer practice was in play for Ada. Her team teamed up with another group to have the minimum number of players. Most of Ada's friends showed up for the first practice and two new girls form the other team.

La Scuola Camping 2018

The twins once again hosted La Scuola families at Huntley Mill for a camping weekend.

There were great hikes lead by PapaJason.

Even the little ones that were too small last year made it this time.

The groups of families were great. Ada and Navi really enjoyed it. Ave was even around for the first day, she wanted to hang out with her cousins.

Ada was happy to have two of her classmates there. She even ha her own tent and shared it with them.

All in all it was a great way to end the summer. School starts in two days!

Filling The Days

One day in the week the twins took the train downtown to see the brand new Transbay Terminal park. It was so beautiful, overwhelming and crowded that DaddyQuique forgot to take any pictures. But afterwards they grabbed sandwich and sat in one of the city's many great POPOS (Privately-Owened Public Open Spaces). Then off to the movies to catch up on the latest release.

That evening PapaJason suggested they go out to dinner. Navi was for it, but Ada did not want to go. She was told that it would be Ethiopian food and that she would have to eat with her hands as there are no utensils, then she got excited and even dressed up. They both loved the food!

After dinner they stopped by their new favorite ice cream spot, Garden Creamery, but it was closed. Lucky for them there was another ice cream shop just half a block away. In this one they make churned-to-order ice cream using liquid nitrogen. They were happy!

Gilroy Gardens - Salinas Overnight

Ada and Navi have another week before they start school. So summer vacation is still on. They decided on a last minute trip to Salinas, but stopped at an amusement park for the day.

The park is not huge and quite manageable. If one kid wanted to to a ride and the other didn't he/she could move on to the next ride and wait for the others there.

For the most part, they stuck together.

But Ada was more willing to do the rides on her own.

It was hot in Gilroy that day, but there park has so many trees and plants that provide quite a bit of shade. Soft serve ice cream also helps.

The twins quickly learned which are the best seat in rides.

Including that the best seats in most roller coasters are at the end. They spent 6 hours at the amusement park. Afterwards to Salinas to see Abue, Abuelito, Marky and TiaNana.

Back in San Francisco

The Lopezjoneses are back in SF and fighting jet lag, on the first night Navi was up at 2am and the next 4am. For an outing, DaddyQuique took the twins to the newly renovated playgrounds in front of city hall.

The structures really are amazing and Navi loved it. He was able to do so much and test some of his limits in these intricate webs of rope.

And on the way home he decided to run his hands on the MUNI station seats, yuck!

Caorle, Veneto

 

After leaving Rosa the Lopezjoneses headed towards the beach to the beach town of Caorle. Just north of Jesolo and much quiter. They checked into their ApartHotel and the twins were excited to see the pools right outside their window. Ada is to the left of the 'H' on the first pool.

The beache was fun! The water was not as clear as the ones in Croatia, but the twins didn't mint.

The beach was very long and shallow. you could walk out for five minutes and still have water up to your waist.

Gian Marco was in another near by beach town visiting his nonni so he and Irene stopped by for the day to hang out.

As did some friends from America. Martin and Eric were also in Italy, and hour north, and they decided to stop by as well. Navi was super excited.

Lunch at the beach could not have been better, Italian meats, cheese and bread.

The twins spent their beach day playing in the sand...

 ...and swimming in the water.

 Caorle was a great place to decompress and ready oneself for the flight home. Dinners were eaten at 7PM and the twins made it to bed by 8:30PM. Ada and Navi can't wait for their next trip to Italy.

Famiglia Famiglia Famiglia

While in Rosa the Lopezjoneses headed up to the mountains one evening to Alano Di Piave and visit PapaJason's nonna's childhood home. Odone and his family live there now and both his kids made it to town for dinner.

It was a nice dinner and to visit the roots of the Italian family tree is a treat.

Another evening they drove to Venice to visit yet again more family. This time from PapaJason's nonno's side.

Ada and Navi got to play a little bit in Venice before dinner at a pizza parlor.

Michele and his famlily live in Venice and Renata Nanni, who lives a bit inland, took the train in for dinner. It was a great evening and treat to see beautiful Venice.

Before their last days in Rosa, Caterian threw a big party and invited over 50 family members from the area. That meant plenty of cousins for Ada and Navi to play with.

And play they did. It was non-stop running around, swimming, playing soccer and more.

Sadly the next day it was time to say goodbye to their hosts. But not before a family Sunday lunch at a special restaurant in the foothills with some great food.

The twins said goodbye to their cousins and thanked them for the great time. Ada and Navi got really good practice at their Italian since of their cousins spoke any other language.

I Cugini

The twins got to spend a lot of time with Gian Marco, they even stayed at his house for an overnight. They loved playing with Rot.

Gian toured them around his hometown Pove Del Grappa and took him to the latest brewery restaurant where the kids had a really good hamburger, a nice change form pasta.

Then Gian took the twins to his favorite swimming spot in the Brenta River. They spent a couple hours there relaxing and swimming in the river.

In their second week in Rosa, Caterina's kids made it back after spending a week with their father. They had a BB-Q that evening. Alberto enjoyed cooking outside along with Navi and Jason.

Gia, Alberto and Andreas were happy to be home and spend time with their American cousins.

One Sunday everyone joined Olga, Cate's sister in-law, on a family get together. Some took cars up to a cabin in the mountain and others hiked up.

Olga found the a fossil on the hiking trail of an old underwater creature.

Navi wanted to bring it home, but it was a pretty heavy item.

They all hiked up for Sunday lunch and there were plenty of Olga's family including many children to the twins to play with.