Travel Post: Campbell, California - 2020

I had every single intention of writing my travel post on Tuesday, which is my goal, but we were flying home, and then I was super exhausted. So, here I am, today, writing it a few days later than I wanted to, but here it is!

Last week, on Thursday, February 6, Jeremiah and I flew out to California to spend time with my family and go on adventures! Our first day was just a relaxing day - to hang out and spend time with family and explore the town a bit.

As you can see, Jeremy took relaxing to the max when we arrived and he found a spot on the porch.

It was a beautiful day in Campbell, with the temperatures holding out around 75 degrees with the warm sun. We had a few hours to just bum around until we had to pick up the kiddos from school and daycare (Jaqi's kids), so we unpacked our things and got ready to go shopping in the towns.

PS - look at my parents home they are renting in CA! Pretty nice right? They even have a pool in the backyard - thought it was a bit too cold to use at this time of year.

We went shopping in downtown Willow Glen while waiting for the schools to get out, and we picked up a few toys in the stores that were there.

My dad went to go get Giovanna from school, while Mom, Jeremy, and I went to go pick up Little O from daycare. Mom was a bit worried that he may be cranky upon seeing Jeremy and I, as she said he doesn't do well with people he doesn't know (he's going to be three, so we've seen him when he was a baby). However, I walked into the daycare with my mom, and little O came directly up to us with no issues.

When I lifted him into his car seat to get buckled in, instead of being crabby that bearded man was in the back seat with him, he pointed to Jeremy and asked me "Who's that?" and then proceeded to share his dinosaur stickers and toys he received in daycare that day with Jeremy.

After we got back to the house, Dad and G were still not home, so we entertained the tiny human. Jeremy was playing with his yo-yo, and O really wanted to try it, so Jeremy started to teach him how to play with one. 

Jeremy was trying to teach Little O how to yank the yo-yo up so it goes back to his hand, but it turns out the little man was a little too short for the toy. He had to hold his hand above his head, and even then, the string was too long and the yo-yo would hit the floor.

They both had a lot of fun trying to make this scenario work, with Jeremy showing him which finger to put the string on, and then trying to pull his arm up to get the yo-yo to retreat back up.

​However, the height factor prevented any successful retrievals, and so we began the hunt for O's yo-yo, as Mom had stated he has one of his own.

We searched and searched for the yo-yo. Mom searched their toy box, I searched the kids' desks and crafting area, Jeremy entertained O in the meantime, and we had zero luck.

However, this auntie came up with an alternative solution to the height problem.

If you can't find a yo-yo with a shorter string, make the kid taller!

This stool was sitting in the kids' play area, so we perched the little man on top, and as you can see, the yo-yo no longer hit the ground before reaching maximum length.

Little O was very good about getting the string on his finger and dropping the yo-yo down, but still struggled a bit to yank it back up to his hand. The yo-yo would always get within inches of his grasp, and then fall back down and start to spin.

At this, O would go "Oh, no" and start winding the string back around the yo-yo to start over.

Jeremy is a very good yo-yo teacher, as I have never been successful with the toy, but was able to pull off one up-and-down before handing it back to the toddler.

When O got bored of the yo-yo, he went and found a bottle of bubbles, so we went into the backyard.

While we were outside blowing bubbles, Dad and G came home. She wanted to join in on the bubble festivities.

O's hand-eye coordination is pretty good for an almost three year old! I love the look of concentration on his face as he focuses on the bubble between his hands.

G made several attempts to catch a bubble on the bubble wand, and eventually succeeded, and as you can see, she was pretty excited about it. That was a good sized bubble to catch, too!

Giovanna did ask me to photograph the short palm tree in my parents back yard, so I went over to the plant. I was totally expecting the leaves to be soft, but they aren't! They are extremely stiff and pokey! However, it still made for a pretty picture.

I will be writing of our day trips to San Francisco, Sequoia National Forest, Yosemite National Park, and coastal towns soon, complete with images and perhaps a few videos! Stay tuned!