Shopping and Playing and More

Riding a carousel is an event that often involves not only a family but multiple generations.  It is one of the few things we do together; often families don't even eat or watch TV in the same room.  The wind in your hair, the thrill of the first ride, the euphoria created by twirling in circles, the challenge of grabbing the brass ring, the appreciation of the carving and the artistry all are factors.  ~Bette Largent

Last week Jonathan had a conference in San Diego, so on Wednesday afternoon, Clare and I loaded up the Dease-mobile, dropped miss Munich off at Aunt Meg and Uncle Dustin's house for some quality time with Molly the dog, and off to see Jonathan we went.  I have to admit, we took a number of detours along the way.

These two are best buds

First, we met up with Mom Dease for a little lunch and some good old fashioned shopping, just us girls.  Clare was the benefactor of a very generous Oma and has some really cute end of summer, beginning of fall clothes to prove it.  The fall outfits will be especially handy when we jet-set to Boston and Maine in October, but more on that in a later post.

Some retail therapy never hurt anyone

Excited about her new clothes

After shopping til' we dropped, Oma had to go to work, but that didn't stop us from spending some quality time with Grampy and Oma-Oma.  Grampy decided that his Clare-Bear needed to experience her first carousel ride so, Gramps, Clare and I boarded the historical merry-go-round in Seaport Village and round and round we went.  Clare waved to Oma-Oma each time we passed her, and while Grampy and I turned a bit more green with each revolution, Clare seemed to think that it was the best thing she'd ever experienced.  

Waiting for the carousel to start

Grampy and Clare sure did have a good time

From there we headed to dinner where we shared a delicious Italian feast.  Full and happy, Clare and I headed off to see Jonathan (the whole point of the trip....or was it???)).  Our time away from Costa Mesa was short lived and it turns out that we didn't get to spend very much time with Jonathan after all (these conferences sure do take up a lot of his time), but we made the best of our getaway and did some good mother-daughter bonding.  After taking in the sites and sounds of downtown SD including the Gaslamp (confession: in a fit of nostalgia, I told Clare some very interesting stories about her parents time here in their "younger" years - boy am I glad she won't remember any of them) and Seaport Village, we picked up one happy and TIRED doggy and headed back to the Dease Casa.

Grampy knows the way to his Clare's heart is through her tummy (or on a carousel...)

"Nice temporary pad, pops!"

After a crazy weekend of unpacking, doing laundry, finishing up some chores, cleaning the house, going to parties, cheering at baseball games and the like, we realized that we would ALL be home every night this week.

Ready for the big game

Clare and Grampy cheering on Trout

All that clapping sure takes it out of you.

We weren't sure what to do with all the unexpected "down" time so we've decided to use it to plan some of the the details of our next couple trips...   Ahhh, the joys of being a Dease.