A GEM of a Weekend

Jon was gone all last week on a work trip and then flew straight to the coast for a Bachelor Party. After a week of being a single Mom I decided it would be fun to have a change of scenery so Reed and I headed up to visit my Grandmother Joan. My name for her has been Momma Joan since I was itty bitty. We've been trying to come up with a name for Reed to call her. At first it was GG Joan, then G-Momma, then G-Mom. Reed took this last iteration and combined it into a one syllable name - Gggggemmm. I decided that we should spell it Gem - like a jewel. We'll see how long this one lasts!!!

Anyway we drove up to the Bay Area on Friday and after we got unpacked we headed to a local park that has lots of toys and also a huge pond.

The picture above is one of my favorites because I'm pretty sure that Gem was explaining to Reed that the ducks were taking a bath in the water and then he said "towel" - because obviously if something is taking a bath, it's going to need a towel to dry off!!! The look on her face is priceless.

After the park we made a quick stop by one of Gem's friends' houses to say hi, drop off some citrus my parents had sent along, and to check out their koi pond. I didn't snap too many pics, but at one point we saw a turtle and Reed became obsessed with seeing it again and that is what he is asking about in the picture below.

On Saturday morning we headed to Ardenwood Farm. All of the animals adored Reed and would come up to the fence to say hello. I know they are used to being around kids, but a lot of the other children were frightened of the animals and the feeling seemed to be reciprocated.

In the afternoon we hung out in the front yard, played with a soccer ball, rocks, and Reed for some reason decided to smell all of the flowers.

Before we left on Sunday, Gem's walking friend Nancy came over to say hi, and then we headed up to another friend's house/farm to meet some more furry/feathery friends.

Gem loved spending time with Reed and I think the feeling was definitely mutual seeing as when I was telling Reed what we needed to put in the car he pointed to Gem and then said "car" indicating he wanted to take her home too!!!