Gilmores go high-Tech in San Jose

On Thursday and Friday we took a family road trip up to San Jose to meet Dorina's niece and nephew, Giovanni and Sophia, who were in the city for a few days from Seattle. Nana and Papa drove with us. Gio is almost 12 now and Sophia is 9. (Don't we feel old?) We met them at a really cool museum in San Jose called The Tech.

Gio is really into building things and fooling around with anything to do with electrical wires and remote controls. He LOVED The Tech and it was tough to pull him away. Meilani even got in on the action with her *older* cuz. We spent a while in this interactive section called "Green by Design."

Leave it to Meilani to find the only "doggy" in the place and go in close for a hug. Her cousin, Sophia, followed her around like an expert babysitter much to Meilani's happiness. After a few short minutes, she wanted Sophia with her all the time!

I couldn't believe how much my niece has matured and grown into a beautiful young woman in the year and a half since I've seen her. We pose together at The Tech, wearing our homemade scarves. This soft turquoise blue one I made for her for Christmas since the family now lives in Seattle (Brrr!).

After The Tech, we went to the nursing home where my Grandpa Frank stays, picked him up and all went out for Chinese dinner. I am glad we got to spend some time with Grandpa although he interacts very little now. He occasionally gives us a glimpse of his winner smile but didn't talk much at dinner and apparently he can barely see. One thing remains: his appetite for Chinese food.

Meilani and Sophia had a grand old time at the table drinking their wonton soup (Meilani's favorite), peering at the fish tank, reading books and playing with our (rubber) nativity set, which has gone everywhere with us this season. Mama and Daddy enjoyed having more hands to keep our squirmy 19-month-old busy.

Ericlee and Gio took some time together to talk about "boy things" and quiz each other on math problems. Gio is quite the math whiz, but he's also great with music too and plays the viola now.

After dinner, we all piled in the cars once more and headed over to my cousin Kimberly and her husband, Barry's house to see their newborn Kalina. I got to hold her for a long time and remember the feeling of those miniature hands and see the newborn yawns again. Kalina is only 2 weeks old in this picture.

We stayed in a hotel on Thursday night with Nana and Papa - an adventure reminicent of my childhood when we would travel and stay with my Grandpa Frank and Grandma Cora. Then we went to see my mom's dear friend and old roommate, Mae Montoya, and her granddaughter Isabella. This was the only traveling we did over the vacation and it was a great escape with little stress.