San Jose Weekend

Last Thursday, I took the kids to the San Jose Children's Museum with Susan. They loved it, but we weren't able to stay very long and didn't get a chance to even see half of the exhibits. While we were leaving I looked around and saw big lawns, a Hilton hotel and a light rail. Quickly, my brain hatched a plan to return over the weekend for an overnight adventure. Before I could even tell Michael my plan, he knew what I was thinking and agreed to the craziness.

We drove down Saturday morning, spend a few hours at the museum doing everything and some things twice. The big hits were Box City (a giant room filled with cardboard boxes), the water play area (where balls were shot in the air and down whirlpools), the pretend pizza restaurant, and the 4 and under area which had everything and more including multiple marble run type things, a giant fine sand table with scoopers, vials and funnels, and a tree house with puppet animals that Miranda could have stayed in all day. Parker got to go in the big kid art area and made a delightful clay bicycle that almost immediately fell apart when we left.















After the museum, which included a not so lovely outdoor lunch where Parker was stung by a bee on the hand (something I didn't realize for a good 3 minutes of screaming), we checked into the Hilton.


We got two adjoining rooms which worked out perfectly. The kids ran around pulling pillows off the beds, making nests and generally being god damn adorable. After a while, we went off to the pool, which turned out to be tiny and a bit cold. Luckily, the jacuzzi was not too hot and with no one around turned into a lovely pool for us. Miranda surprised us both by leaping off the ledges (supported by floaty) vest over and over again. Every had a super time there.
















That evening, we went to the nearby Spaghetti factory. The walk of 5 blocks was a bit too long for the kids, but we made it, had a perfect kid dinner, walked back, played a while and then put the kids down for bed. After a day of non stop fun, they were all asleep by the second song. Michael and I watched some t.v. and then fell asleep ourselves.

The next morning, I had the crazy idea of finding the nearest IHOP and taking the light rail there for breakfast. At first, it seemed as though it was a big mistake, but then everything worked out as it should and we had a pancake adventure. On the way back to the hotel, Parker and Elizabeth had a great game of "run down the block freaking mom and dad out, then fall on the ground in hysterical laughter while rolling around on each other." Miranda wanted nothing to do with it. Smart girl.








The big hit of the entire weekend was not the museum, not the pools, not the hotel room, not the pancakes, but the elevators where the kids fought every time about who was going to push the inside and outside buttons. Drove us crazy.






All in all, I was very happy how it all turned out. Sure the kids fought, had tantrums, woke up in the middle of the night, didn't want to eat their lunches, and scared the crap out of us on multiple occasions, but everything pretty much worked out as I had envisioned that Thursday afternoon and for that, I am grateful and pleased.