Terryl and Stephanie Visit

Thursday, June 3 - Monday, June 7

Terryl and Stephanie payed us a visit over the 4th of July weekend. It was great to see them again. This was Stephanie' s first time out to California to see us, and so it was fun to get to know her better. I feel it was a real successful vacation because we had several fun things planned but we still have time to relax and take things easy.

Thursday, June 3 - Chicken Sandwiches and WALL-E

Eve went to pick up Terryl and Stephanie from the airport around noon, and then came by Pixar to pick me up. A week and a half ago, Jake, Rich (my officemates), and I went to sandwich deli place in Oakland called "Bake Sale Betty" as a farewell to Rich for leaving to go back to school. Having done that, I knew that's where I wanted to treat Terryl and Stephanie to for lunch. The place doesn't look like anything special, but it has the best fried chicken sandwiches. I made everyone get their sandwiches to go so we could race back to Pixar for me to be in time to get a free copy of the WALL-E video game for the PS3 that was being handed out. So we got to eat at Pixar and visit there for a little bit.

That evening we took Terryl and Stephanie to see WALL-E at the theater in Concord (it was mine and Eve's first time there). I think they really liked it. It was cool to share that with them and talk about it. That was my third time seeing the final movie, and I think each time I see it gets more emotional for me.

Friday, June 4 - Independence Day at the Singing Flag

For breakfast on the 4th we went to our church for a special "pancake" breakfast that our ward and sister ward put on every year for the 4th. I wasn't sure what to expect and I was impressed. There was plenty to eat (mmmm.... bacon, eggs, pancakes ......) and all the kids went outside afterwards to ride their bikes, tricycles, and such around the parking lot in a makeshift obstacle course. It was cute to see all of the excited kids playing around. When it was time to go, I finally persuaded Haylee to leave by telling her that we needed to go home to see Stephanie (since she was resting at home). Both Cameron and Haylee quickly grew very fond of Terryl and Stephanie.
For watching fireworks we decided to check out the Singing Flag program that's held in Concord each Independence Day at the Concord Park. We went there early to lay down our blankets to save our spot (which works out nice because everyone does it and you don't have to spend half the day waiting just to get a good spot). When we went back to see the program at 7:30 pm I was impressed with the show. There were mainly different types of skits and songs performed. I especially like the tributes to old TV shows and movies like the Flintstones, Spiderman, and Star Wars. It was definitely a show I'd think about going to again.

Saturday, June 5 - Merrill Men Reunion

We spent most of the day on Saturday with Eric Halpenny and Chris Rees and their families. Eric and Chris are two great friends of Terryl and mine that we lived with for most of the time we attended BYU. It's been about 5 years or so since we've seen them. We met up at Tilden Park in Berkeley for a little barbeque and spent the afternoon there at the park. It was so fun to see them again. We talked a lot about old times and watched our kids play together running around, playing with sand, and climbing the kids' structures. There was an animal farm there by our site with pigs, goats, chickens, sheep, horses, and cows that the kids especially liked.

We left the park in the afternoon and I decided it would be fun to take everyone to Pixar and show them around. They all seemed like fans of the movies and were very interested in seeing what the studio was like. They especially liked the cereal bar and the in-house theater. We probably sat in the theater for almost an hour just talking about old times, and it reminded me a lot of how we used to stay up and just talk and laugh together. It's great that they are doing well and have wonderful wives and children. We ended the day by grabbing some food and ice cream at Fenton's.



Sunday, June 6 - Taking It Easy at Home

On Sunday we decided to just take it easy and stay at home, apart from going to church. Now that Terryl and I have our own families and live away from each other, it makes it more interesting to go to places like church when we get together and see people's reactions when they see us together.

Throughout the weekend while Terryl has been here and especially today, we did a bit of videogame playing, one of Terryl's and mine favorite things to do when we get together. I enjoyed showing him and Stephanie our new HD TV and Playstation 3 Blu-ray player. Terryl especially like playing a Genesis classics collection game I have, as it has many of the Sega Genesis games we grew up playing. The night before we saw Cloverfield on blu-ray, a unique monster movie shown entirely from the point of view of a video camera, which I thought was pretty cool and fun to watch in HD.

Monday, June 7 - Egg Breakfast and Scenery-challenged Walk

Terryl and I can't get together without having at least one big egg breakfast. We had a big pancakes and eggs breakfast to start out our last day together right. We wanted to get the kids outside to do something, so later we went to the Limeridge Open Space in Concord and walked just about a mile or so. It was an area that Eve and I had heard of but never been to, so we wanted to try it out as an excuse to get out and do some hiking with Terryl and Stephanie. But it turned out to be probably the ugliest hike I've ever gone on. There was nothing but yellow burned grass everywhere as far as we could see. Oh well, at least we got outside for a little bit.

It's always sad when family leaves after a great vacation, but it always has to happen. We look forward to seeing Terryl and Stephanie again as soon as we are able.

Addendum: Not too long after getting home from taking Terryl and Stephanie to the airport, we got a call from Lance giving us the exciting news that him and his Stephanie had just had their baby, Porter Val Crow. Congratulations!! We are very excited for them and hope to visit them again soon.