Simply Stark: Oakland, San Fransisco and Melinda's Wedding

We took our first family vacation and went to Oakland, CA for Kollin's cousin Melinda's wedding.

For a couple weeks leading up to it I was stressing myself out on what to pack, how the boys were going to handle the plane ride and just how everything was going to go.

Everything went so smoothly there really wasn't anything to stress about. I am so glad it worked out so well and that we are more confident now to take a vacation in the future whenever that may be.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare which was our first big relief. We were able to sit around and let Tanner wander and watch out the window for planes. The flight itself was surprisingly easy. I nursed Chase during takeoff, he slept the entire flight and then nursed him during landing. He was absolutely perfect! Tanner was able to keep himself entertained with the activities I had packed for him in his backpack. His favorites were the silly putty and stickers, which were all we really had time for since the flight was only an hour and 45 minutes or so.

We got our luggage, took the shuttle to the car rental place and drove straight to the hotel using the GPS on my phone. It was so easy!

The next day we walked down to Jack London Square with most of the family that was there. The kids loved running around by the water and on a pretty neat playground that we found. Then we had to head back for everyone to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was at Preservation Park which was a very pretty enclosed neighborhood I guess you could say. It had older houses, a gazebo area where the wedding was and a big fountain in the middle.

Melinda looked so pretty and happy! As she was walking down the aisle she was already crying. So sweet.

There was dinner, dancing and a photo booth. We went and did pictures in the photo booth and got some pretty funny shots. Right after we got out of the booth Tanner say Grandma Stark and went running for her and turfed it really good. He got his knee pretty bad and it bled for quite a while. The next few days he has not wanted to walk on it in the mornings since I am sure it gets all stiff as he sleeps.

The dancing was really fun. Tanner was even dancing around and looking so cute! At the end everyone sent off the bride and groom with sparklers. By the end both boys had had enough and were pretty grouchy. Tanner didn't even want to do the sparklers. Until he saw them lit up that is, and then stole a couple from other guests after his burnt out.

On Sunday we walked back down to Jack London Square with who had not left Orlando yet. We were with Tiff, Seattle and their kids, and Cory and her daughter. (Tiff and Cory are Kollin's cousins)

We took the San Fransisco Bay Ferry to Pier 39 and walked around everywhere. We bought lots of souvenirs and took lots of pictures. Chase was a little fussy that day which was to be expected after the night before, but Tanner was almost the worst I'd ever seen him (which was also expected)! He was whining so much and crying at the drop of a hat. Constantly wanting to get into the stroller but couldn't since Chase was in it and was overall just kind of making the whole day hard on everyone. While I was nursing chase one time he climbed into the stroller and zonked right out and took a pretty good nap! Chase also fell asleep as he was eating so Kollin and I took turns carrying him as he slept so we didn't have to wake up Tanner. Once they both woke up they were like new kids and pretty happy for the remainder of the day.

On Monday we packed up everything and headed back to the airport. We got a little lost on the way to the airport since Kollin took the wrong turn to get on the freeway but we got it figured out. That made us very glad we left super early. We got the rental car dropped off and shuttled back to the airport with no issues at all. Our flight didn't leave until around 4:30 and we got to the airport around 11:30 or 12! It wasn't bad though. We were just happy we were early and not late. We all just hung out, ate snacks and got some more souvenirs from one of the airport stores (ya, I know. super expensive). I really wanted to get Tanner a plane like the plane we were flying in so he could maybe remember the trip and I found on in the store so that's what he got. It also kept him entertained with all of the spare time we had to wait.

At one point he was flying around with his plane he tripped and face planted into the carpet. He was ok, but his plane went flying. It went under our seats and stopped by someones foot. I found it but couldn't reach it from where I was and couldn't move since I was nursing Chase. I was telling Kollin and Tanner where it landed and as they were trying to get to it the man who it landed by bent down and got it for us. It turned out he was the captain of our flight! He asked us if we were headed to Salt Lake and we said yes. He then said after we board that we should all come and see him in the cockpit and take pictures and have cookies! It was so nice of him and Tanner loved the cookies part.

As we boarded they were already expecting us and showed us right into the cockpit. The captain had us sit in his seat and we all took some pictures. It was pretty funny because Tanner thought that was where we were actually going to sit, so he had already taken his backpack off and stowed it under the pedals of the plane. It was pretty funny getting it back out of there when we were leaving to find our actual seats.

After we took off both boys fell asleep for the entire flight and only woke up once we were on the ground again. Such good little fliers! Then my dad came and picked us up in our car and we headed home.

It was a really nice trip the turned out so well for everyone. So glad we went!

Looking out the window of our hotel room the first morning. He loved seeing all the cars, people and buses from up high.

All dressed up and waiting for the wedding to start.

How Tanner entertained himself while we waited for dinner to start. They are little circle cutouts of maps that were decorations like confetti on each table.