Great Grandpa Socci

This year we made a special trip to Washington to spend time with Great Grandpa Socci.  He is Charles' Grandpa and we hadn't seen him in like 6 years. He had never met Bradley or Brynnlee. He has had so many issues with his health that he could no longer make trips to CA. So this summer Chuck and Sherrie invited us to go out with them and see him.

We spent lots of time swimming.  Sherrie was sneaky and threw out a bunch of quarters for the kids to "find." But they never did. Oh well, some other excited kid will find them.

Then we went and tried another place to swim.  I think this was called the Marina.

This sequence of pictures is Kaleb's doing.  He told everyone what to do for each shot.  We only had redo it once.

Great Grandpa was a gracious host. He planned out all the meals for the week, had all the food in the fridge, and he was very pleasant company. The kids really had fun with him. He even bought them each a toy car to play with since he didn't have much in the way of toys at his house. He also gave Brynnlee a musical jewelry box with her name engraved on the key.

I don't remember it being humid, but Brynn's hair looked fabulous in Washington.

These 2 are such little buddies. Here they are playing with Brynn's new jewelry box.

We also got to meet Great Grandpa's older brother Sonny and his wife Marge.  They are the sweetest.

Then we all went out to dinner together.

One day we toured the Dam. It was pretty neat, but I wasn't allowed to take any pictures.

We spent a lot of time chatting and playing card games on the porch,

... or playing soccer on the lawn.

I think their favorite thing to do was visit this old park.  We went there just about every night after dinner.

Our last afternoon there Charles Sr., Jr., and the III had a real Italian lunch, made by Great Grandpa.  Sherrie and I were only a little jealous... ;)

And then Great Grandpa let all the kids try on his flight gear.

And to top it off, they got to ride the Stair Chair. Wheeeee!!

Jaden's face in this one cracks me up. Great Grandpa told him to sit on his lap and Jaden was afraid of hurting him, so he said no, but Great Grandpa insisted.

And what is a long car ride without a stop to swim at the hotel?

We had a lot of fun in Washington. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a memorable experience for all of us. We have been wanting to visit Grandpa for a long time, and we are so glad we had the chance. The kids still ask when we can go and visit him again.