Credit: Myra Nati
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We tried going to the 10am Mass, since my wife Tove Ann had Holy Mass offered for us, but we ended up going to the 12pm. I asked not to have deacon duties for this weekend. Cherie E. sat next to me after Mass and greeted us, "Happy Anniversary." I was surprised that she remembered! We ran in to some family friends, including my goddaughter Christi Marie, and spoke for a bit.
After Mass, we ended up going to Cold Stone b/c my mom gave us some gift cards to celebrate my son's 10th bday. I actually got some shrimp tacos from Rubio's next door while Tove Ann ordered ice cream for the kids, and then the kids ate their ice cream in the Rubio's outdoor eating area with me.
After Rubio's and Cold Stone, we went to the Vallejo waterfront to walk as a family. Faith Marie was asleep in our double stroller. And we ended up walking for about 2 miles.
During the walk, the topic of going to the beach came up, and I said to Tove Ann, "Okay, let's go to Ocean Beach in San Francisco," to which Tove Ann said that we should have planned the day better since it was around 5pm when we talked about it. We ended up not going. That's okay, because I enjoyed the pace of the day, and we would have been out later had we gone to Ocean Beach. We thought about stopping by Vallejo's JFK Library, but when Tove Ann checked the library hours on her iPhone we found out that it was closed.
We left the waterfront and prayed part of the family rosary in the car, then grabbed some groceries, and then prayed the other part of the rosary at home.
For dinner, Tove Ann made fruit salad and baked some pizza. After that, we gave JP a store-bought cake-- it actually was his 2nd cake. The candles on his cake were firework crackly candles that re-lit after one blows them out. For some reason, the candles didn't re-light after he blew them out. I had to open the doors b/c it was causing some smoke, and I didn't want the smoke detector alarm to go off.
It was his second cake b/c my Mom gave us gift cards for Black Angus where we went on Sat. Here are some photos from Sat. night. We received a lot of text messages wishing him HB.
I should mention that on Sat., I took the kids to the store in the afternoon while Tove Ann took care of some matters with Maris Stella Institute in American Canyon where she is the president. At the store, JP wanted something that was a bit pricey. It took me some time to eventually decide to buy the present. I was saving up some money for quite some time to take an exam that I've been meaning to take. Eventually, I took JP to my lap, and I said that I was going to make a sacrifice for him and get him a gift using the money that I was saving up for the exam. I choked up a bit when I told him, but more importantly I choked up b/c I was proud to have a son like him. His eyes made the sacrifice worth it. He earned it well.
And here I am blogging at the end of the day. These little events will some day be big moments in the future I'm sure -- perhaps for my kids -- because it's those so-called little events that make family life beautiful.
POST-SCRIPT (added on 7/20/15)
I forgot to mention that on the morning of our anniversary, I read a book called Too Much Birthday with the Bernstein Bears to EJ and Mariana. I took a picture of the book and hope to publish it here.
A parishioner at St. Catherine's name Dory gave JP a whopping $50 for ice cream! She didn't have to, and it was very, very thoughtful of her. The kids' favorite ice cream is mint ice cream.
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