On Our Last Day with Family in San Luis Obispo

On our last morning together with Hubby's immediate family, we savored breakfast at the same place as the last few mornings, The Cowgirl Cafe. The food portions were monstrous! Hubby and I were able to stay on our diet with the Kitchen Sink omelet. Think of every imaginable vegetable used in an omelet, plus every kind of appropriate omelet meat, plus a full plate of biscuits and gravy that we both passed on, plus hash browns and toast. I passed on the hash browns and asked for extra vegetables. But man oh man were those portions unreal! Every morning the entire family happily hit old town Paso Robles for breakfast!


We returned to the house in Paso Robles, one last time together. Our branch of the family looks forward to the family reunion all year long. We stay up late and wake up too early. It's like a high all weekend, and then the last morning always is a bit quieter. Maybe we are tired, maybe we are sad, and maybe it's a bit of both. It is the one time of year my mother in law comes in from Arizona, and is together with her son in Washington, and her son in Hawaii at the same time, in the same state. It is the one time of year my son knows what it means to be a nephew and play with cousins. And since the Farmer brothers have lost two siblings, we all recognize just how precious it is to be with family. Living apart from any immediate family hurts the most when you have to say goodbye.


Uncle T. bought each of my boys some small toys that we can take back to Hawaii with us. He bought Son1 a little airplane and a little helicopter. Those two little toys went with us to restaurants, to sleep, and to the family reunion events. He kept saying they were special because they were from his Uncle T. Somehow this little comment was enough to give us all the warm and fuzzies. Soon enough, Uncle T. and Aunt M. drove three hours before boarding a plane and flying back to Washington. Son1 ran out for one last goodbye, with his special toys.

My mother in law had ideas for the rest of our day. She wanted to spend some special time with her only two grandchildren. Aunt N. invited us all to her timeshare pool at Avila Beach. The day was so beautiful since the heat finally broke! We filled up in San Luis, where gas was over $4.50 a gallon. Our total was over $62 for 13 gallons of gas. Ouch!

Son1 claimed his little brother's float when he skipped on the opportunity to use it. Son1 pretended he was sailing a boat, while his baby brother floated a toy boat. Soon enough Son1 tired of the floatie, and jumped into the deep end of the pool from the deck, over and over. Meantime Son2 objected loudly at being held in a pool. GG (great-grandma) hoisted him up on the deck, and in a split second, he copied his brother, and tried to jump in the pool! No one could believe our little 14 month old quickly picked up his brother's pool antics! No, we were not concerned he would drown. Hubby and I learned to swim as infants ourselves. Plus, there were too many adults crowded right in front of him. Truth be told he hardly hit the water, because too many of us caught him at once..

A few other relatives met us at the pool. Just because we couldn't get enough of ourselves, we headed out to dinner one last time together. While we waited, Son2 chomped down on an appetizer. Everyone got a big kick out of one of the youngest members of our extended family.