Day trip to Fresno

On Monday we drove to Fresno and back for my grand aunt Bertha's funeral. I was expecting the worst with Cole being that the drive to Fresno is long and not so pretty and he was going to have to sit through a hour long Catholic Mass for the funeral. We left at 7am and got to Fresno in record time (10 am) an hour to spare and prepared our selves for Cole to flip out in the Chapel. Well Cole surprised everyone and actually sat pretty still except to play with his cousins bracelets or grandmas contact lens case. The only attempt at being a toddler was that he tried to make a run for it and join the priest on stage. Fortunately Mike is quick on his feet and was able to drag Cole back to the pew with out too many people noticing. Every time the priest spoke Cole would look around trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. Siena was of course well behaved except for the series of loud farts she let out during the priests many readings.

After the burial we headed over to Aunt Bertha's house for a lunch with the family. We got to see some people we had not seen in a long time and that was really nice. We got to meet my the newest members to the Mesple family - My cousins 2 month old twins. Go figure that Siena is the same size as 2 month olds! Three 12 pounders all lined up!

This brings back memories of my sister and my cousin and I swimming in the ditch that our parents would play in as children. That bridge has been there forever!
All the apricots lying out to dry. These are the BEST dried apricots you will ever have.

Cole didn't take a nap so at 5:30 that afternoon he fell asleep and was out for a few hours.

Not sure why there are a bunch of random palm trees in the middle of the valley, but I always look forward to seeing them. Great view at sunset.

We had taken the idea from Mike's mom to get a bunch of toys (dollar store) for the drive so if Cole got restless then we could surprise him with a new toy. We it worked wonders and we even discovered that the best toy for night time driving is a glow stick, or two...

He was in awe.