San Jose Trip

We have the Visa credit card that gives you Marriott rewards, and somehow we had a free hotel stay that was going to expire soon. The kids had Spring Break last week and I felt like we should be "doing" something, so we used our reward on a little one-night getaway to San Jose. I drove down Thursday morning and took the kids to the San Jose Museum of Art. It was not really geared toward kids, but there were some little drawing bags that got Rose and Simon's attention. They contained paper, colored pencils, and thought-provoking questions about art and composition. Um, yeah....the kids just grabbed the colored pencils and went to town. 

Rose did do a good job of observing, though:

Can you tell that she's drawing...

...this?:

 And not too shabby of a job on the chandeliers, either:

Jasmine definitely wanted in on the action. Lately she wants to do everything that Rose and Simon are doing.

We really breezed through the rest of the museum. The kids didn't even seem to give a second glance to anything, except some of the contemporary photography (e.g. a flamboyantly-dressed man who appeared to be marrying a horse). That elicited some remarks from the kids, as did a painting of a naked man lying face down on the bed (Rose said, "that guy's not wearing any jammies!"). Other than that, I guess my kids will have to acquire some more appreciation for art.

Since we didn't last too long in the museum, I tried to figure out how to fill our time before Sevak got done with work and we could check into the hotel. We walked around a bit, visited Target and Pet Smart (Jasmine was in heaven--she ADORES dogs), and checked out a fun little playground in Santa Clara. Then we ate at a yummy pizza place ("A Slice of New York"). Finally we visited Barnes and Noble and THEN picked up Sevak from work. It was the first time we've ever seen his office, so that was neat. 

The kids love hotels, so they were super excited when we checked in to the downtown San Jose Marriott. Our room was a great corner room, and we had access to the Concierge Lounge, so we ate dinner and dessert there.

 View from patio of Concierge Lounge on 26th floor

We had two double beds and a crib. One parent and one kid per bed...we managed to make it work.

On Friday morning we dropped Sevak off at work and headed back to San Jose for the Children's Discovery Museum. It was super crowded, but very fun nonetheless. One of the best parts was meeting up with some old friends who were with us in the MBA program at BYU and also lived in our building in the married student housing. They now live in San Jose. Hanee is Rose's age, and although Rose didn't have a recollection of her, she was SO excited to meet up with her.

 

They instantly hit it off

 

This is from when we used to live in Provo. Hanee's in the background; Rose is in stripes.

And this is from a year after we moved, when we went back to visit (another little friend, David, is in the picture).

Here's a shot of all of us together (Jasmine is on my back, as usual). Cute JinHee is due in three weeks! She is so sweet. It's too bad we haven't gotten together sooner.

Here are some more shots from the museum:

 The kids wanted to do more art, of course. They mixed their own colors from the primary colors and painted a still life.

 Simon's is a little more abstract.

My art was painting a tiger and a dog.

So that was our fun trip! I drove straight home from the museum and was thoroughly exhausted. We made some great memories, though. :)