Family Reunion June 13-14

On June 13 there was a reunion with our 4 kids, and a couple of the grandkids, at Tarra and Alonzo's house in Fremont.  We had just flown back from Istanbul and had stayed in an airport hotel overnight.  We took the shuttle to the airport where Tarra was working, because she was recently hired by Virgin America.  Thomas, who lives in San Francisco, took BART to the airport and met us there too.  Then Tarra drove us all to Fremont when she got off at 9AM.  It was great to see Tarra at work because she loves her new job, and luckily for us, we are now on her family list for free or cheap flights through Virgin or their partner airlines.  People started arriving at the house, and we managed to have some family interaction time before the big party started at 3PM.  Alonzo's daughter, Alia, had graduated from high school the night before, so the party was for her.  Here are some of the pictures:
Baby Evelyn is Elaine's first biological grandbaby.  She lives in San Diego with her Dad, Darran (Elaine's son), and her Mom, Marielle.  She will be one year old on June 29.

The following picture is Mary with her 2 adult children:  Laura & Thomas.

Laura and her husband, Dennis arrived from Sparks.  They also stayed overnight in the same nearby motel where Thomas, Elaine, and I had a room.

All 4 kids haven't been together with each other, or with us, since Laura and Dennis got married in Sept., 2013.  When Elaine and I first got together, they were these ages:  Thomas (9), Laura (6), Tarra (3), Darran (2).  Here they are 36 years later:

And here they are with their proud Moms:

When Tarra married Alonzo, he had 3 daughters by his first marriage.  That was about 10 years ago, and now Ari, the oldest one, is in college, and Alia just graduated from high school.  Analy, the youngest, was away at a softball game.  She is 12.  Here are Ari and Alia in the backyard, where they had just finished helping Alonzo build the deck which you can see behind them:

Elaine enjoyed playing with Evie, and here she is on her Gramma's shoulders:

There are lots of good looking girls in our family, and here are some of them altogether - Tarra, Marielle, Laura, Alia, and baby Evie:

Elaine's kids and spouses:  Tarra and Alonzo, Darran & Marielle, and Evie:

Couldn't have a big party at the Monges household without getting a picture of the family together.  Too bad Analy was not at the party:

The weekend festivities continued the next day when we took most of the family out for brunch at the Cabrillo Park Cafe in Fremont. I am putting the name in here because it turned out to be a GREAT place to eat!  Dennis picked it out from Yelp reviews, and it had great food, with lots of choices, and excellent service.  This is unusual with such a large group.  Here are the happy diners:

The next day we returned to Park Sierra.
My next blog posts will be travel tales of the long trip we recently completed.