We were able to drive up to Northern California to see Jackson.  Brady is always so sweet to pack the car, let me sleep and stops whenever I need to.  We made it up there 10 minutes before school ended for Jackson so we were able to see his teacher and get a personal tour of his back to school night work.  He showed us all of the work he has been up to, what he is learning about and so forth.  He wanted us to talk to his other teacher he had last year.

We checked into our hotel Brady booked for us and then grabbed dinner at BJ's.  Folsom is a lot different than LA... a lot of the same-looking people everywhere.  This is a little sketch from dinner.

After we ate dinner, we went to a wall climbing place next to our Marriott. It was fun to watch Jackson climb up all the walls for hours.  He told us he doesn't get much exercise anymore so it was a good work out.  

Saturday morning we woke up at 7:30 am to go to the Sacramento Aquatic Center.  I took Jackson here when he started school, and when I was barely pregnant and very sick... this time I'm very pregnant and still sick but it was still fun. Brady didn't let me do anything so I sat there with the oar while he did all the work.  It was pretty on the lake and fun to watch Jackson bike on the water.  

(Jackson peddling us around)

 (oh hey there baby. she was moving around like she knew what we were up to)

After the lake, we went to lunch and came back to our hotel to rest a little bit, played some games, like this one, the matching game we started making when Jackson was only 4 so some of the pictures are classic little boy pictures.

We drove to Sky High Trampoline place where Jackson jumped with a ton of kids, some being from his class.  A boy from his class was having a birthday party there and it about broke my heart to see that Jackson wasn't invited.  The boys were a little mean with him saying he wasn't invited because the birthday boy invited too many people already and that he could have cake but not pizza because he didn't bring a gift AND wasn't invited.  Bullying in school really is true - I've never seen it first hand.  Jackson shook it off like it wasn't a big deal and that it didn't phase him but for me it bothered me.  If you invite a majority of your class, you should invite them all.  Jackson is such a sweet boy that gets along with everyone but I know he is still new to this school - I just know it would have been totally different in San Clemente where he was loved by everyone in his class and had birthday parties almost every week.  I'm totally mama-bearing it, and maybe it's just an opinion or bias but it was a sad thing to see.

We came back, had dinner, and then watched a movie while my belly was moving. Look how big this baby is getting! So so so so big.  I had to sit up with pillows to get this view -- and when I did want to sit up I looked like those overweight characters in WALL-E that cant get up when they fall out of their beds with my arms up, not moving anywhere.

On Sunday we heard Elder Bednar speak which was really cool and then we grabbed lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.  We were so hungry and so tired when we got there.

We played games after, then made a video of throwing 25 paper planes out of the hotel room!  We stopped once the valet came out to stop us :) 

<here are some pictures Jackson, Brady and I made on the doodle app during church>

Jackson and Brady played basketball before we dropped him off at his dad's house and then we drove around a new city.  

On Monday I picked up Jackson and took him to grab a donut and OJ before school.  We played on the playground before class started.  His friends at school were so excited to rub my belly and ask me 20 questions each at the same time.  Jackson got very possessive of me, making sure no one got too close or he could only hold my hand.  It was pretty cute.  I went back to the hotel to check out and take a nap.  I came back to play foursquare at his first recess as requested by Jackers.  We played and I started to break a sweat within minutes.  The kids took my phone and took pictures of us playing - once again, pretty cute.  They were all about telling Jackson we looked exactly the same except the hair.  Jackson was gracious accepting their comments and complimented my freckles looking good because I was a girl and how much he doesn't care for his. He pointed out a girl he was crushing on but was very cool about it.

I grabbed him lunch to bring to the cafeteria while he went back to class and then met him where all the third graders eat, hardly fitting in the tiny tables.  I looked like the fat kid that just didn't belong on these long cafeteria elementary tables! For reals.  The lunch attendants looked at me like... you think you can fit in that tiny space?  I knew my booty was totally hanging off the edge like it was my job.  His friends wanted to ask me tons of questions and I noticed we had girls all around us... then I asked Jackson why he sits at the girls table... his very mature response was, "The boy table throws food, gets in trouble and is always last to leave for recess so I hang out with the girls!" Oh he kills me.  I smothered him like a true sMOTHER with so many hugs. I've been worried I turned him into a mama's boy with being a single mom of him for so long, being sensitive but I think he will always have a good head on his shoulders and possibly skipping the crude little boy phase.  Jackson really wanted me to stay to help, but the teacher said she was covered, so I met with my girlfriend for lunch and then hurried back to be there once school was out to pick him up.  

We went to Target to grab some fun things and then went to a park to do homework.  He got very emotional before we had to go - asking me every five minutes for how much time we had left.  It was so hard driving away from the park while he cried and wanted to hold my hand the whole drive.  I kept strong the whole time, not letting him see me get emotional, trying to reassure him we would see him soon.  We got to his dad's house and he lost it.  He held me and dug his face in my belly with tears streaming down faster, asking me not to go, that he wanted to come home with us.  It broke my heart.  I held strong, not letting him see me loose it until he left where I just wept.  It's the hardest thing to say goodbye to your child. I remember having the hardest time putting him to sleep because I would miss his sweetness while he slept.  Every mother understands that; or at least they should. I remember him being a tiny baby that would drain me of my energy all day but the second he would sleep I would want to wake him up despite how tired I was because I missed him.  I just love this little boy so much.   

It was such a great weekend with him.