California

Shawn and I are not spontaneous people.  We like planning things out and knowing what we're getting into.  But for once in our lives we decided to throw that out the window.  About a month ago, Shawn asked me if I wanted to take a trip with the kids before my maternity leave was up.  All I could picture was 2 screaming children on a plane somewhere.  But after much convincing, we booked plane tickets to go to California to visit my best friend, Stephanie and her family.  Although I was hesitant up until we booked the tickets, once we purchased them I became excited about our venture.  It was probably better too that we bought the tickets with only about a month before we going to leave because it left me with less time to stress out all the "what if" scenarios.  Shawn ended up using this trip as work trip as well, so he didn't have to use up any of his vacation time!

Wednesday morning we woke up early and headed out to the airport.  Our trip didn't really start out on a good note.  Traffic was awful and Evan screamed the entire car ride there.  I'm pretty sure I asked Shawn if he just wanted to turn the car around.  I could see this just foreshadowing what was coming.  But thankfully we stuck it out and made it to the airport with about hour before our flight took off.  By the time we made it through security we only had to wait at the gate for about 20 minutes before we started boarding.  In hindsight, it worked out great!  After looking at all our flight options, we ended up flying Southwest and stopping both ways in Albuquerque.  We were only on the ground for about 40 minutes and we didn't have to change planes.  We flew into Oakland and then made the drive to Sacramento.  Both Evan and Emily did awesome on the plane (thank God!!).  I carried Evan in the baby bjorn and he couldn't have been happier.  This boys favorite thing to do is sleep and be held, so he got to do just that.  He slept for most of the flight.  Once we got to the airport is when the fun began.  We took a bus over to pick up our rental car and carseats.  Apparently, no one at Enterprise knows what an infant car seat is.  It took about 20 minutes and 3 carseats before they finally brought us the right one. Then Shawn got the fun task of figuring out how to install the 2 seats in the car.  Let's just say that by the time we exited the rental car area, the lady at the gate said "finally" when we pulled through.  Now we had a fun hour and a half car drive to Sacramento, of which Evan screamed at the top of his lungs the entire time.  I couldn't have been more happy/relieved to finally get to their house!!

Once we arrived Em was so excited!  Her and Leah disappeared off to play immediately.  I knew then that we made a good decision to come.  I was soo excited to meet baby Lane too!  When we went to visit last year, Steph was still pregnant with him, so this was our first time meeting him.  I was excited for them to meet our sweet boy too!  We spent the night grilling out and catching up.  I love how even though we don't get to see them often, we always have so much fun together.  It never feels as though it's been a long time. 

Thursday morning Shawn and Luke left early to go to work leaving me and Steph to watch the 4 kiddos.  All I can say is man, there is no way I could be a stay at home mama to 4 kids!  It was tiring (and that's with Steph there to help me)!  Evan had a bit of a hard time with all the noise which caused him to be much fussier than normal.  I think that made it even harder.  The girls had a great time during the day though.  Em was in heaven with all the fun toys and both girls did great with sharing!  They spent time playing dress up, playing on the water slide and watching movies.

One of Em's favorite things while we were there. . .playing on their new water slide!  She could have done this for hours!

More water slide in the afternoon.  After much convincing, Leah finally got Em to agree to go down once in Leah's lap.

Stephanie showed Emily the kid's kitchen drawer.  Em was impressed, but I think Lane liked it even more.  :)

Another one of Em's favorite things about our trip - helping Steph cook!

Friday morning the boys headed back to work, but were home after only a few hours.  Us girls needed a break, so while Evan and Lane were napping we sent Luke and Shawn to the park with Leah and Emily to play and have a picnic.  Once they returned, they headed off to play a round of golf.  Leah and Em enjoyed a tea party and did some more cooking with Stephanie.

When the guys got home from golfing Luke grilled out and we enjoyed hanging out outside and visiting some more.

Sautrday morning it was finally time for Steph and me to get out for a bit while the boys watched all the kiddos.  Steph treated me to a mani, pedi, lunch and cupcakes for my birthday.  It was so nice getting out for a little break and getting to catch up without the kids!  After getting some cupcakes we decided to head back to the house to send the guys to the grocery store because we figured they might need a break.  But upon our return, we realized they seemed to be doing just fine.  We walked in the house to find Evan sleeping, Leah and Em inside watching Caillou and Shawn, Luke and Lane outside swimming.  Since they seemed to being doing just fine with the kids, Steph and I headed back out to the store instead.  Tonight for dinner, Shawn was in charge. We decided to put the kids to bed first so we could enjoy a quiet dinner.  It seems like everytime we visit, we always stay up the latest on our last night and this time was no exception.  We had a blast chatting during dinner and then the guys decided to go for a late swim.  I was exhausted by this point and headed to bed.

My sweet girl.  She is so used to taking naps during the day she had a tough time staying awake all day.  She fell asleep on the couch each day we were there.

Sunday morning we all slept in a bit before packing up and heading out.  We made the drive back to Oakland.  Evan did cry some on the drive, but it was a tired whimper instead of a scream, so it was much better.  In fact, both kids did take a short nap, which was great.  The flight went great too.  Evan slept and Em watched movies. One of the flight attendants even commented on how well Evan did! We didn't arrive home until almost 11, but overall the trip home went very smoothly.  I think all of us were pretty tired after our trip, but we were so glad that we ended up going!  We have such a blast everytime we get together!  And lucky for us, we will get to see our friends in about 4 months when they come stay with us over New Years.  We can't wait!!