Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Christmas in Cali

Ok, so it's a little late. But what is it they say, "Better late than never." Below are some pics from our time in California. I was so nervous to travel with Emily alone because she is very energetic these days and the thought of 4 hours with her in my lap seemed quite daunting. We made it through security ok, even though they made Emily take off her boots and jacket. Are you serious?!?! Do they know how hard those things are to get on and off? When I checked in at our gate we were lucky enough to get an entire row to ourselves on the ride there. This was seriously a gift from God! Except the 3 people, all easily over 250 pounds each in the row in front of us probably didn't think so. In our row, even Elmo got his own seat!

It was so nice to spend time with my family. Chris and Holly came up just 2 days after Emily and I arrived. They were amazing with Emily! Hopefully they will be having kids of their own soon so Emily has some cousins to play with!
Saturday night an old friend was able to get Chris, Holly, and I into a local club for free and got us free drinks for the night. It was a great way to unwind and have some fun with my little brother and his lovely wife.

I love this girl!Holly had a good time!
Sunday night we were able to celebrate my grandmother's 84th birthday with all my family. There is a picture somewhere of Emily and my Grandma, but it eludes me at the moment. Here is a picture of Emily after having some birthday cake!

One night it was even cold enough to roast marshmallows...barely.

Everyone had a great time playing with Emily, especially her Grandma Dee!
Christmas Eve was warm enough for us to take little girl to the park. We had a great time, but Daddy did not have very good luck. His knee came out of the socket playing basketball with my brother! Ouch! Poor guy limped around for the rest of the week.
After church on Christmas Eve we all went to my Grandparents for dinner and gifts.
Grandma Dee and her girl in their Christmas attire. Pretty girls.

Emily giving Daddy Christmas kisses. Too sweet!
After 3 hours of opening presents it was after 10pm and Emily was SO well behaved.
Christmas morning we all woke and played with Emily's toys. She got this pop-up tent from Santa. It kept her busy most of the morning.
And the big kids enjoyed it too!

Uncle Chris was her favorite I think.
The only picture of me and my girl on Christmas.
This picture deserves an explaination. Chris and Holly gave Chris a present and before he opened it Dave said, "This feels like a block of wood." Well, that's exactly what he got. A block of wood with four screws in the corners.
After some tiem with a screwdriver, and then the drill, Dave was able to seperate the pieces of wood to find a Home Depot gift card inside!
The Sunday after Christmas we had lots of family over and Grandpa had to show off his new trick he taught Emily. He has a monkey bar hanging in the back yard and he taught Emily had to hang all by herself.
He may have taught her a cool trick, but he was not always the most attentive babysitter.

While we were there we took a family portrait at JC Penny. Dave and Grandma entertained Emily with some of the props. She may be a little young for the baseball glove just yet.
A quick pic of us hanging outside the portrait studio.
Being there almost 2 weeks gave us lots of time to hang out with some good friends. Steph and Kevin and me and Dave went out to my favorite Mexican restaurant and then they took us to see their new home. It's beautiful! We had so much fun laughing at their wedding video and telling stories.
Monday night before we left we had one more dinner with my extended family. This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. Emily loves her Great-Grandpa.
It was a wonderful trip. I am so blessed to have such a great extended family and have the opportunity to go see them. It is times like that I am extremely grateful to not be working so that I have the flexibility to spend that time. Grandma Dee is already planning her trip to see Emily over their spring break. :) That didn't take long!