Saying Goodbye to California

We spent the majority of our time in California visiting with family - as it should be :-) We also did a bunch of back-to-school shopping. Not notebooks and folders really, although we did get backpacks and water bottles, but shoes and clothes (on sale!) and other items that are hard to find or more expensive on-line. My biggest pet peeve is packs of socks! You know, the 10-pack of plain white socks that you can find anywhere in any department store? Not available on-line :p So, we stock up during summer visits.

We also spent a bit of time being sick - not recommended for any vacation, of course, but it usually cannot be helped. We did a bit of restaurant and grocery store tourism as well - good beef, good tex-mex, etc. I like that our summer vacation coincides with Chevy's watermelon margarita season - wow, those are yummy! The kids like to have cereals they do not usually have access to (like Cookie Crisp!) and other goodies we cannot get at home (like Taco Bell bean burritos!). Good thing we stay busy during vacation or we'd pack on serious pounds.

We made the trip out to the bay area to visit one of Brad's brothers and his family. Unfortunately, that is when the stomach bug got Honor. Brian had been free of symptoms and fever-free for over 24 hours, and Honor showed no symptoms, so we thought we were 'clean'. Nooo.... She was good for the drive and that evening, but she (and Brian) started getting wild/cranky at bedtime - overtired kidlings. Brian and Honor were to share an air mattress in the living room, but there was room for me to lay between them for snuggles to help calm them down. We all crashed out! Brad tried to wake me to go to bed later, but by then, I was actually comfortable and didn't want to move. Good thing. Honor woke me early in the morning by throwing up - very neatly, but it was good I was there.

She was sick for the next 48hrs. She was in clingy, but good spirits, but she was very fevery and she couldn't keep anything down - if she moved, she threw up. She and I spent a lot of time snuggling - she needed lots of comforting - and cleaning up. I didn't get many pictures. I didn't do a lot of visiting either... we tried to quarantine ourselves as much as possible (couldn't leave because she couldn't move, but we didn't want to get near the baby). At least Brian got to play with his cousins - he's a good 'big brother' - and Brad got some time with both of his brothers in the area. By the time Honor started feeling good enough to move, Brad started turning that pale-green color we were becoming too familiar with. We got on the road anyway - yea, we were that red Ford Edge stopped on the side of the road... I was lucky. I got the 'just queasy' version of this particular bug.. of course, it hit as we were flying from California to Denver, through rough turbulence, but I made it.

Here are some pictures of our trip to the Bay area:



After our return to Brad's dad's place, I took the kids off to visit his other brother and family one more time the next evening. Brad was too ill to travel, but Honor had been fever-free for about 24hrs by then. I wanted to give them a chance to say goodbye to the other batch of cousins. The kids played a bit when we first arrived, then Uncle John came home from work and took a handful of kids off to the waterslide near their home. Brian and Honor had never been on a waterslide before. Brian LOVED it. Honor thought it was fun, but scary. She rode twice. I think that if she had more confidence in her swimming ability, she'd have liked the slide better.



We had a lovely visit with everyone in California - Love you!!