California

As most of you read on my previous blog, Matt, Quinn and I left for California late Thursday night due to his Grammy's death. We had intended on leaving in the morning but waited for our little guy to recover a little more from his sickness. We had such a happy baby on Thursday morning...and a starving one. I fed him little bits at a time but he couldn't seem to get enough. Well, around 1 pm, he must have had enough and gave me back his milk and his pedialyte all over our floor, bedspread, and my shirt....thanks, baby! After that incident, he was back to normal. Happy...laughing...playing! So, we packed up and headed to the airport around 7 p.m. I had a bad feeling about leaving, but knew that we needed to go to Cali to be with Matt's family! We got all checked in (flying with a baby is a CHORE, let me tell you!) scanned through, and metal detected, and guess what...my sweet little man got sick ALL over me!!! Of course, I had plenty of clothes, wipes, burpies, etc. to get him clean, but NOTHING for mom. So, Matt so graciously bought me the most wonderful t-shirt in the DFW Airport gift store. I proudly sported my "Texas Trailer Trash" shirt around the airport and into the plane for Quinn's first flight. In the meantime, Quinn was fine...once again...happy...laughing...playing! He was just having a hard time keeping his food down! ...

So, at 9:15ish, we boarded the plane and flew 3 1/2 hours to Sacramento.

Here is my happy, "healthy" guy on his first flight...

...and with Mommy in her classy shirt...

We landed in Sacramento around 12:45 and drove an hour to Matt's aunts house. It was late and we were all so sleepy. Quinn had been a trooper but we were ready for a little bit of rest. So, we went to bed for about 4 hours and woke up to go to Matt's Grammy's memorial. It was a sweet time...just family talking about Grammy and remembering good times. At that moment, I was so glad that we had made it happen to be there with Matt's Grandpa and the rest of the family!

After that, we loaded the car to travel to Lake Almanor to a lake house we had for the weekend. The road was long and windy...and lasted for almost 4 hours. It was not a pleasant drive and Matt ended up getting very sick! We're still not sure if he caught Quinn's virus, if it was the breakfast burrito, the winding road, or a combination of all three...but, we had to pull over on the side of the road 3 times for him. I felt SO horrible for him and he was miserable. It's awful to have someone you love so helpless and there's nothing you can do for them. I had just finished experiencing this with my baby and was now dealing with the same thing with my husband. I was praying for it to end. ... When we got to the lake house, things weren't better! Matt was so sick! So, after crackers, Gatorade, and an early night, Matt got to feeling better and woke up as himself again...thank you, Lord.

So, we finally got to enjoy gorgeous Northern California. It was cold and the trees were beautiful. It was so much fun to be around Matt's family...just bumming around, eating, hearing old songs that Grammy and Grandpa used to sing, and much more. Despite the yuckiness (and my new found braveness to 'throw ups') it was a special trip. One that we will never forget.

Our view from the lake house...

What we did most of the time...sat around and watched Quinn...my favorite pastime

Nana and Pawpaw...
playing in the leaves...




Playing the piano with Grandpa...so sweet! ...

Fun times with Auntie Ev...
Silly Grandpa...
My little man...





Hiking with mom while Daddy was playing tennis with Uncle Steve...

COLD morning walk with Mommy and Daddy...

Cousins Dan and Alli...

The whole gang...

Poefam3...

Aunt Bethanie...
Aunt Bethanie and Uncle Derin...
Having fun...

Loving on Mommy...

I love my boys!!!...Is this picture not priceless!?



We stayed at the lake house from Friday to Sunday. At 7 on Sunday night, we headed to the airport. Sadly, Uncle Derin was sick on the way back down the mountian!!! (LET IT END!) We arrived at the airport around 10:30 and boarded the plane to come home at 12:25 a.m. on Monday. We flew into the night and arrived at DFW at about 3:00 Cali time, 5:00 Texas time. By the time we got off the plane, got our luggage and to our car, it was almost 7. We definately had the "lock in" feeling but were SO happy to be home! Quinn was a dream the entire trip! With a two hour time delay and daylight savings time, he should have been a nightmare, but he handled it all beautifully! What a good baby! When we got to our house, I took the first shift while Matt slept and then he woke up around lunch to take care of Quinn while I slept. We're doing much better now...getting back on schedule and praying that sickness NEVER hits us so hard again!