Trip to California

In November we took a car trip to California to visit Emily and Ryan and see the rest of our family for Thanksgiving.  Remembering how much Holly cried on road trips as a baby, Adam was dreading the car ride and was sure it would be miserable.  Happily, both of the kids did really well on the drive, which we split over two days.  We drove down to Pooch & Em's for a couple of days first hoping we could help them get unpacked in their new house in San Jose.  This was my first trip to Northern California and I found it to be quite wonderful.  The scenery was beautiful, particularly the countless orchards we passed on our way; I loved seeing the little trees planted in straight rows.  While we drove, we would try to figure out what kind of fruit or vegetable was growing in the field or orchard we were passing, and I would search for information on my phone to supplement our conversation with interesting facts.  Our conversation was also influenced by the appearance of Mt. Shasta, which we agreed was impressive (14,179 ft) but not as awesome or beautiful as Mt. Rainier (14,411 ft).  We started talking about volcanoes and I read aloud about them from some online sources.  It turns out that our road trip took us roughly along the path of the lower half of the Cascade Volcanic Arc.  We learned a bit about volcanoes and were surprised to find that Mt. Rainier is more likely to collapse in on itself than it is to erupt (though it's of no benefit to us).  During this time, I suggested that we donate to Wikipedia since we use it so often, but Adam said no. 
  
We a had a good couple of days at Pooch & Em's.  I had hoped to get twice as much done as I actually did (just like every day at home), but Adam got some painting done so at least that was helpful.  The first night we were there, Em put Noah to bed but he could hear all the talking and cried for a while in his bed.  Holly didn't like to hear him crying, and when the adults were distracted with other things, we heard her from Noah's room, saying, "It's okay, Noah!  It's okay!" I felt so bad that Em had to start all over again, but at the same time thought it was kind of sweet.

On Thanksgiving day we drove over to Ryan & Jeri's and joined the rest of our family for the big meal.  Their house is so big and spacious with a great floor plan that I wish for.  The kids were nice enough to give up their rooms for us to stay in so only Mom, Dad, Becky and Kyhle had to stay in a hotel.  I thought the Rocklin and Roseville area was so nice, and after my time discovering northern California, I felt quite ready to put our house up for sale and move there right away.  On the way back home to Washington, I got Adam to agree that as soon as our home value comes back out of the toilet, we can move. 

The next day was easygoing and we had early Christmas.  We gave to Becky and Kyhle this year and Ryan and Jeri gave to us.  We got Becky a pretty apron she wanted and a gift card to Target for a Brita water pitcher, and we got Kyhle a Cleveland Indians baseball cap for his collection.  Ryan got Adam a nice new drill for a birthday/Christmas combo, and Jeri got me 8 red placemats for our new table and 3 pairs of supersoft cozy socks that I love.  Mom brought out all the Christmas stockings we made for everyone at Hoosier Holidays last year and filled them for us, and the kids all had presents to open.  Here are some pictures of the gift exchange:

That afternoon we had our family photo taken by a professional photographer at a park. Every family got some good ones:

That night we went out to dinner while the kids stayed with a sitter, and Laura announced that she was expecting a baby next summer.  The next day we wandered around San Fransisco and had a tasty bread bowl with soup.  Kyhle was our photographer for the day and got some good shots:

We were sad that the most memorable part of the day happened after Pooch and Em had already left to drive back home.  That evening, we walked around on the beach at sunset while the tide was coming in.  Everyone was carefree at the end of the day.  Adam said his visit to San Francisco was made complete with the siting of some gay guys kissing on the dunes.

We missed you, Pooch, Em and Noah!

We had a great time with our family in California.  After we got home, when friends asked how the trip was, I said "I didn't want to come home!"  I wished we could have stayed together for another week.