I have to get the rest of our Christmas trip posted before I forget which days we did what! I left off at Tuesday, our fabulous day in Escondido (aka heaven on earth).
Wednesday we basically hung out at Matt and Cheryl's house. J and H were always happy if they could be outside playing, and Wednesday was the perfect day for that!
J had been eyeing Uncle Matt and Aunt Cheryl's lemon trees and asking to pick some lemons (he seriously loves anything lemon.... I think he was in awe that they can go right out their front door and pick one!). Then Uncle Matt, J, and Evan squeezed the lemons for lemonade!
I had In 'n' Out for lunch again. :)
In the afternoon, the guys (Matt, Adam, Ben, and Neil) headed off to Hangar 24 Brewery, and Abby and I took a walk with Josie and Jeremiah to the park!
That evening we had a bonfire in the backyard and had s'mores!
And then it was bedtime stories with Uncle Ben!
Thursday was New Year's Eve! We hung out in the morning and then after lunch we went to Knott's Berry Farm! J calls it Knott's Fairy Farm, I don't know why.
The kids had a blast, especially on the rides at Camp Snoopy!
I love this pic (even though it's blurry) because you can just see the laughter! This was J and J's favorite ride by far!!
Also a highlight- the "snow" they made fall by the saloon! J thought it was hilarious that it was actually made of soap. He kept saying, "Don't catch it on your tongue!"
We had a late dinner at Portillo's and then headed home to get the kiddos to bed. I don't think anyone saw 12:00 midnight, except for EST and CST. We're too old. Happy 2016!
Friday, New Year's Day, was the Rose Bowl Parade!! Adam, J, & I, Abby & Neil, and Matt & Josie all headed to Pasadena and arrived there about 8:45 am. We parked at the end of the parade route, found a spot to stand (yes, we stood the entire time), and the first float came by at about 9:30 am.
Highlights included: the Disney float (J and J were so excited about that one! Frozen, Mickey, Star Wars!!! It was awesome), the Iowa Hawkeyes float and marching band, and the Bachelor float (no I am not ashamed about that at all)!
Oh and the sky-writing was interesting, too.
It was a gorgeous, sunny day. The kind of day that you long for when you are sitting in snowy MI watching the Rose Parade on TV. It was heavenly!
Saturday we had another low-key day. We took the kids to "Big Air" aka "the jumping place." Obviously they had a blast! Hope even walked around on the trampolines, too.
Uncle Matt (and J and E) made popcorn that night!
Sunday was our day to head back to the midwest. But thankfully not until evening, so we attended Matt and Cheryl's church and also enjoyed some final outside play time!
We left LAX about 7:30 pm and arrived at Midway about 1:30 am. For having such terrible flight times, our kids did great, I do have to say! And thanks again to Uncle Rog for the super late night airport pick-up! We crashed at their house again Sunday night, and made our final trek to MI Monday morning (yes, we kept J out of school. Terrible parents, we are).
So not only were we sad to leave CA and sad to come home to snow in MI, but the sickness continued for us! J had complained 1 night in CA of his ear hurting (same ear as before), but we didn't think much of it. Then Monday night after getting back to MI he kept complaining of his tummy hurting, and eventually threw up 3 or 4 times over the course of the evening/night. Awesome, no school for that guy on Tuesday either! Also after feeding H breakfast on Tuesday morning, I went to her bed to get her blankie and found that she had thrown up sometime during the night, too ("Mom of the Year" Award winner right here- for NOT hearing her vomit, and NOT seeing it when I got her up in the morning! Yay me.) So yeah, what the heck.
J did get to school Wednesday and Thursday thankfully. But then Friday his district called off school because of the funeral and death of one of the high school students in his district. Terribly sad reason for a day off!! But because of that, we made a super last minute and quick trip to the great state of Iowa!! We met Adam's mom in Des Moines to pick up Molly (they graciously watched her while we were in CA!), and yes we were able to quick see just a few friends, too.
And the sickness continues. In Iowa J had complained about his ear again, and on the drive home to MI he was just not feeling good, tummy hurting again. That night at home, more complaining about the ear. So, Sunday morning it was off to our favorite place-Urgent Care (I think we should have our own reserved parking spot there)! And ear infection for J and 10 days of Amoxicilin (either the ear is re-infected again or never got better from before. J says he finally feels normal now, and he didn't feel normal in CA or IA, so I have a hunch it never got better). :(
Don't forget about Hope! Yesterday she woke up from her nap with a 101.1 temp. Seriously?!!?!!? Aaaaggghhh!!!!! It got worse over night, so off to the doctor for her today. Guess what???? Ear infection! Same ear as 2 weeks ago, so either re-infected or never got better. Who knows. 5 days of Zithromax or the little girl. I don't even like thinking about all the sickness we have had between the 2 kids since Oct! (Short version- H's first ear infection, H with another virus w/ fever on her b-day! and terrible rash, J with a stomach bug, 2 weeks later J with Strep at Thanksgiving, J with a cold for a couple weeks in Dec ending with ear infection, H with croup then ear infection, me with sinus infection, J and H with stomach bug, J with ear infection again, and H with ear infection again). Things can only get better, right?! :) And yes I know what everyone says about Kindergarten germs and the first year of school yadda yadda yadda (once upon a time I was a teacher and immersed myself in those germs daily!) J was in daycare for the first 4.5 years of his life and also was in preschool last year.... H goes to church nursery and frequents store shopping carts..... they are no stranger to germs! But this year is crazy!! Anyhoo, I'll leave you with some pics of sad, pathetic Hope today. Hoping we've seen the last of the sickness for a long while! Maybe we just need another trip to sunny CA. :)
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