Final Days in California

Kevin and I had a great day by ourselves on New Year’s Day! We were gone for about 12 hours and walked about 3-4 miles – all over Pasadena. We enjoyed the game and the freedom of no strollers and diaper bags…but I was so glad to see the kiddos on Friday morning! Ryan took his first steps on New Year’s Day! I think he had some great coaches! He showed me a few steps on Friday morning, but we haven’t seen any more since then. He was very very proud of himself, but I don’t think he’s totally interested in it enough to keep trying. For now he’ll stick to his (very fast) crawling – it’s much more efficient. Uncle Brad and Grandaddy took them to the park again to swing and play on the slides. From what I hear they enjoyed it just as much the second time. They got out the finger paints and let them play on their high chairs. We have some very funny videos of the event. I don’t know what is funnier – them covered in paint or Aunt Heather’s laughing in the background! What you don’t see in the video is after the camera stopped rolling, Ryan started playing peek-a-boo and got paint in his eyes. He was fussing, so they decided to put them straight into the bath tub to get everything cleaned up. While they were in the tub, Ryan decided to “do some business” – gross!!! Heather & Brad swooped up the kiddos to save them from the mess and Gramma and Grandaddy were the lucky winners that got to clean up the remnants Ryan left behind. All in all it was an “eventful” day for everyone.

We went to see the Rose Bowl floats in Pasadena on Friday and unlike the warm and sunny day we had on Thursday, it was downright windy and cold. Kevin didn’t even have a jacket, but thankfully the rest of us had coats in the car. We didn’t get to see all of the floats, but what we saw was very impressive! I think Riley and Ryan enjoyed seeing all the flowers as well as people watching. They had a hot dog for lunch that they LOVED!!! They kept signing for “more”! After we got home Kevin and I got to sneak out to see the move Marley & Me! We laughed and cried (yes, even Kevin cried). We felt like we were watching our lives on screen and left wishing we could go home to see our very own Marley, Sable! We were able to appreciate how bad Marley was and be thankful that Sable was never quite that bad.

We packed up and headed home on Saturday morning, but only after stopping to pick some oranges (Grandaddy’s wish). It wasn’t a huge area, but there were lots of very tasty oranges. We were able to pick 2 bags full and brought one back with us. Grandaddy was like a kid in a candy store! We checked our bags fine (no extra fees this leg) and made it through security without a hitch. The flight home was much shorter than going out and the kids even slept about an hour each. It was still brutal trying to keep them entertained, but all in all they did great! We arrived home about 10:30pm and the kids went right to sleep. We were all “off” on Sunday due to the time change. I napped when the kids napped and was thankful to catch up on a few hours of sleep. Ryan didn’t want to go to bed and cried for about 3 hours before finally giving up and going to sleep. Every time I went in to check on him, he would stop crying, so we knew he was ok – just not tired. They were back at school yesterday and we were terribly worried about how they would act. They’ve been surrounded by family and had 5-6 adults focused on them for 2 weeks straight. Kevin took doughnuts to their teachers and apologized in advance, but they had a great day – no brats in this pack! We are very proud of them! They went down to bed right on time last night and I think we have all adjusted back to Eastern time. It’s January 6th and my Christmas decorations are still strewn about my house, but we had a great Christmas season with family. The cleanup can wait just a little bit longer! :)

Web Albums Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20090101CaliforniaDays67#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20090102RoseBowlFloats#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20090103OrangePickingHeadingHome#