California Trip: Getting There and Day 1

Trinity attended the National Safety Conference in San Diego this past week, and he took two stowaways with him!

Actually, he was smart and booked a different flight from the one that Genevieve and I were on.  

YaYa and Bob went with us to offer moral support and assistance in overall toddler corralling.  I knew T would be in meetings all day, so I had to call in reinforcements.

I'm not really sure how people handle more than one child.

Bob and Jane know a thing or two about herding kids.  They had 3 children under the age of 4 at one point.

We jazzed up G about airplanes for weeks in advance.

She hesitated right before she actually got on the plane, but then it was business as usual.

Think Fantasy Island.

"Da plane. Da plane."

I look terrible here.

I think I had just taken a swig of Benadryl to try to calm my own nerves.

Would she or would she not sleep?

She slept!  

Genevieve recharged her engine with a nearly 3 hour nap on the plane. 

Then she was ready!

She rode a school bus with Bob.

It was actually an Enterprise Rental car bus, but close enough. 

We had a bit of a wait to get our car, but Genevieve was able to keep herself entertained doing the worm on the benches in the waiting room.

It was worth the wait.

They tried to give Bob a two door Mustang.

What year is this, 1994?

Am I in high school, trying to be impressed?

I think not.

Give me some type of 4 door vehicle, or ye shall receive a swift kick to the shins, automated Enterprise lady.

We enjoyed our first meal at True Food Kitchen.

Their food is super healthy California fare, so I upped my veggie intake with this cucumber infused margarita.

I gave G the death stare as the 3 hour time change was starting to catch up with her.

The time change and the heat compelled my child to uproot some of the grass in the restaurant and chuck some mulch on the table.

Bob tried to soothe her.

Good times.  

Like I mentioned, the time change was a bit rough.

I pushed her usual 7:15 bedtime (4:15 CA time) back 2 hours to 9:15 (6:15 CA time).  

You read that right.

My husband and I got in bed while the sun was shining brightly in beautiful San Diego at 6:30 p.m.

Granted, it felt like 9:30 to us, since we were still on Indiana time.  

It still was just funny.

It wasn't funny when G  was awake on Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. local time.

College Game Day isn't on at that time, no matter what time zone you're in.

We had 3 hours to kill before we could even think about interacting with other humans, so we spent some time roaming the lobby.

Speaking of humans...

these two birds were ready to roll for breakfast at 7:15.

In case you didn't know, when you've been married for 43 years you wear matching outfits.

We also hit up the local farmer's market.  

Flat Stanley came too.

After 2 hours out among the masses, we retired back to our room for a nap at 9:30.

I napped as well.

I know you're shocked.

At noon we were ready to really see some things.  

Genevieve waited for YaYa and Bob.

Chip and Dale waited too.  

We cancelled out the kale and quinoa we had for dinner the night before by stopping at In-N-Out Burger.

My goodness that place is good.  

Trinity was in training, so we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and spent the afternoon in La Jolla. 

It was so gorgeous.

We visited the children's beach.

The water was clear near the shore and we saw some seals close by.  

My child hated the sand and the water.  

We returned to San Diego and picked up Trinity for dinner.  

We had Pizzeria Mozza, which we had discovered when we visited  Newport Beach two years ago.

It was so good.

Then it was off to sleep at 6:30!

Romy, Michelle, and Trinity's High school Reunion

We loaded up and drove south to Tennessee on Friday for Trinity's 20th high school reunion.  We kicked off the fun at his high school's football game.  Sister Katie and her crew tailgate at all of the home games.

Yes, you read that correctly.

They tailgate at high school football games.

Henry County has an amazing team and I believe they have won the state championship for the last two years.  

It's like Friday Night Lights, only not in Texas.

Katie got Genevieve a t-shirt to match Caroline's and we were ready to roll.

Genevieve observed this hay climbing from a distance.

Caroline and her friends flocked to see this guy, who is apparently a Tennessee news legend.

He flew in on a helicopter, and landed right on the field.

It was like reliving that scene where Sandy Frink arrives at Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.

I really could not get Romy and Michelle out of my head all weekend.

I so desperately wanted to tell someone that I had invented Post-its.  

My toddler practically passed out from the heat and humidity.  I have never seen her so warm.  Her hair was dripping wet and her face was bright red.

I tried to pretend that she wasn't mine.

Who wants to claim a sweaty toddler with a soggy diaper?

Not this lady!

Before you get all judgy, I'll let these pictures speak for themselves.

The heat was cooking her little baby brain because she was stumbling around in circles.

You can see I'm not exaggerating the redness.

Yes, I sipped hard cider at a high school football game while wearing coordinating polka dots with my 2 year old.

Judge away!

On Saturday morning I slipped away for an hour massage at Jaspe, a lovely new spa in Paris.

Selfie time!

Post massage glow.

Here's another one to show that I dressed like Smee.

We celebrated G's 2nd birthday with our TN family.

Caroline was equally excited about that Elmo cake. 

Aunt Shirley came to see our girl.  

We had a great time visiting and Genevieve told her about her cake. 

The Perrys came too, but sadly I don't have a picture of that fabulous family.

I'm so grateful to them for giving G this Minnie Mouse yacht.

I don't have enough tiny plastic crap around my house!

We dolled ourselves up in matching shades of lavender for the big event on Saturday night.

The invitation said casual, and T insisted that we wear jeans.

When I walked into a sea of dresses, I nearly drop kicked my husband.

There is little I despise more than being underdressed.

I made a quick recovery by pulling a Lilly Pulitzer shift dress out of my clutch.

I jest.

That would have been quite the party trick, though. 

I met a lot of folks and learned my sister is quite the popularity queen in town.

It was BYOB, which is common in this county.  I still cannot get used to it.  We walked in with a pint of rum in a paper bag.  I'm not even joking.  I left my monogrammed liquor bag in Indiana.

Dang!

We also forgot an appropriate mixer.

I was not about to mix rum with the sweet tea in plastic jugs on the back table.

Lucky for us, Natalie and Joey had yet to arrive, so we texted them to pick up a 2 liter of Diet Coke.

Then I was all set to par-tay!

The class members had blue name tags and spouses/dates had red ones.  I imagine this was quite helpful so you had a clue as to whether or not you should be recognizing people.

I wanted to photo bomb the color guard picture, but T said that was not appropriate.

They had yearbooks out on a table and I was so blessed to find this picture.

That is my man hanging in the guidance office in 1994.

I have never seen his yearbook, so at this point the rum and Diet coke nearly spilled all over my jeans as I chortled and snorted with great fanfare.  

I mean, how did he keep the ladies at bay?

I have no idea.

I wanted to ask every girl that I met how she resisted the charms of  my future husband.

The 90s stache.

My high school eyebrow(s).

Had we been a couple back in '94 we would have been an unstoppable force of facial hair.

We hung out with Joey for most of the night.    

He received a very distinguished award for making a 180 change from "breakin' the law to Leave it to Beaver."

Joey is quite tame compared to his high school days.

We had such fun and now I'm excited for my 20th reunion in 2017.

Labor Day and More Cake

We split our Labor Day weekend with both sides of our family.  On Sunday afternoon we went to YaYa and Bob's for the ultimate surprise.

I felt like Ty Pennington should have been there with a megaphone shouting, "Move that bus!  Here's your new home!"

G got a house.

A perfect little G/Caroline sized house.

It is a tiny mini me version of my parents' home.

The excitement was serious.

Ava and Grace came to see the little house too.

Teri and Allison came to visit the little house (drink wine).  

Don't ask what these two fools are doing.

Like I mentioned, there was wine drinking involved.

Giant Robby explored the little white house.

I mostly explored my own bottle of Prosecco.

The cousins were out in full force with some invigorating playtime.

Genevieve followed Caroline everywhere, which was just awesome.  I remained seated and sipped my sugary vino.

Trinity had another cake.

This one was much more attractive.

Mother attempted a photo shoot on the front porch of the girls' new house.  It was a failure.

My darling doesn't like to follow directions.  

On Tuesday  I joined my bride to be pal Corrie for her cake tasting.

I'm kind of well known in this area for my discerning taste buds for quality flour, sugar and butter.

We were giddy.

There was a face in a hole.

You all know my thoughts on those.  

The cake lady works from her home so we met at Starbucks, where all 3 of us were magically transformed into mermaids.

I'm looking a bit more merman, I think.  

After careful deliberation, Corrie decided on cupcakes in about 20 different flavor varieties.

I couldn't be more happy with that choice.

I'll be double fisting cupcakes at her wedding in less than a month!

Yay!