I just spent nearly three weeks with Laina traveling! I didn't realize when I booked my trip just how long that would be. We had a blast and I'll give you the highlights, but we didn't bring a camera so you'll all have to wait for pics (everyone else was constantly snapping photos, it seemed, so eventually I will have some pictures from the trip).
Part 1: CaliforniaWe visited lots of family in CA and Laina absolutely loved every minute! She really had a blast with her cousins, Kylie, Connor, and Kaity, down in Orange County.
I had a 2-day training with the company I'm working with, Live Well International, on how to do nutrition and wellness seminars. What a great time filled with great info!!
I put some of that new knowledge to use and did three wellness seminars while I was there!
Laina had her first "sleepover" at grandma Janice's house without me. She did great.
My parents had a blast playing and cuddling with Laina and being impressed by her enormous vocabulary and knowledge.
I got to spend some time with my dear friend, Tamara, who now has a dream life living off the beaten path with her two horses (oh, and husband). I often say that I wouldn't want my own land and horses because it's too much work and so often you let things slide and your place starts to look run-down. Well she proved that all wrong. Her place is so great, organized, neat and clean and her horses are living the good life!
My brother, Jesse, flew in from Japan and we got to hang out a bit before the trip to Chicago.
Bummer of the trip: not getting my In-N-Out! But I did go to Trader Joe's and realized I'm not missing as much as I thought. I guess I do have some suitable alternatives here. And Jay tells me there's this place close by called Five Guys Burgers (or something) that will satisfy my In-N-Out cravings.
Part 2: ChicagoWe had a family reunion planned in Chicago for the last part of my trip. My grandma Sally (my dad's mom) has some family out in the Chicago area and Laina and I got to meet lots of new relatives and also reconnect with some others.
Laina LOVED her 3rd (or 4th?) cousin, Kelsey (who is going into 5th grade) and they played cars together almost non-stop! If anyone cares to figure out the math, Kelsey is my dad's cousin's daughter.
Great Grandma Sally took care of Laina for almost an entire day while the rest of the family went to the Museum of Science and Industry and got to see the Harry Potter exhibit. Ya, you know you're jealous ;)
The whole time I was at the Science Museum, I kept saying, "darn, Laina would love this!" There were trains, planes, race cars, tractors, even baby chicks!
We did end up taking Laina to the DuPage Children's Museum where she got to run around like a crazy kid and played cool instruments, drove a car, played with water, and just generally had a blast.
Taking the recommendation of a friend, we went to
Lou Malnati's Pizzeria and had authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. I'm sorry to admit, I do prefer hand-tossed style better. But the atmosphere and quality of ingredients were great.
Bummer of the trip: sitting in mad traffic on a Sunday afternoon on the TOLL road. Um, I thought the point of a toll road was to avoid the traffic!
But really, Chicago was much different that I'd expected. It was very green and the parts we saw were clean and looked like nice areas to be in. We actually stayed outside of Chicago in a town called Lisle, which is so very green and pretty and home to a huge arboretum that unfortunately we didn't get to check out. Hopefully next time!
Part 3: Back at the HomesteadJay stayed home and worked (new job and all) and held down the fort here. I was SO happy to get home it was overwhelming. Love you, Jay!
The house was CLEAN and neat! Wow!
My vegetable garden is
out of control! Jay put in automatic sprinklers in the veggie garden and everything is literally 5 times as big as when I left! I'm bummed though because I didn't know you have to have TWO squash plants to actually make any zuchinni. Mine is SO big and I'm just going to have to pull it out, I'm afraid.
Jay had mentioned on the phone that one of the flower plants I planted in the flower garden just before leaving didn't make it. He couldn't tell me which one, and I was afraid it was one of the ones I really liked, but it turns out it's not. It was one of the yellow daisy-looking ones that I bought because it was cheaper and added a little color to the pretty-much-purple garden.
Now it's back to reality for me. I have to get to the grocery store today, the fridge is empty (hm, what exactly
did Jay eat while I was gone?), lots of laundry to be done, and a
lot of email/blog/facebook catching up to do! Watch for pics, hopefully soon!
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Petting the sheep
Riding the pony (mommy was possibly three to four times more excited about this than Laina)
Riding the 'fake pony' on the carousel. I was a little dissapointed they didn't have any music going. Its really not a carousel without the music.
Laina's favorite, by a longshot, was the car ride. She got to ride this one all by herself, since no one over 43" was allowed. She got to go "round and round" on what was basically a carousel with little cars. She rode this one twice, and probably could have gone all night.
The next day we were off to Tiny Town. After riding the tiny town railroad around the 'village', Laina went around exploring all the tiny buildings. Clearly a lot of work has gone into these things, and some of them are very old. The novelty wore off for Jenna and I pretty quick, but Laina loved it. Apparently a visit to Tiny Town has been a staple of Denver childhood for generations. Just the fact that it has been lovingly maintained since opening to the public in 1920 is impressive.
Some were a slightly larger scale and could be explored from the inside. Laina LOVED this section. She wanted to go inside every building, and peek out of every window.
We rounded out the weekend with a picnic with our church small group at a park/playground, where Laina played some basketball and did some serious swinging.
