Four months is too long to go without visiting California, so earlier this month we ventured back there. This time, however, we got to bring Daniel, which made everything so much better! And I'm not just talking about the flights, though it was quite nice to have four hands instead of two.
On our first flight, we were lucky enough to have an empty middle seat. Shockingly, no one wanted to sit by us, so all of the other middle seats were filled first. As you can see, we were really disappointed about that.
Our good friend Taylor pointed out on Facebook that Daniel looks super tired in the above photo, so on our second flight, he didn't even bother trying to smile. I, on the other hand, apparently tried to do enough smiling for the both of us. Geez. And poor Aubrey got cut out. Oh well.
By this time, Aubrey was way overdue for a nap, so we got her all snuggled in her zippy (sleepsack) in hopes of getting her to sleep at some point during our 5-hour second flight. As you can see, she was pretty tired...
...which is why she fell asleep during the boarding process.
Thankfully, she stayed asleep during takeoff and got a pretty good nap. And overall, she was a good kid on the planes. We've been very lucky with her so far. Angel baby.
Anyway, our first stop was San Diego with the Mangum side of the family. This meant lots of time with crazy, cute cousins. All the boys were very cute with Aubrey, and she took to them quickly. She felt very relaxed and at-ease with them, as you can see.
And, of course, she enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa in person rather than just on a computer screen.
There wasn't much time for relaxing and reading though. The days were packed with fun activities! First we visited the Wild Animal Park (or Safari Park, I guess they call it now?). Aubrey's favorite thing was the tram. There was a lot of open-mouthed pointing.
We even got to see one of the world's last white rhinos (there are only four in the world)!
In the end, all Aubrey could say was "Woah!"
She liked the elephant, too.
While in San Diego, we also went to the beach. Aubrey had been once in April but had not gotten in the water. This time she went for it (and it was COLD water)!
This video makes me laugh every time. The tide was too strong for her!
And because it's San Diego, there was also some nice pool time at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Last but not least, we went to Disneyland! Aubrey didn't really understand what the hype was about, but she definitely still enjoyed herself. Daniel and I did almost all of the big rides (we missed Matterhorn), and my mom and Kara were nice enough to watch Aubrey when she couldn't come with us. But she did ride Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and It's a Small World. Her general reaction was pretty stoic. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of her on rides. My mom did though! I'll get those up here soon.
Anyway, Disneyland with all eight grandchildren was quite the undertaking, so the seven boys got awesome matching shirts, complete with numbers on the back. (We figured Aubrey didn't need one since she wouldn't be walking around by herself at all.) Here they all are, in age order!
It was a long day for Aubrey, and we discovered that she can fall asleep in her small umbrella stroller if she's tired enough. Awwwww.
On Sunday, Aubrey broke into the nursery and found this little boat. Happily, Daniel snapped a photo.
On Monday, we picked up a rental car in the morning and began our 11-hour drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. When we reached L.A., we stopped for some In-N-Out, where we discovered that Aubrey likes ketchup.
Our second stop was Pismo Beach, where Aubrey and I strolled along the pier while Daniel went to get gas. It was not a long enough stop for the girl, which made me feel bad.
We had planned to make other stops, but it just wasn't feasible time-wise. I'm still sad about that. Anyway, we finally got to the pretty part of Route 1, which is a very windy road. And unfortunately for her, Aubrey appears to have inherited her mommy's motion sickness. She started whining after a bit, but I assumed she just wanted out of the car. But then, when I looked back to comfort her, I realized she was barfing. A lot. Incredible amounts of barf all over her and her car seat.
*Sigh*
So I alerted Daniel to the situation, and he immediately pulled over (as there happened to be a place to do that just then, Hallelujah). Daniel got Aubrey out of her seat, we sat her on the trunk of the car, and we took all of her clothes off as several cars drove by. Classy, I know. By this point, however, she was happy as could be. After all, she was out of the car, and now her stomach felt better! And there were cars driving by every second! We used a bunch of baby wipes to clean out the seat, threw them and her gross clothes in a disposable bag, and put one of my big t-shirts on her. And then we had to get back in the car and keep going, because there was no turning back at this point. All we could do was continue on the road and hope she wouldn't have a repeat episode.
Thankfully, she didn't. And when we finally got to Maren's house to pick up their Pack 'n' Play, Aubrey was one hungry little girl. So Daniel made her some pasta while I gave her a bath. (Thanks again, Maren, for all of that!) We placed a trash bag over the car seat to protect our newly clean girl from any residual stomach contents, and then we hit the road again. We finally arrived late at Daniel's grandma's house, where Aubrey immediately went to bed and we immediately washed her seat cover and gross clothes. Good times.
The next day we walked around San Francisco. I got fresh crab (yum!) and Ghirardelli's (YUM!), so I was happy.
We also visited the Musée Mécanique, which was really fun (and free!). And, of course, we drove by the Full House house, 'cause I'm awesome and wanted to see it.
On our way back to Daniel's grandma's house, we just had to visit the Oakland temple. Daniel's parents were married there! Aubrey especially loved the flowers (and she threw her shoe in the fountain, so Daniel had to chase after it as it floated away... whoops).
And, of course, we got a family shot in front of the temple.
While in the Bay Area, we mostly spent time with Daniel's grandma. We took walks, went to parks, played games, and had a very nice time just visiting. Aubrey really took to her great-grandma (or, as we call her, Gran-nana).
While there, she discovered that scaring people is fun! Now she does it a lot.
Finally, it was time to head home--or so we thought. Unfortunately, our flight to Baltimore was diverted mid-air to Columbus, Ohio. Air-traffic control in the Virginia area was experiencing technical problems, and all flights to and from Baltimore and some other East Coast airports were delayed and then cancelled. So there we were, 735 miles from home, with no flights available for four days.
Feeling very ready to be home after two weeks away, we broke down and rented a car from the Columbus airport at 6:00 p.m. and drove all night--nearly 12 hours--to Massachusetts. On the way, we stopped for Chick-Fil-A, which Daniel had never had.
Here's our "excited to drive all night" photo!
Daniel was awesome and drove the whole way himself. I managed to stay awake most of the time, but I conked out between 2:00 and 4:00. I still feel kind of bad. Thankfully, however, Aubrey slept almost the entire way (though she did wake up to the sound of cheering and clapping on the radio, at which point she joined in and clapped too before falling back asleep).
When we got home, we left the suitcases in the car and dropped Aubrey off in her crib before collapsing in bed ourselves. And the whole family slept from 5:00 to 10:00. It was amazing.
And now we're back! And best of all, Southwest gave us a full refund for our return flight, which paid for the rental car completely. So it's almost like it never happened! Almost.
