Thanksgiving in California

For the first time in about 8 years, Dave had the day after Thanksgiving off at Chili's! As soon as we found out he was going to get this day off, we booked our flights to California to visit Greg and Brittany and the girls. Carol decided she wanted to come with us, so she flew out as well and met us in LA. We left on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, so the airport was not chaotic, actually kind of calm. Hayley did great in the airport and on the plane, and we will definitely call the flights a success. No major delays, no problems, sleeping baby, etc. By the time we got to Bakersfield on Friday night, we were all exhausted, the girls went to bed, and we said a quick hello to Brit and kissed them goodnight. Hayley was so screwed up it took her over 2 hours to fall asleep that night! We were so tired!

Saturday we just hung out at the house and some friends and Brit's parents came over for dinner. Sunday was the day the boys watched football and the girls got pedicures. Of course, we had to squeeze in a game of Tripoli, which was so weird playing not in Marco, but still we had a great time! So fun!

This trip was great for many reasons, but one was that Hayley really learned to play independently and with other children. She had to share the toys with Lily, which was very hard for her to understand, and often she just played by herself, not looking to Dave or I to keep her company. She enjoyed her time. She was so creative - she took wipes out of the pack and wiped the babies bum like we wipe hers, she put the baby in and out of the stroller, and found a baby in a car seat, and carried that thing around constantly. She also was totally in love with Macy, their little puppy, and she loved to hug her too.

She went immediately to Greg - I think in a way she thought it was her Daddy, they do look alike and are built the same. But she warmed to him immediately. It took her a bit longer to warm to Brittany, but Nana, wow, she wouldn't let her hold her until the very last day! :(

Here she is in Greg's arms:

Savanna and Lily jumping the steps

Hayley pushing the stroller around

Playing with Savanna

Wiping the baby:

Playing with Macy:

Macy liked the baby seat too!

On Monday, we took a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim. It was for Savanna's birthday, so she got to skip school! It is about a 2 hour drive, so here we all are in the car on the way!

The little ones took a bit of a nap on the way...

We finally got there and thank goodness we already had our tickets and we whizzed through the gates. We took advantage of some picturesque moments, and sat down for lunch, which we brought with us.

Hayley was really afraid of the characters

This is Sleeping Beauty's castle. Everything was decorated for Christmas, which was awesome!

Waiting for the It's A Small World Ride. It was totally done up for the season and they sang Christmas carols on the ride, etc. Very cool.

Riding on the carousel together!

The final picture before we left!

We left really late - after the fireworks at closing time. Everyone but Greg slept on the car ride home. It was a great fun day and totally worth the drive! We recovered all day on Tuesday, and the next thing you knew, it was time to pack up and get ready to go! As we were packing and getting stuff together on Tuesday night, we had a bit of a dance party in our room. It was so much fun and everyone was laughing and dancing and giggling to the music. And Hayley finally went into Nana's arms!

And I will conclude this entry with this picture! We were so happy to have traveled so far and had such a wonderful trip! Hope you enjoyed our pictures!