May 17, 2012 - May 21, 2012
I am sitting in my parents' living room in California on yet another fabulous week-and-a-half-long visit, just making a little time while Luke naps to blog about our LAST visit 2 months ago!
Ha! I typed the previous sentence 3 weeks ago. Apparently, it really was only a "little" time. Yikes! My new plan of attack is to make sure I do one post a day until I'm caught up. At that rate, I should be caught up sometime in mid-September. Wish me luck!
Anywho, Luke and I left Jeff alone at home yet again, while we ran off to California for a few days to be a part of some important events in the lives of my amazing siblings. Patrick was graduating from Cal State Fullerton and Katrina was going through the temple for her first time in preparation for her mission (see mission call post here), all in one glorious weekend!
Luke and I flew into LAX Thursday morning, leaving plenty of time for me to pick up my fantastic brother-in-law, Steven in Irvine and spend a couple of hours at the beach with him, and unintentionally, a couple more driving. All of our other potential companions (Patrick, Katrina, Jared) ended up being detained for various reasons, so it was just me and Steven, while Mamal and Papal babysat Luke and Patrick joined them a couple of hours after I dropped Luke off.
Now you would think with the number of times I've driven to and from Huntington Beach, I would practically be able to do it with my eyes closed. The only problem is, when you throw in a detour to Steven's apartment in Irvine, I may just get overconfident, talk too much, get distracted, and somehow end up back at my parents' house in Yorba Linda. Aaaand get stuck in traffic in the middle of it all, creating at least an extra hour of driving time! Yes, that's a true story. Sad, but true.
Oh well, more time to spend getting to know my brother-in-law one-on-one, right? Poor Steven. I talked his ear off non-stop, from the drive, to Steven's ultimately unsuccessful first boogie boarding experience in freezing cold water (weak waves and Steven turned a light shade of purple), to our walk down the beach and on the pier, to our stop at Golden Spoon for frozen yogurt (the best yogurt in the world), all the way back to my parents house. He humored me though, and kept up his end of the conversation all that time. So even though our day was full of several little disasters (including the the sea gulls eating every bit of the unopened family size bag of chips that my mom had sent along with us, and apparently the bag too because it was nowhere in sight), I still had a fantastic time getting to know Steven better than I ever have in the 4 years Jeff and I have been married. Turns out, he's pretty cool.
Patrick taught Luke to unlock his driver's side door, climb in and start the car while Steven and I were gone. Patrick says Luke already knew what to do, so he just had to help him along a little. This is why kids love their uncles! This is also the only picture from the trip that I have of Luke without a big scab on his forehead. Apparently, while Luke and Patrick were playing out in from of Mamal and Papal's house, Luke took a spill off of the curb. Everyone gave Patrick such a hard time, but of course, it was the kind of thing that could have happened to anyone. For the rest of the week strangers stared at Luke in public like, "Oh that poor baby. What an unfortunate birthmark."
Friday was the much anticipated Disneyland day! I am never not excited for Disneyland! And it was Luke's SECOND trip in his short 2 years, thanks to Grandma Lamb, who may very well be his favorite person on earth!
In the morning, Luke played with the glow sticks Grandma had waiting for him when he arrived. They were a hit! He could have spent all day opening and closing my parents' giant sliding closet doors, playing in the dark with them. Great idea Grandma!
He was laughing his head off opening and closing each door as fast as he could and ending up on the other side of the closet!
When Grandpa came into the room, Luke decided to push him into the closet and close the door on him. Luke opened and closed the door, laughing as Grandpa appeared each time, but once, he opened the door to find Grandpa had disappeared. He poked his head into the closet, confused. He closed the door and opened the other side. Still no Grandpa. He tried the original door again. No Grandpa. Then, suddenly, with a roar, Grandpa leaped out of the clothes, where he had somehow managed to conceal himself. Luke jumped back in shock and terror and then walked forward saying, "Hi! Hi Grandpa. Hi. Hi." That is Luke's hilarious response anytime anyone scares him. As soon as he realizes who it is, he nervously says "hi" over and over, apparently, hoping to diffuse the situation.
I forgot to bring my camera to Disneyland, but it was a wonderful day and Luke already knew the drill, so he was directing us to his favorite rides and requesting certain ones for multiple rides right from the beginning, and we did manage to grab a few pictures with my mom's phone...
My mom called holding Luke while he napped (and Katrina and I went on a couple of rides) "Grandma Heaven."
Carousel. Luke was SO proud of himself for riding all by himself!
Look at that face! Pulling the sword from the stone ..one handed!
Petting zoo. Katrina bonded with a goat named Mim.
Luke's absolute favorite ride of the day was one that we didn't get a chance
to ride during our first trip: Gadget's Go Coaster in Toon Town. He called it the "fast train" and he belly laughed the entire time we were riding it and he kept laughing excitedly for a solid minute afterwards. He LOVED it! It was so funny to see that the kid closest in age to him in line was probably 3. Not many 1-year-olds are tall enough to ride a roller coaster!
Saturday was Katrina's big day and I was SO happy to be there to share it with her and the rest of my family.
In the morning, Luke went to Home Depot with Grandpa, who spoiled him with a donut, his drink of choice (Luke chose water - 'atta boy!), and more glow sticks.
I can't say enough about how beautiful and wonderful the experience in the temple with Katrina for her first time was. She was surrounded by so many people that love her and it was just wonderful to have that many family members in such a peaceful, sacred place together. There was just so much love and happiness going around. I'm so glad I could be there for it! And I am so proud of that wonderful sister of mine!
The family out in front of the temple afterwards.
Luke's camera smiles were the cheesiest I've ever seen them this week!
He did this one a lot. Also, notice Steven in the background! Somehow, even though he was present for 3 days of my 5 day visit, this accidental picture of him is the only one I got! (I made sure not to make that mistake again the next time we visited!) Steven meant to join us in the temple, but he arrived just a couple of minutes too late (due to miscommunication and traffic), but it worked out because he ended up keeping Jared company as he chased Luke around the temple grounds for almost 3 hours waiting for us!
After the temple, we all went to straight to Ruby's on the pier for a celebration dinner.
Luke walked straight up to this Angry Bird and started talking to it.
Angry Bird talked back. It was hilarious!
Uncle Patrick time.
Making everybody a little nervous..
A balloon man showed up at our table while we were waiting for our food. Grandpa and Luke are so cute.
This boy LOVES his grandma!
Luke was so excited for his turtle balloon!
Mom got an adorable turtle bracelet.
This picture was just an excuse to get a picture of the awesome octopus balloon animal in the background, but look how cute these two are!
As we were leaving the restaurant - so beautiful!
As we all made our way to the parking lot, Patrick, Jared and Luke were bringing up the rear. And when they eventually caught up, Luke had a bloody forehead! Luke had run into a pole - right in the same spot he had scraped falling off of the curb two days earlier! And it was on Patrick's watch. Again. Clearly, Luke was bent on making his poor uncle look bad! Ashley told Patrick that he was "failing the test."
As you can see, Luke wasn't even fazed.
Sunday morning, we all headed to Cal State Fullerton for Patrick's graduation.
It was a pretty hot sunny day (without the Texas humidity, I was actually pretty comfortable). My mom was prepared with umbrellas.
Sisters.
This girl cracked me up with her makeshift sun hat.
Luke clapped and cheered for every graduate.
Already learning to intentionally ruin mom's incessant picture-taking.
The graduate! (at the top of the ramp)
I think Ashley bought these amazing glasses and I just had to have everyone model them.
Katrina
Me
Jared
Ashley
Mama
Not Pictured: My dad the party pooper.
Putting on Katrina's makeup. Jeff wasn't there to object.
We eventually made our way to Patrick in the sea of graduates and family members...
I love what a proud wife Ashley is! She's awesome!
Patrick decided not to fight my demand that he model the glasses like everyone else.
The "YO" pin is an inside joke with Ashley's mom. I have no idea what it means..
That nice looking man in the middle is Ashley's dad.
Siblings - youngest to oldest.
And of course, we couldn't leave Ashley out! Patrick made sure to point out that she had to be on his left because she's older - by 10 days!
That little symbol next to my smarty-pants brother's name means he graduated cum laude.
After the graduation, Ashley came to Mamal and Papal's house prepared to make a cake for Patrick. She, Katrina, and I collaborated on this lovely decorating job.
One of my favorite duos. They have so much fun together!
While we were over at Mamal and Papal's house, it came to Katrina's attention that I had never teased my hair before. And suddenly we were both very curious to know how big and crazy my hair could get, so we scrounged up some combs, clips, and hairspray, and Katrina got to work.
Luke helped.
Mamal was well equipped. I'm pretty sure anything doused in "freezing" hair spray isn't going anywhere!
Impressively, Steven sat through all of this and all of the girl talk we were having. I kept expecting him to say it was getting late and he'd better go, but he stuck around. What a guy!
Luke wanted to play too, so Grandma grabbed a comb and "teased" his hair while Katrina did mine.
The finished product from the back. Somehow talented Katrina managed to make it look somewhat nice, instead of the frizzy witch hair I was expecting.
We headed back to my parent's house with plans to complete my look with some 80's style clothes for a mini photo shoot...
We got ready while Luke had his nightly bottle of milk and played with a remote control car.
Once Luke was in bed, we laughed our way through a silly photo shoot, in which I was wearing big bright yellow hoop earrings, a hole-y bright yellow tube top, a multilayer knee-length, poofy red skirt, and silver glittery heels. Aside from the heels, the whole outfit was made up of vintage clothes that Katrina had bought for morP one year in high school (opposite of Prom, dress tacky/silly, come in groups - not with dates). Obviously because the top, which was almost completely covered in dime-sized holes, was pretty immodest, pictures of the full outfit are for Jeff's eyes only, but here are a couple from the shoulders up so you can see the fabulous giant hair that Katrina created.
After the photo shoot, Katrina and I stayed up so late talking that at one point I actually fell asleep sitting up for a few seconds right in the middle of our conversation and then just woke up and tried to respond to what Katrina had just said. Love that girl!
The next day, Luke and I flew home. Thanks for a wonderful weekend, family! And for letting us be a part of your amazing accomplishments!
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