Pretty Girl in Pretty Flowers

Aside from the people I love far and away my favorite thing about Texas are the wild flowers. Almost every year since we've lived here around my birthday Ryan and I have sought out wild flowers to view, photograph, and picnic in. I love it! This year at my birthday we had just gotten back from a 3-week vacation and Abby was the sickest she'd ever been. By the time we were ready to go bluebonnet season was pretty much over and I thought I might not get to observe my favorite Texas tradition. But don't worry, after a little research I found a church in Mansfield that had a field of bluebonnets still in bloom. We didn't have anyone to go with us and my attempt at using the camera remote to take a family picture was unsuccessful.

Still, here are some picks of a pretty girl in the pretty flowers.

 

I made it!

I lived another year - I am now 34 years old. I am not someone who dreads my birthday. Getting older doesn't bother me. In fact, I prefer it to the alternative (death). I have lived 34 years and don't wish any of those years away. I think birthdays are great because they give you an opportunity to celebrate - and I like to celebrate. Since Abby got sick on our trip and remained sick the following week (which included my birthday) the actual day was pretty low key. I got lots of snuggles from my baby girl, which I enjoyed, though I wish she was feeling well while snuggling. And Ryan got me a cheesecake (my favorite!) So all in all, not a bad day. And we celebrated that weekend with his family, so I got my party too.

The Fun Continued

As I said in my last post about Easter, we spent it in Houston with my sister Mindy and her family. After church Ryan and Penny headed back to Burleson so Ryan could work. Abby and I stayed until Monday and then flew to Las Vegas.

Abby did so great on the plane - people told me how good she was, and I agreed.

While in Las Vegas we pretty much just hung out with family. My sister Jenny and her family were in town until Tuesday (they'd been there for Easter) and Maggi and her two boys flew in earlier on Monday. My two oldest nieces had also come for Easter but left soon after we arrived, so we went straight from the airport over to see them before they left. We were with them less than an hour, but it was great to see them. It was actually the first time for Abby to meet Paige (my niece) and she has now met all her cousins (there are 27 of them so far). We then went back to my parents house to spend the evening with them, Jenny, Maggi, and their families. Abby loves playing with cousins so much. She was really having a lot of fun playing with Caleb, Jenny's youngest. On Tuesday Maggi and I went with Jenny to run some errands while our kids napped (it was really fun to just be out with my sisters) and then went back to my parents for a little swmi party before Jenny and her family had to head back to Cedar City so her husband could go to work (why is work always getting in teh way of fun?)

After that we just spent the rest of the week hanging out - we didn't leave my parent's house much. Maggi's son Jack got sick so she was home-bound pretty much and we stayed too. We did go to the park once with Maggi's friends, and they came over once and we swam. Abby and I visited my friend Wendi and her family. We also celebrated my mom's 69th birthday (she doesn't seem like she's one year from 70). Abby had fun playing with Jack and Liam and playing in the backyard. While we were in Houston Abby developed a love for basketballs. Mindy's family has like 8 basketballs or something and my nephew spent hours shooting hoops while we were there. We spent a lot of time in the backyard to be with Penny and Abby spent a lot of time playing with basketballs, watching our nephew play basketball, and trying to play with him (it was so cute - she would walk right up to him while he was dribbling as if she was trying to block him or something). In Las Vegas there weren't as many basketballs but she found any balls she could to carry around and roll back and forth and bounce. Also, since Jack and Liam were really into swords she also decided it was a good idea to be armed with a sword at all times. Abby also started wearing my shoes for the first time - all on her own, just for fun. We had a good time there.

So we were in Las Vegas from Monday to Saturday then flew from Las Vegas to San Diego. (We would have driven with my parents and Maggi and her boys but there wasn't room in the car for everyone plus luggage.)

We had a whole row to ourselves, which was awesome. She's such a good little traveler.

California was a new state for Abby - she has now been to 12 states. 12 states in (just over) 12 months - not too bad!
My family has a beach condo just north of San Diego. Ryan and I spent our honeymoon there and we've been a few times since, but it has been 6 years since we were last there. It was nice to be back - I love California!!!!!!!!!!! Ryan wanted to be there when Abby really experienced the beach/ocean for the first time, so we held off on that for a little while. We spent a lot of time at parks and we did walk on the beach some, but we stayed away from the water :).

Monday David (Maggi's husband) flew in. We went to Scripps Aquarium and to the Train Museum at Balboa Park (we had to wait awhile for it to open after we got to the park so enjoyed the grounds and flower garden there as well.) We also went to Old Town for dinner - oh how I love Mexican food!

 Abby decided she loved bananas so much she'd even eat the peel.

We were really missing Ryan, and he was missing us (especially Abby).  A week and a half is too long to be away from your baby when she changes so fast. So we Skyped with him a few times. Abby loved that - she got so excited to not only get to talk to Dad, but see him too. It was a lot of fun. But on Wednesday he came in person - even better. We went straight from picking him up at the airport to the zoo.

The next day (Thursday) my dad and David started attending the dental seminar which was teh main motivator for the trip. While they worked we played on the beach for the first time. It was pretty windy which made it a bit cold so we didnt' really get in the water, but we had fun playing in the sand and walking around. And we warmed up in the hot tub after.

Most mornings we'd go to the park to play. There are 2 parks near the condo so we'd alternate between the two. The next morning (Friday) we went to a park and Abby tried out swinging.

After Abby went down for a nap. While she was napping Ryan and I went boogie boarding. It is one of my favorite things to do at the beach. I also love snorkeling and diving. We had planned to do a dive - it's been over a year since our last dive so it is time - but we found out that boat dives in San Diego are quire expensive and we've already done several shore dives there, which we really enjoy but they are a lot of work and consume pretty much an entire day. So we didn't dive, and we didn't even snorkel, but we did boogie board, and I loved it!
That evening we drove to Oceanside and met my dad and David at the pier and went to dinner. As we were walking to the end of the pier where the restaurant is there was a man playing a guitar. Abby stopped walking and listened for a few seconds and then started dancing. She was a huge hit!

Saturday we again started our day playing at a park. While Abby was napping Ryan and I went around the condo complex and took pictures to update our rental blog. (Should you ever be looking for a beach condo to rent in the Del Mar/ Solana Beach area you may want to consider our condo - it's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself - you can see it here.) Once everyone woke up we headed to Carlsbad for the Flwoer Fields. It was super busy, but we had a good time. We took lots of pictures in the flowers, listened to the blue grass concert, navigated through the sweet pea maze, and wondered all over the grounds.

Sunday morning my parents had to leave super early in order to get back to Las Vegas in time for church. We were sad to see them go. An even sadder thing was that Abby woke up with a high fever, around 103. She'd never really been sick before but I guess after spending a week with a sick cousin what could we expect. We'd planned on going to church and then after naps going to see the seals at La Jolla Cove. Instead we spent the day in doors. We had also planned on going to Disneyland the next day and then flying home on Tuesday, but with Abby being as sick as she was we didn't think Disneyland would happen. Before David and Maggi left for church David and Ryan gave Abby a blessing. In it Ryan told her that she would be able to enjoy the rest of her trip. We puther down for another nap in hopes that she would wake up fever free and feeling well. No luck, her fever went up. She was only awake for a little while before she needed another nap. While she was napping we started wondering if we should just fly home that day - if we weren't going to be able to play anyway, what was the point of Ryan using vacation days? We were flying on stand-by passes so we didn't have reservations. I called my brother-in-law who is the flight attendant that we got the passes from to see what the availabilty was later that day. There was a flight we could get out on if we wanted to do it. So then we had to decide. We were leaning toward just going home and saving the vacation days but decided to pray about it. Before we prayed we talked about what Ryan had felt during the blessing and what he'd meant by her being able to enjoy the rest of the vacation and he had felt like she would be able to go to Disneyland. After praying we continued our preperations to leave but each of us felt like Ryan had been directed in what to say in the blessing and that we should just have faith in it. So we decided to stay and see how she was doing in the morning. We really didn't do anything that Sunday. I think we may have gone for a short walk, but a very short one. Abby was just too sick for anything else.
She slept much better that night and when she got up in the morning she didn't have a fever at all!!!!!! We were so excited! So we hurried to eat breakfast and got ready and headed up to Anaheim to the happiest place on earth. When Ryan and I were on our honeymoon we went to Disneyland. It was Ryan's first time to be there, and we hadn't been back. We've now been married 10 years (well, in June we will be) so it was a fitting time to go. Abby did not have her full energy level, but her fever did not return all day and we all had a ton of fun! Abby loved people watching and she loved the rides. Her favorites were It’s A Small World, Finding Nemo, playing the piano in Goofy’s playhouse, The Haunted Mansion, and The Enchanted Tiki Room (she got all the kids dancing in there - so cute!). And Ryan and I got to ride all the rides we wanted to as well. They have fast passes, stroller passes, and single rider passes, so we really didn't spend very much time in lines at all. Usually my favorite ride is the Matterhorn but this time I enjoyed Indiana Jones best, plus any ride that Abby got particularly excited on. We had a really good day and we were so glad we trusted in the blessing and stayed!

Tuesday morning the fever was back, full force. She was not well. We learned that when Abby is sick she is very snuggly, in fact, she wants to be held 100% of the time - pretty much the opposite of when she is well. She doesn't cry or complain much, just wants to be held. This actually made traveling a little easier but we felt so bad for her.

Still, we had a really great trip!