California Adventures!

Last Thursday, the girls and I flew to California to visit Brian. The weekend happened to be the halfway point in our time apart, but we primarily went to celebrate his 30th birthday.

We stayed in Brian's APU housing which is a two bedroom modular home, i.e. "the mods." I didn't want Magnolia to think Papa had another home, so I explained to her that is was his hotel while he was at school. She loved staying in Papa's "Who-tel."

Brian got a lot less sleep with us early risers and his late school nights. But he loved having his girls around to read to him and "put him to sleep."

Luckily, our visit coincided with a few days of lighter school responsibilities. We walked around APU and enjoyed each other's company.

We took Brian out for Thai food and frozen yogurt on his birthday. Then the following night we had a potluck with friends from his program.

I brought in my suitcase a still-in-the-box snap-up kiddie pool and some sidewalk chalk. We spent hours trying to stay cool in the pool and filling the walkway with pictures. The families of a few of Brian's classmates joined us a couple of times and we all made new friends.

Sad to leave, Maggie and I filled Brian's porch with messages and pictures for him to remember us by.

While the flight to begin our trip was a breeze, the flight home was more of an adventure. It was a packed flight, which meant Kaleia couldn't have her own seat...which meant I was her jungle gym and restraint system. After wrangling her for an hour she also decided to blow out her diaper. Thankfully, I packed an extra change of clothes this time. The three of us -- Magnolia wanted to go potty too -- crammed into the phone-booth sized airplane bathroom. Luckily, it was equipped with a change table. Unluckily, we hit turblence as I was trying to keep squirmy Kaleia on the table without sliming me.

We survived and we're happy to be home, but we're definitely wishing Papa were here too.