New Years

We took 2 days again to drive home from Ashley Lake and made it to Idaho Falls the first day. The start was a little scary because I slept in the car. I know most of you are thinking, “he is crazy, baby sleeping in the car is a blessing”. But it is so unlike me, mom and dad knew something was wrong. Sure enough when I woke up at our first stop I threw up all over daddy in the gas station. After we cleaned up, I seemed fine so we set out on our trip again. It wasn’t 40 minutes later that I threw up again, this time in the car all over me and my seat. With no gas station for miles, we did our best to clean everything up on the side of the road. Once again I seemed fine, but we decided to steer clear of food and just have me drink fluids. When we arrived in Idaho Falls I was ready for bed! Just like before, the second day of travel was better. Luckily we only had about a 4 hour drive to Draper which seemed very short compared to the prior day. When we got to Draper, we hung out with Smiths and Grandma and Grandpa Campbell for a bit. Mom and dad had to reorganize and make sure they had everything for the California trip. The reason we did not drive all the way home was because Draper is half way between Springville and Salt Lake and this way we had rides to and from the airport with a place for our car to stay. Our flight from Salt Lake City left at around 5pm and it was almost worse than driving. I pretty much cried the whole time because I was so over tired. When I finally did sleep we were close to landing and upon landing, I proceeded to throw up one last time all over myself and mommy. Unfortunately mommy did not have a change of clothes handy and was less than thrilled to walk through the airport and wait for our luggage covered in my up chuck. Luckily, Grandma and Granddad’s house is only 3 minutes away from the airport. It is quite ironic that the two days we set aside for travel, I have to get a little bug. I didn’t throw up for the rest of the holiday but had a nasty cough and runny nose like mommy.
We didn’t waste any time in California and got right to the fun. It was so nice to see everyone again, especially Ryan who is 11 days older than me. Even though we are so close in age, he seems a lot older. He has been walking for months and can practically run. Plus he is talking quite a bit more and following instructions like a pro. It was cool to see what I will be like soon. The first part of the trip was spent in Alameda at Grandma and Granddad’s house. There we sort of caught up on Christmas gift giving and our family got tons of awesome stuff. Dad’s favorite gift was probably tools. Mom got really excited over her electric frying pan and a ceramic butter dish (I guess you have to be as weird as her to understand).



Uncle Tim explaining so eloquently how to open a gift.

Side note: I forgot to mention what our family gave each other. Mom and Dad got me some awesome DVDs; some classics that are essential in any DVD collection. Dad got mom a yoga game thing and a hot air balloon ride in Park City to be redeemed any time this year. Mom is super excited about it!! Mom got dad some tickets to a Bon Jove concert in March.
One of mom and dad’s favorite days in Alameda was when we went to San Francisco to tour the Walt Disney museum. It is pretty hard to describe in words because it was that amazing. Every room was very interesting and entertaining and they had things to keep all ages busy. It made everyone want to go to Disney Land real bad.

Notice how good I am smiling and Mommy and Cousin Marin's matching hair.

On New Year’s Eve we drove to Brentwood to spend the night at Uncle Tim, Aunt Lora, Kit Kat and Ry Guy’s house. We had one of my favorite meals, lasagna and played games all night. After dinner, mommy helped Marin, Kit Kat, and Troy put on a play. It was based on a book mommy always reads to me about a baby cricket learning to “click” with her mom and other animals. It turned out great and mom is sad she didn’t get any pictures. After the play, things got bad for mommy. Her cold (or whatever she had) peeked and she spent the whole evening and night lying on the couch and was very sad to miss most of the New Years fun.




We decided to stay one more day in Brentwood which was a good thing because played more games, ate more good food and made a lot of special memories. Our last night, we went to visit the Vastolas. Cousin Marissa drove back from Davis just to see us! We had yet another yummy meal made by Cousin Kati and I played a lot on their stairs and with their shoes. Afterwards we had a quick visit with Daddy’s old friend, Craig and his wife Melissa. They just found out that they are having a baby boy and we are so excited for them!!
The trip home went pretty smooth. Our flight was at 6am so we had to be up by 4am. Fortunately (and weirdly enough), I stayed asleep in mom’s arms through the ride, check in, security and right onto the plane. After so long being away, it was really nice to be home!