Oh, the places you'll go! California Edition

Hey, did you hear the one about those people who took their 9 month old to 3 different states in a week and a half? You didn't? Guess that's because only crazy people would do that!

That's right, we have been some traveling fools lately. We went to Mikey's cousin's wedding in California, then we flew to Utah to visit Mikey's dad, then we came home and drove down to Florida with my family for Labor Day weekend. It was exhausting, but awesome all at once. 

It is rare that we get to see all of Mikey's family at the same time and it was wonderful to spend some time with them and let Emily meet her Western cousins.

As is my nature, I stressed about flying with a baby for days before we left. And as is her nature, Emily made my worries seem totally foolish. She flew like a pro! Minimal fussing, lots of sleeping, just easy as could be. 

On one flight, she spent the whole time flirting with the older gentleman in our row and trying to pull his arm hair.
As usual, pictures tell the story better than my words, so here we go!

At the airport, waiting to board our first flight.

Our first flight was direct to California, which was awesome. It was also pretty empty so we had plenty of room to spread out. She had a bottle on takeoff, then played for a while and then slept for almost 3 hours.

When we did finally get to CA, we headed to the rental car place. 

Emily was looking like this at that point.

We headed to our resort, the Westlake Village Inn, and we all collapsed into bed.

The next morning, we met up with the family and checked out the resort. It was absolutely gorgeous!

She's so Hollywood

Then we headed out to explore LA.

Ryah and Emily were not fans of the traffic.

After lunch, we split off on our own and headed down to Santa Monica. 

Emily's first experience with the ocean - and it wasn't the Gulf, like most little Southern girls! This girl dipped her toes in the Pacific!

We weren't dressed for the beach and had places to go later in the day, so we couldn't stay and play long, but we still did some more exploring around the Santa Monica Pier.

Emily's first time to crawl on grass was rather hilarious. She didn't like it very much and would pretty much only sit in one spot. She kept putting her hands down to crawl and then pulling them back up like it was nasty or something.

At one point, she was trying to sit with only one bare leg touching the ground. Silly girl.

I think we could have sat there all day watching the people and watching her laugh and smile at the dogs that people walked by us.

We eventually moved on and headed to the bride's parent's house for her mehendi night. This is the party where the bride and her attendants have their Henna done on their hands and feet. We were also able to get some Henna and it was so cool! 

Here is Mikey's Aunt Pat, looking lovely in her sari.

They served a huge buffet of Indian food, which was delicious, and it was a great night for seeing family and meeting new people. 

Em was a trooper and stayed up WAY past her bedtime. 

The  next day, Mikey and the other guys played golf, so Emily and I took a few minutes to wander around the gorgeous resort and have a little photo shoot.

Just imagine how good the photos could have been with a decent camera, a photographer who knew what she was doing, and a subject who would sit still!

After some shopping with the girls, we got ready to go to the rehearsal dinner.

blurry as usual

The day of the wedding, we just relaxed around the resort and played at the pool (no pictures of the pool- but we did document the relaxing!)

And then it was wedding time!

Baby rednecks first time wearing shoes. Lasted about 30 minutes, and then she chewed on them the rest of the night.

Kellen and Nisha Greenlee!

The wedding and reception were seriously gorgeous - as are the bride and groom!

You could tell that they put a lot of thought into the details and everything was perfect and so personal and touching.

Now we need these two to have some kids - the world needs to see that genetic combo! 

 I am posting both of these pictures from the reception because the first one is better of Mikey and me, and the second one is hilarious of Emily.

Goofball!

 Her favorite part of dinner - the silver chargers.

Not long after this, princess and I retired to the room so she could rest up for our flight the next day. Mikey stayed to hang out with his family and said it was a great evening.

The entire week was a blast and it was over way too soon. We were so thankful to Nisha's family for welcoming us to their home.

After we left Cali, we headed to Utah to see Mikey's Dad....and that will be continued in another post!

Congratulations Kellen and Nisha, and thanks for everything!

New Daycare

Recently we moved Emily to a new daycare that is a little bit closer to my work. We didn't really have a problem with the old daycare, but we also didn't like the "big kid" room she would eventually be moving up to, and when we saw the new place was having "open enrollment", we knew the time was right for a change.

Dropping her off on day one.

We are so glad that we did! We are really impressed with the entire program and we plan on this being the place where Em will be until she starts kindergarten. Plus - this is her face when we got home after the first day.

You can't argue with that!

She has already done her first "art project" at school. They put blue and red paint in a water bottle and let her shake it up to make purple. She was so proud!

This program is Christian based, which is another plus for us. Neither Mikey or I are particularly religious, but we both agree that Emily needs to be exposed to religion and allowed to make her own choices in that regard. Even if you just take them as stories alone, the Bible stories teach kids valuable life lessons. And I loved my youth group experience when I was younger! So building this base for her now is something that we are glad her school can help us with.
Yay for new school!