First Vacation
Ryan and I got back from our trip to the Wiens Family Reunion on Monday, both exhausted (I'll explain that more in a bit) but very glad that we were able to be there. Let me just tell you a little about that side of my family. They are just plain fun. We all truly enjoy each other, and when we get together, you can be sure that there will be lots of hugs, lots of food, lots of laughter, and maybe a little wine.
I have to say, I am so proud of Ryan. Not that I didn't know that he is the greatest kid ever before, but after the delays and waiting and being handed off to all sorts of new faces, he was still full of smiles for anyone we met. We were supposed to fly out of GJ at 5:50 last Thursday, and we finally got on the plane at about 7:30, only to be told that we had to get back off the plane, and that they were not sure if they had the part that they needed to fix it so that we could actually fly out. So, yadda yadda yadda, we came home about 8:30 and got a decent nights sleep in our own beds...the plane never took off, and they had finally cancelled it at 11:00, glad we came home and rebooked for in the morning. Ryan was truly an angel through the whole thing, didn't cry at all, even though is was well past normal bed time by the time we got here. We returned to the airport at 7:30 the next morning to a huge line, and even more delays. So...we had to rebook again. The really fun thing is that my mom and her friend Jay were waiting for us in Phoenix, and they had to keep rebooking too because of all our issues. Luckily America West was nice enough not to charge them for the changes, even though they could have. We finally left 3 hours late Fri morning, and met the rest of the crew and were able to get out of PX around 1:30, into Burbank around 3, and into the car we went. Well, it took us 4 hours to get to Santa Maria, thanks to the traffic, but I won't go there. So, we lost one whole day of our vacation, and we were both totally wiped out by this time.
Saturday we had the first family event, a picnic for 30 in the park. My cousin Scott cooked all day, he is famous for his Santa Maria style BBQ....tri-tip to die for, let me tell ya! We had games and lots of food, and great weather. It was a very good day. Ryan loved all the attention, as you can imagine. He lasted about 8 hours in the park....bless his little heart! Sunday we were able to go to the beach. The weather was great, the water was cold, but that didn't stop Rachel, Brian, Brianna (my cousin Kim's daughter) and Jon (cousin Sharry's hubby) from having a great time swimming and playing. Ryan did touch the water, but he was more happy just watching and hanging out. We have pictures of all the events up on Scotts page under latest photos. We then headed off to Kim's house for more food and fun. Another late night, and Grandma Shannon ended up missing part of the party rocking with a lightly sleeping Ryan, but I am pretty sure that she enjoyed that too!
It was great to see everyone, the people that traveled the furthest are my great aunt and uncle from KS who celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary this year! It was awesome!
So...Monday came too quickly, and we were back in the car and on our way. Once we got to PX we found out that the gate we were supposed to get to was on the other end of the concourse, so we walked quickly, having only 45 minutes for all that we needed to do...and then they changed the gate back to close to where we landed originally......so anyway...after about 30 minutes on the tarmac...in the PX heat, we took off, never really cooled down, but none the less, made it home, and back to work and day care on Tuesday. I am still trying to catch up on sleep, Ryan is just fine....lucky kid...hehe
He is doing fantastic. He is rolling over now, he can go both ways! He ate a little cereal for the first time tonight, not too much, but we are just starting. Weather here is hot hot hot. I am going to float the river with some friends this weekend while Grandpa gets to spend his 61 b-day with munchkin. Besides that, we are at just over a month before dad comes home, so very excited about that.
Love and sloppy Ryan kisses to everyone!
Us