Whirlwind of a Vacation

This was our first Christmas that we would have to fly back to Cali and we had 12 short days. We already knew that it was going to be tough fitting everything into such a short time but we didn't realize how exhausting it was going to be. Here's a summary of our wild trip (this is really so I don't forget all of the stuff we did!)

We arrived in Fremont late on Wednesday. Riley was so excited to see his gong gong (grandpa), paw paw (grandma), and aunties that I couldn't get him to calm down to go to bed until after midnight (2 am Texas time!). He still managed to wake up early on Thursday though so he could go to my parents' favorite place for breakfast. Ben had to go to UCSF that day to meet with a collaborator and I had some christmas shopping to finish up so we both spent the day running around. Friday afternoon we headed over to Sac to meet up with Dan, Leah, and Gabe. The boys got along great and had such a good time together. Friday and Saturday was filled with wrestling, Ice Age, yummy food, christmas lights, the park, Leatherby's (yum yum!!), the Eco Station, more wrestling, and just a good time hanging out. This visits really make me miss living close to all of my friends. After Dan made us a yummy breakfast of beignets we had to head back to Fremont. We met up with Matt later that day and hung out. It still amazes me that he's all grown up. I still remember meeting him for the first time when I picked them up from a karate lesson. So long ago! On Monday morning we headed over to Rohnert Park to see Ben's dad. Unfortunately it was rainy and cold so we ended up staying inside all day. Last year when we were visiting for Christmas I had the best fish and chips for lunch and we decided to do it again this year. I was so excited!!! Riley had a lot of fun running around the house and Ben's dad made us a delicious tri tip dinner. The next morning we headed over to Ben's mom's house. We watched one of Riley's many Land Before Time movies and then walked across the street to a restaurant to have a nice cozy lunch. We had a good time hanging out and enjoyed a homemade dinner that Ben's mom made. Even though it was freezing outside we decided to brave the cold and drive down the street to get an ice cream cone for dessert. There's nothing like a little strawberry ice cream with sprinkles!! We left the next morning back to Fremont. I still had a whole bunch of last minute errands to run and we still hadn't figured out all of the snacks and desserts that we needed to make for Christmas. We spent the rest of Wednesday running all over town to get everything we needed. Thursday morning (Christmas Eve) we headed over to Stockton to visit with Dre, Suzy, Zen, and Langdon. It's been awhile since we've seen everyone and I am so amazed how big Zen and Langdon have gotten. Langdon is a little more than a year younger than Riley but he is already a little bigger than him. He is such a big boy with the most adorable grin! We hung out, the boys bbq'd, we opened presents, and just had a good time catching up. Can't wait to see everyone again this summer. We left that afternoon back to Fremont. Like every Christmas Eve, Shirley and Linda came over for dinner and we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner......homemade eggrolls, crab, and whole bunch of other Chinese dishes. My mom always goes overboard and makes enough food for an army. Unfortunately, Jamie and Ben did not feel up to having the eggroll eating contest they both promised us last year. After dinner we had yummy pie for dessert -- Riley loved going from person to person getting a bite from everyone. Then it was time for presents!! Riley once again made out like a bandit. I swear if there is a dinosaur toy out there we probably own it. The boy got so much stuff. My parents decided to get him a bike for Christmas this year but thankfully only bought him a helmet so he would have a present to open and gave him a giftcard so that we could buy it when we got back to Texas. Packing a bicycle on the airplane would have been really interesting! I forgot to mention that Riley and Ben had been sick up to this point and I was really hoping that it would pass me somehow. Well, merry christmas to me.....I woke up Christmas day with the same cold that they had just gotten over. I felt horrible but since it was Christmas I had to get up and get to it! We spent the morning getting things ready before all of my family arrived. There was rousing game of Apples to Apples, lots of snack eating, a short nap, lots of Riley being crazy and dragging everyone into the hallway. I guess I should explain that a little. For some reason, Riley thought it would be a hoot to drag people one by one into the hallway and have them sit down. By the end he had most of the people in the hallway and if you looked down it looked like the back of some truck with a whole bunch of illegal refugees. My son is crazy!! Of course so is everyone else for letting him drag them into a dark hallway! Again, lots of presents and more food. We had prime rib, turkey, ham, and all the fixings for dinner. For dessert, we made crepes and we had a nice assembly line going!! By the end of the day I was so tired and really not feeling well. On Saturday, I was still feeling awful. However, my sisters and I wanted to go with my parents so that they could pick out the dryer we were going to buy them for Christmas. We went to Sears, picked out a dryer, and then spent over 30 minutes with a incompetent sales person as he tried to ring us up. I swear it was awful. Just as a comparison....when we got back to Texas we went to Sears to go and buy a new fridge for our garage. There is an old asian guy that works there that has helped us everytime we've gone. We literally walked into the store, picked out a fridge, paid and arranged for delivery and were out in less than 15 minutes. He was so efficient! Anyways, we picked out a dryer and then decided to go and get some lunch. Since none of us were starving and when we asked Riley what he wanted he said pizza we decided to take him to Chuck E Cheese. Had some okay pizza and spent a lot of time trying to win enough tickets to get a decent prize. He had a blast! On Sunday, we headed over to Concord to an indoor playground called the Jungle to meet up with Dan, Leah, Gabe, Jethro, Michelle, and Cambria. The Jungle is made up of all these twisty tunnels and slides and tubes that are perfect for little kids to climb and slide around in. Not so much for grown men as Dan and Ben found out. The guys were so exhausted after going around that thing with the boys. We decided to leave and go and have lunch after Cambria woke up from her nap. After lunch we weren't ready to leave yet so we decided to walk around the area in the freezing cold. After we all froze our tushies off we all headed off in different directions. We spent the rest of Sunday in Fremont. Then it was time for us to head back to Texas. We spent the morning packing and getting things ready to go. Cindy did an amazing job of fitting all of our gifts in one large bag and we managed to get everything home without breaking anything! Riley did so well on the plane ride home -- he slept for 2 1/2 hours of the trip and spent the rest watching some Kung Fu Panda.

Below are some videos and pics from our trip. If you click the last picture it will bring you to a very large album of pictures from the holidays.

Feeding the hungry elephant with Auntie Cindy and Gong Gong

Tumbling with Gabe

The infamous takedown that Ben is so proud of

Click on the picture below for pictures from our trip