Greetings from Riverside

Well, we're finally on "vacation" at my parents' place in Riverside. We left Friday afternoon/evening and stayed overnight in St George. Unfortunately, I probably would have gotten just as much sleep if I had pulled over at a rest stop to take a nap. Addie does not sleep when she is surrounded by others who are trying to sleep. She was really excited for the new surroundings and loved the little fridge and microwave that were within her reach. She repeatedly opened and slammed the doors until I finally turned the little fridge half way around and put the microwave in front of the door to make this more difficult for her. As we were trying to settle down and go to sleep around 10, Addie found that she could reach the light switches and turn the lights back on whenever we turned them off. When I was finally able to block the light switches with a desk, she discovered that she could still open the microwave door, therefore turning on a light there. So, I unplugged the microwave and the TV (just in case), and thought we were good, until she started opening and closing the curtains. Now, that's not all that bright, but I personally don't want the curtains wide open for a bunch of strangers to watch me sleeping. I was able to keep the curtains closed by connecting them with a rubber band at the bottom. Finally . . . . no more lights to turn on!! So I started a movie on the mini DVD player, to get Addie to stay in one place and hopefully slow down. This worked for a few minutes, but then she found that this was also within her reach and she started to open and close the DVD player, therefore restarting the movie, over, and over, and over again. So, no more movie . . . . . just screaming :-( I finally got her calmed down again after watching a few minutes of "home video" on my cell phone and she was obviously tired, so I sang a few songs to her and we are both almost asleep when my phone started ringing (at 11:30 pm) and the fun starts again. At this point she is screaming "daddy, daddy, daddy," wanting to talk to daddy on the phone. Luckily, Dad was available to talk at that time, so we called and talked to him for a couple of minutes. Finally calmed down again, we try the movie, then the singing, then the movie . . . . I'm not really sure what ended up working, or what time it was, but eventually she was asleep. Unfortunately, not long after that, I was awake with a headache. :-(

Day-2 of our trip was rather mild. We started out with our "continental breakfast" around 8:00 a.m. and then we were on the road again by 9:00. A little cloudy as we started out, which turned into rain, a lot of rain, as we drove into California. I don't really mind driving in the rain and I am usually just glad it isn't snow. The display of clouds was awesome, between cloud bursts. I took a few pictures while I was driving between Barstow and Victorville. You definitely can't get the full effect, but not bad for my camera phone.

We made it to my parents' place by 1:30 p.m., so plenty of time to settle in before bed. So far so good, I have not yet found that I've forgotten anything.

I let Adalyn have "our" room all to herself and I was able set it up almost like he room at home, so hopefully she will sleep better here. I have the "movie" out of reach, the doorknob child proofed, the dresser turned around and the light switches disabled. I even have the humidifier running for some "white noise" to help minimize the other sounds of the house. It must have worked, because I didn't hear her wake up at all in the night and it is now 8:00 a.m. and she is still sleeping. :-)

Ryan finally got a job! He was hired by Werner Trucking on Monday, January 26th and had 2 days to get ready before he took a bus to Fontana California, Wednesday night, to be there for his "Orientation" which started Friday. He spent about 6 days in California before he left with his "trainer" Wednesday night (February 4th) for his over-the-road training. We are really glad he is finally working, but we are not looking forward to having him gone for 4-9 weeks for his training.

Of course, with Ryan leaving town as well, we had to come up with a new plan for Andrew while the rest of us went to California for our "off-track vacation." We decided to have him stay with Ryan's aunt and uncle, who live right across the street from the junior high, during the week. Weekends he will be staying with alternating aunts & uncles, Eric & Becky the first and third weekends, and Jenny & Brent for the holiday weekend in the middle. To make sure we can all keep in contact with him during this time, I got him a pre-paid cell phone to use while we are away. I think this is probably the most exciting part for him, even though I told him it was only temporary.

Adalyn will be turning 3 next Friday, the 13th. As such, she will be moving on to an "Early 3's" preschool group when we are back in town. She really enjoyed the "play-n-learn" group she has been in for the last few months. A couple weeks ago she made a snow man out of marshmallows, candy & frosting. I knew this art project would not last long, so I took pictures of it before it disappeared.

We don't have much planned for our time in California, we're just glad to be out of the freezing temps for a couple weeks. We will probably try to spend an afternoon at the beach when the rain clears out. Ashley really wants to look for shells, and the other kids just want to go to the beach, though I doubt anyone will be doing much swimming. I am just hoping to be able to get some work done while we're here, and hoping that Andrew will stay out of trouble while we're gone. :-> Julie