Our trip to California

We had a great trip to California! It was definitely very jam-packed! We left our house at 3:30am on 3/19 to head to Mobile, AL where we were catching a 6:40am flight to Houston, which would then take us to Ontario, CA. We didn't fly directly out of Pensacola or directly into Los Angeles, because it was significantly cheaper to go from Mobile to Ontario. Anthony slept most of the 1.5 hour flight to Houston. But, because of what I would label a lack of competency (is that a word?) from the Continental Airlines staff in Mobile, our 43 minute layover in Houston ended up being a 10 minute sprint to our connecting flight to Ontario, CA. We were the last ones on the plane and just barely made it! Oh, and a word to the wise - don't try to spare the rest of the plane from noises your child may make by picking the last row of seats on a small plane. Why? Because #1: They don't recline. #2: They are near the bathroom. And if the flight attendant doesn't lock the door before takeoff, the door will fly open and you will get to sit there and smell that smell until you hit 10,000 feet.

After a 3.5 hour flight (of which Anthony maybe slept 45 minutes, and squirmed on the laps of 2 EXHAUSTED parents the other 2 hours and 45 minutes) we made it into Ontario, CA. We made it to the rental car place (and for some reason, there was a lack of competence there) and after an hour in line of maybe 5 people, we finally got our car and started heading south to San Diego to visit some good friends from Japan. It was about an hour and 45 minute drive, with a stop at our favorite burger place, In-N-Out, somewhere in Temecula, CA. We finally arrived in San Diego were staying in transient quarters on 32nd Street Naval Station, and almost got kicked out of there! Apparently, they don't let children under the age of 12 stay there (which I had no idea of - they didn't mention that on their website or when I booked the room), but were gracious enough to let us stay anyways (perhaps it was my begging after a long trip and zero sleep the night before). Soon after we checked in, one of our good friends from Japan, Chris, stopped by to see us. He was our Intel Officer back in Japan and is stationed in San Diego now. We were able to chat with him for an hour or so in our room. Then we got ready and headed out to visit other good friends, Jen and Adam. Jen was a very close friend of mine in Japan and her husband, Adam, flew with Landon. I hadn't seen Jen in almost 2 years! We haven't seen Adam since Oct '06. We had a fun and relaxing dinner at their house. I wish we could have stayed longer! But we were beyond exhausted and had to get up early the next day to drive the 200 miles north.

Needless to say, Anthony didn't sleep well on the makeshift blanket bed on the floor in our room. So we were up much earlier than expected. Since Landon was going to be doing all of the driving the next day, I bundled Anthony up and we headed out around 7am to Coronado (where Landon and I used to live right after we got married) to gather some breakfast. We got back to the room, showered and were on our way up north. We met Landon's parents in Santa Barbara where we turned in our rental car and had a great lunch. We did some shopping and headed back to Lompoc.

We spent the rest of the trip in Lompoc. On Friday night, we had a rehearsal and dinner for Landon's friend Vince's wedding. On Saturday we had the wedding; Sunday was Easter with Debbi's whole side of the family; Monday we just stayed at home and relaxed; Tuesday was professional pictures at La Purisima Mission Historic State Park and then Wedensday we were back off to AL (or Florida I guess you could say).

During this time, Anthony has really started to crawl...he crawls backwards mainly, but has gotten up on all fours now and rocks...he is just ready to go forward! He has also figured out how to go from his belly to a seated position! He definitely had a hard time adjusting to the time change, but after the first 2 or 3 days, he was back to his normal self! He was still a great baby traveling...he may have been squirmy, but at least he didn't cry! We got lots of compliments from surrounding passengers - which was great to hear! It was also great for him to meet all of our friends and family. Be sure to click on the albums to see all the pictures! One of the albums contains all of the pictures I took. The other contains some of the pictures Landon's Aunt Shelly took on Easter Sunday. I hope you enjoy :)

My photos

Trip to California

Shelly's Album

Anthony's Easter