California... part 1

We've been home for 3 days from our vacation time in California, and my goal for this first week of being home is to get our blog updated with pictures and stories from our trip out west. :) It might take a few posts, hence the "part 1" part of the title, but bear with me and I promise you'll get the highlights (and probably more) from our vacation. If you're really dying to know all that went on, you can check out my sister's blog ~ www.deboerdays.blogspot.com . She did a great job of updating their blog as we experienced the week together. The nice thing about that is, she doesn't face the task of posting everything all at once and having to remember all the details after a week (or more) has gone by. I should have done the same thing, but I didn't, so here goes... let's see how good my memory is these days! :)

We left bright and early ... well, maybe just early ... for Milwaukee airport, after having spent the night at Tracy and Eric's house. (they live in Kenosha, which saved us about an hour of driving in the morning... thanks for putting us up for the night guys! I hope we didn't disturb you too much getting ready that morning!) Our flight left at about 6:30, and we were prepared. This being our first time flying with Micah, we had an arsenal of things to keep him full, happy, clean and entertained stuffed into our carry-on bag. And guess what... we barely needed any of it! Micah was asleep before our first flight took off and slept the entire way to Kansas City. Once we arrived in Kansas City, we had several hours to kill before our next flight to LAX took off, and since Aaron's good friends from college lived close by, we decided to see if they'd be interested in coming to the airport to hang out with us while we waited. They were more than happy to come say hi, so we got to spend our layover catching up with Matt, Karen, and their two youngest kids, Ella and Asher. It was great to see them again and the kids had fun playing on the floor in the waiting area. (the nice thing about KC's airport is that we were able to go out of the gate area and sit with our friends, and get back to our gate without a major hassle of long lines going through security. They have it set up so that there is a security checkpoint for every 5 gates or so, which makes going out to see people not flying that day possible during layovers.) We had a nice visit, complete with chasing after some very active and mobile little ones, and before we knew it we were on our way to our final destination ~ LAX! and after that ~ Beaumont, and my sister's house! :) Once again, we were ready with anything we might need to keep Micah from screaming the whole time we were in the air, but needed none of it. We started a movie on the portable DVD player we'd bought for the trip, but Micah was more interested in pressing the buttons on the machine than actually watching the movie, and before long he crawled up on my shoulder and fell asleep for the rest of the flight. He woke up when we were landing, probably due to some pressure in his ears, but we made it to California without any major incidents. (unless you count my having to change a blowout diaper in the airplane bathroom an "incident".)

The first leg of our journey ... looks quite exciting, wouldn't you say? :)



In Kansas City with the Hubers ~

Our bags were among the first to come out of the baggage claim area, so we grabbed them and headed out to the curb to meet Lisa, who had been circling the airport for a while waiting for us. (Our flight had actually arrived a few minutes early, but because the gate we were going into was still occupied, we sat out on the tarmac for about a half an hour before being let off the plane. That was probably the most difficult part of the entire trip... we were all ready to get off the plane, and Micah had had enough of sitting on laps by that point in time)

But once we were in the car with Lisa, any travel woes were forgotten. We were on vacation! In California! And even though it wasn't too much warmer there than it was here, we were happy to be there, and in the company of family and friends. (and let me just say, our happiness only grew as we arrived at the DeBoer house and were able to let Micah roam free and play with Luke!) We stopped for a quick dinner on the way home, and then got settled in and let the boys get re-acquainted.

Cousins reunited for the first time since this past summer ~

And that's about it for highlights from the first day. Well... except for the mouse hunt that went on after the boys were in bed. Jung (the exchange student living with Matt and Lisa) came flying down the stairs at about 9:00 saying he had just seen a mouse run into Matt and Lisa's bedroom. (I didn't actually witness the flying down the stairs or the announcement that a mouse had been spotted, but I did hear my sister shrieking a few minutes later and decided something was going on that should be investigated) :) Sure enough, there was a small mouse up in their loft area that we ended up cornering under the couch. How's this for a mental picture... Matt and Aaron trying to corner the mouse; Aaron wielding a tennis racket, with which he intended (and eventually succeeded) to use to dispose of the little rodent; Lisa and I ending up holding one end of the couch up so that Matt and Aaron could get to the mouse and dispose of it. After that, we all went to bed... but what a way to start our vacation! :)