San Francisco Treat

The last several days we were in Northern California with Ryan's family, which was very fun. We went to San Francisco and stayed in the Fairmont Hotel for 2 nights while we saw the city.

Welcome to The Rock.
Here's a picture from out of our hotel window. Yes, all you had to do was swing the window open and lean out with your camera. Dangerous!

'Tis the Season... to drive

Heading up to San Francisco tomorrow. Today we had our fair share of crying baby in the backseat on the way back home from San Diego. Two hours of pure crying was torture. I wanted to do something to make him feel better, but I think the issue really was that he missed his grandma and papa. Sweet.
It only took us the better part of the evening to tidy up the house and get a dent in my laundry before we head out for Part 2 of our vacation: San Francisco and Napa Valley.
As I type, Ryan is working on setting up his new flatscreen tv in our room. (Yeah, I caved in and got him one). I have to admit, it looks nice and I'm glad I went with the larger flat screen one. Sleek and classy. (Ok Kathy, you were right. It IS nice!)
And we finally got through opening all our presents from under the tree tonight after dinner. Dylan loves his trains and I think we just might have to take a few along tomorrow.
So wish us safe travels... Lots of crazy drivers on those roads (we saw a few today and it still bothers me a bit to drive so wish me luck tomorrow afternoon!)

Christmas Morning

And two hours into opening presents barely made a dent in the massive pile of presents, but we got through them. Never you worry about that!

Christmas Eve

Dylan opening a few presents on Christmas Eve with Papa.


Dylan with his new rocking horse! At first he was a bit skeptical, but by the next morning, he warmed up and was ready to ride!

Here's one of Uncle Matt and I before dinner.

Dylan playing with Papa. No one can say that he doesn't get enough attention!

Kisses for mama on Christmas Eve.

After an exciting Christmas Eve with opening some early presents, playing, and NO NAP, this little guy was TIRED... He doesn't usually fall asleep in my arms these days, but he sure did this night!

Merry (early) Christmas!

Let the festivities begin!

Tonight we decided to start the exchange of gifts from under our tree as we will be visiting family during the holidays and wanted to ensure some time beforehand to enjoy some of our own small traditions.
We each opened up a few gifts and amongst the ones I opened, there was a camera (whoo-hoo!) and the super-duper padded mattress cover that I had been eyeing at Bed Bath & Beyond.
Ryan sure knows me and knows how much I love my evening snuggles and what joy crawling into a comfortable bed at the end of a long day brings me.
Ahh. And on that note, I'm turning in for the night. Goodnight world.

love (candles) thursday

I love candles. My husband knows this and the other night as he came upstairs to bed, he thought of me. And so he brought up a candle with him so I could enjoy it as I fell asleep, the yummy "hot cider" smells filling the room. This man knows me and all the little things that make me feel special and loved. And that is all I have to say about that.

funny words

Dylan has the most precious way of saying things these days. It's the pronunciations that make me laugh. Like for instance, when we get ready to go somewhere, he helps us gather his shoes, calling them his "jews." And when he points to his nose, he says "nooo" like the cutest little boy EVER. Then when Ryan asks Dylan to show him the sign for FOOD, dylan makes the food/eat sign on Ryan's mouth.
Ryan and I can't get enough of it.

This past weekend we bought Dylan a new car seat: The Britax Decathlon. After I got rear-ended, the insurance company agreed to pay for a new car seat and since he really shouldn't be riding in his old one anymore after the accident, we made the trip out to West Covina and got him a new one. This Christmas on our drive down to San Diego, then up to San Francisco and Napa Valley, I'm sure it will prove to be a good choice.

lights

We've been scouting out the light displays around where we live, driving around each night as we can, searching for a good neighborhood to walk around as a family and enjoy the holiday festivities. We found the jackpot in "Upper Hastings Ranch" last night.
And with Starbucks hot chocolate and Dylan in tow, we were off to a fun evening walking up and down the streets decked out with spectacular displays. Awesome!
Each street throughout the neighborhood had a common-themed marker in front of each house along the street. There were snowmen, spinning globes, strings of lighted lanterns, Christmas trees, etc. Some of the houses rivaled Clark Griswold's from Christmas Vacation.


Here's our sweetie enjoying the lights and yard decorations.

feeling better

Briana here. Feeling better. No more typhoid. Just some residual nausea at times if I overeat and don't stay cautious of the sometimes still-sensitive tummy-ness. (however I must add that there was one benefit - if you can call anything related to the stomach flu as a benefit... loosing 5 glorious pounds!)
And regarding the whole accident thingy, I'm working through it... albeit slowly. Some things just take time to resolve in your mind and work through emotionally. I'm just so glad to have had the loving support of my dear friends and family this past week (special thanks to my mom for coming down to help on Tues/Wed and my friend Kathy for being here for me in so many ways). I don't know what I would have done without you all. I'm so blessed.
Speaking of support, Ryan was such a doll this past week. I'm so thankful for his support and kindness. He never complained or gave me grief for laying in bed and not feeling like lifting my head off the pillow while I was sick (in fear of puking yet again), all the while dealing with Dylan alone, working hard so he get his work done and come home early and take care of us, and making sure I was comfortable. I'm a lucky, lucky girl.
Thanks Ryan. I love you.

San Diego weekend

This weekend we went down to San Diego to see my parents. It was supposed to be our weekend getaway to a hotel, but Briana wasn't feeling well enough to do that. We'll do it in January. But we still went and got to go over and walk on the beach and go X-mas shopping. There were 12-foot waves at La Jolla Shores, which is unusual for there.
See how big those waves were?

I got to snap this pic of my beautiful bride. :)



Dylan had fun getting chauffeured around in his wagon by Grandma and Grandpa. The bumpy road was his favorite and according to Grandma, his pleas were repeatedly for "mah" (which is Dylan for MORE).

typhoid Briana

Tough week here. So to add to the stress of my last post, the past 24 hours have been filled with nausea, vomiting, the works. Yup. I got the flu. Not pretty. Especially with a toddler.
Isn't it amazing how unphased toddlers/babies are when we get sick? It is like they almost seem more energetic...
So I spent the majority of the day today in the bathroom or in bed. Yuckers.
And sad to say, I hope that this was the flu, because it will mean that it will be over with in another day or so and not an indication of some kind of emotional manifestation from last Sunday's events... I never thought I'd say those words: I hope it is the flu. Sigh.
Silver lining: blessings of friends and family who step up to help when things seem unbearable and hopeless. Oh, and loosing 3 pounds!
Thanks to you all who have been here for us this week. And to those who stop by here on occasion, I promise future posts will be less depressing.


PS-Ryan here. Most pics from now on will be taken with my newly arrived, much anticipated (2.5 months) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED lens! Here's a pic:

Arthur

Tonight after leaving the annual Christmas party at Ryan's boss's house, on our drive home, we came upon an accident with a man lying in the road and an Explorer nearby. Since I know CPR, I got out of the car to "help" initially. I can barely put it into words, but it was the most horrible thing I've ever seen and I'm glad that Dylan and Ryan were in the car and didn't have to see what I saw. We were one of the first cars to pull over and I was probably the second person to walk up and see if the man was ok. He wasn't. After replaying the evenings events over and over in my head probably 15 times now I still can't make sense of any of it. I just felt so helpless standing there, wanting to do CPR so badly, but not being able to bring myself to do it with all the blood (in the back of my mind I think I already knew that it was too late). Once they pulled the sheet over him and I realized that he was gone, I cried because I felt like I should have done something, anything. The policeman that I talked to told me that I couldn't have done anything to save him and that he was apparently thrown from his car and drunk. It felt so cold and lonely out there. He deserved better than that. Anyone does.
I don't know why I was there. I keep asking myself why we drove that way home (because we've never been that far along Huntington Drive before and were just trying to find a gas station and passed the road accidently that we needed to turn on just before we came upon the accident). I don't even know why I am writing this now, except to tell those that I love that I'll never be able to forget the images of tonight and that man bleeding to death before my eyes... and how precious and fragile life is. And how I want each of you reading this to vow to NEVER drink and drive, ALWAYS wear your seatbelt, and drive CAREFULLY. Please promise me that.
And now I think I'm going to go hug my husband... again. Very tightly. Goodnight.