Week in Paradise + Bad travel day

Landon LOVES brooms

After the Portland reception, we had a week to get ready for the Atascadero reception. That is basically what I did all week, along with playing with Landon, exercising, and being sick. I woke up with the stomach flu on New Year's Eve, so I feel like I missed New Year's this year because I was so out of it and sick. I read a lot, and I felt very fortunate to have my family around to watch Landon. On that day, Landon squirmed while my sister was trying to pick him up and slammed his head on the concrete path outside our house. He was screaming and crying and bleeding out of the back of his head pretty badly- all down his shirt and everything. I was crying because I could not do anything about his injuries because I was so sick. Thankfully, my family was able to clean him up really well.

Landon loves Aunt Hannah

Loves sand between his toes!

Marveling at the waves!

Ended up soaking wet and naked, good thing it was 75 degrees

My dapper little man

Landon loves Grammy- my mom's mom

I took Landon to the beach on Friday. He loved the different textures of sand in between his toes, chasing the waves as they came out and in, and throwing sand all over the place. He liked trying to stand as the wave came in, and got knocked over a few times before getting soaked and crying because he was cold. I can't explain his response to the beach except "pure joy". This is what little boys are supposed to be doing! I guess he can do that in Chicago once he gets a little bigger and more tolerant to the cold. Snow can be fun, right? Friday and Saturday morning were spent setting up the Atascadero reception. We had a whole crew setting up and the end result was a simply elegant reception. The food was yummy and everyone had a great time. Landon had fun playing with my boy cousins (ages 10-14) and dancing around. We got to see many of my dad's family members that I hadn't seen in awhile, and all in all it was a great trip to CA.

Centerpieces!

Landon and I hitched a ride to the airport with my grandparents at 10:00. We got there at 1:30, our flight was scheduled for 3:50. It got delayed to 5:10, then 5:45 because of weather at O'hare. We got on board and pushed back, just to be sent back to the gate. We sat in the plane for the better part of 2 hours waiting for a navigation system software update (I guess that is important or something). Landon fell asleep when we pushed back the first time, so I just read and tried to stay comfortable. When we finally got underway, I had to go to the bathroom and Landon woke up. At this point I was exhausted and we worked on falling asleep together. Fortunately, I had a seat next to me open, so Landon slept on that seat with his head on my lap. I slept for a little bit. We landed and sat on the tarmack for an hour while they tried to find a gate for us to hook up to. Then I had to wait for the stroller to come out. By the end of it, we got home and to bed by 4:30am. It was rough.