So, after his nap on Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa had already headed off on their drive home.

We called Aunt Shelly and talked about dinner. The preferred time was 7 pm, but that was kind of late for LB so we moved it a bit earlier. At this point it was looking ready to rain, but hadn't actually rained yet.

We got to Shelly's house and then headed out to a supermarket-one of LB's favorite places to go. I needed milk for him, and also wanted a new bottle of water for myself for Monday. We ended up picking up some garlic cheese bread to go with the lasagna Shelly was cooking for us. As we headed to the car it started raining.

Dinner was spinach salad (which LB had none of, as he's not yet hooked on salad-when do they learn to like salad anyway?) lasagna, bread. There was spaghetti for Aunt Marsha who's a vegetarian, and LB insisted on eating some of it, but then he got a look at my lasagna and ate a bunch of it too. Once again, total PIG!! This kid can eat.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel so LB could get to bed. I tried reading in the corner while he went to sleep, but he didn't really want to go to sleep, so I slipped outside onto the covered patio right outside our room, for a little while. He did go to sleep and I was again able to watch some TV while he slept.

The next morning we decided to go out to breakfast with Shelly and Marjorie (sp?). So we got up and got checked out of the hotel. Picture this. Me trying to lug our appallingly large suitcase, and pack 'n play, and all of our other misc. suff down the stairs while also keeping track of LB, who I don't completely trust to walk down stairs by himself, especially cement ones. I think it took 3 trips to get everything into the car, and LB didn't even run out into traffic either. Then it was off to breakfast.

Breakfast was at one of their favorite places, Linda's. While we waited for our table, Shelly got a cocoa with lots of whipped cream, LB tried to eat all of her whipped cream so I decided to get one of my own to share with him. LB thought whipped cream was the best thing in the universe, it was nice to not have to be extra careful about keeping the chocolate away from him. You see, until he turned 2 he didn't get chocolate-no this wasn't meant as torture, but as allergy prevention. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Here's the big shocker, he probably ate half of the pancakes, 1/3 of the eggs, and maybe 1/3 of the bacon. (did I mention he's a piglet yet?!?) We wonder where he puts it too, because he's not fat. But really, he runs it off, he's got so much energy.

After breakfast, mind you, it was almost noon by then. Shelly, LB and I headed up to the local national park where there were redwoods. They wanted $6 for parking, so we bailed and parked out at the road and figured we'd walk in from there. We were only planning to stay for maybe an hour, so it didn't seem worth it. Well, did I mention that it'd rained the previous night, the dirt path was a bit muddy. We did eventually make it to the big trees, and LB was suitably unimpressed-didn't really care for the trees so much. He played around in the "cave" that had been burnt out at the base of one of them. Then he decided that inside that tree was a great place to go poop, so he did. Luckily he was wearing his diaper, so disaster was avoided. :)

We didn't stay at the trees long as it was getting late. We headed back to the car (along the muddy path). In retrospect, I should have paid the bloody $6, next time!!

I dropped Shelly off at home and we headed back over the road to San Jose. We left 15 minutes later than what I thought was the latest we should leave. LB was tired, but didn't seem to want to fall asleep. About 10 minutes out from the rental car return, he fell asleep. I managed to get LB, in his car seat, still strapped in out of the car and onto his stroller throne without him waking up. In fact, we made it onto the throne, into the airport bus, off the bus, through the curbside check in, and into the terminal with him staying asleep.

Then we got to security. I asked if they could just wand him in the car seat so he wouldn't wake up and the stupid security guy told me that I didn't want to put him through the x-ray machine. DUH!! So I though, OK fine, if I take him out and get through quickly, I can probably settle him back again, but NO, I take him out and then the guy makes me stand there for a couple of minutes before we can walk through. By that time LB is awake and not likely to go back to sleep. OH well. So we got to our gate (about 20 steps from the security check point), got the gate check tag for the stroller and waited to get on the plane. They loaded the plane about 10 minutes after we got there, we cut it just a little close.

There were only 64 people on our 150+ seat airplane, so LB and I got a row to ourselves, not that we truly needed it, but it was nice to not worry about bugging another person.

We pre-boarded and I got the car seat strapped in-it went smoother than the first time. LB was patient and just stayed in the seats while I did it. I definitely recommend boarding one person to strap the car seat early and then boarding the kid as late as possible, but with just me, we had no choice.

Got him settled in the seat and me as well. The take off was fine, and we got into the air. The flight attendant came by to take drink orders and I told her that I would like to use the rest room and that when she had a chance I'd appreciate it she could stay with LB while I did. After she served the drinks, she came back and I was freed. I came back and he was smiling a big smile at her, so I guess it was just fine. We landed in Burbank, got the stroller, then got our one bag and home we went. One of our mom's group gave us a ride home. LB got to ride in a different car seat and discovered that it made different noises than did his.

Sum total-the trip went great, LB is an awesome traveler and I'm not dreading taking him on trips anymore-we sort of avoided traveling with as long as we could.

Items I forgot to pack:
chap stick-there's always one in my purse but I usually put
one in my toiletries bag too
reading book-mine (we brought 5 for LB) mostly I worked
while he slept, but did borrow a book for Saturday night

Items I lost on the trip (that I know of):
rear-view mirror thing-it clips to the actual rear view mirror in the car and allows you to see the baby and the cars behind you. I forgot to pull it out of the rental car.