California - Days 2 & 3

One good way to get your kids on the schedule of wherever you are going (or back on your schedule when you come back) is to make them so tired that they are ready to go to sleep (or willing to sleep late) whenever you will let them! We didn’t get to Bakersfield until almost 2am, so we were all happy to hit the sack as soon as we got to my mom’s house. My mom and Jerry offered to let Mia sleep in their room for the whole week so they could take care of her when she woke up and we would get to have a little bit of a lie in. I can’t remember if it was any later than normal on Saturday, but every single other day, like clockwork, she woke up at 7:15am. She makes a pretty good alarm clock – if that’s when you want to wake up! I’m just happy she wasn’t ready to get up at 4:15 that morning.

Saturday we had a Reid family get together. My three uncles and their families, my step-sisters and their families and some close friends of Peter converged on my mom’s house from all over CA. I’m so happy we got to see them because we haven’t since the last time we were in California and some of them even longer than that. Luckily, they didn’t show up until later in the afternoon so I was able to take a pain pill in the morning and let it wear off a little bit before they arrived. (I haven’t had to take another pill since then. I’ve been chugging A LOT of water and keeping my fingers crossed that all of the stones have gone away.)  And all of us (well, not Nate) were able to get naps.

 I don’t really know how to impart how awesome these people are. I miss them all the time!

Family!

He always loves playing with Aunt Jen's Talking Dog!

Uncle Ted and Deb

After all this excitement we were very happy to have a relatively low-key day on Sunday – church, Mexican food and playing in the backyard.

Pooped

The rest of the crew

Katie and Katarina

Cousin Kat, Nate, Mia and Grandpa Jerry