The Quiet Life of Violet

A Rather Large Family Photo

I'm slowly (but surely!) going through my desktop and photo files (cue horror movie noise here) and I found this pretty little picture from this past August when we went to Lake Tahoe to celebrate my Grandpa's 80th birthday (here and here).

 
We rented the "meeting room" at my Grandpa's favorite beach-front hotel and had a beautiful party. My brother, Dustin, Colin (my sister, Effie's man) and I made h'orderves for the party and the rest of the meal was catered. My uncle Brian had made a slide show of a billion pictures from Grandpa's past and we sat down as a family and watched the years go buy. Dustin and I were seriously salivating over Grandpa's and my late Grandma Carol's clothes. Mad Men, true life. It was amazing.

We set the timer on the camera and took a family photo to finalize the event. Grandpa is the cute old man in the middle, bottom row with the striped shirt, pocket protector, suspenders and top hat on. People, he doesn't even realize how hip he's dressed.. the suspenders are to keep his pants up and the pocket protector houses one of his favorite mechanical pencils and some note cards. The top hat is pure silliness and he's got the goofiest grin spread across his face. He is surrounded by his whole family, living and passed. My Grandma and Aunt (my Mom's twin sister) are buried (well, part of their ashes are at least) at the beach down the road from the hotel. I had no idea, but Tahoe holds a special place in my Mother's family's hearts, as they used to visit yearly while my mother was growing up.  I can't imagine how hard  it is (and peaceful at the same time ) to visit the town and exact beach where part of my sister and mother lay to rest. That's a part of life that I'm not fully ready to fathom - losing my family, that is.

I am so thankful and blessed that I was able to be present at such an event in my Grandfather's life. I'm also thankful that Grandpa was able to meet my sweet little Roman (who was so tiny at the time! Gah!). What a gift.

Family rocks.

Grandpa's annual Christmas party is this weekend and I couldn't be more excited to get pictures of my boy with his great Grandpa!

xo,
Violet

Our Disneyland Adventure (part II)

[part one]

Our second day, Sunday, was wedding day! The event wasn't until 6 that night, so we popped into the park and visited with some local friends. We had such a blast! Lunch was had at California Adventure's new Greek themed counter service restaurant, Garden Grill, and then I put Little Man in the Baby Bjorn and we went on the new Little Mermaid ride. The ride sucked and was such a disappointment. It had zero charm like the older Disneyland little kid / dark-rides (Alice, Pinocchio, Peter Pan). Thankful that we got to experience it, but still a little let down, we headed over to experience one last ride. They were doing construction on the California Adventure park, so we took the long route to the Monster's Inc. ride and took our sleeping boy on that, too. It was so nice seeing our friends that day and we were so thankful that Squid slept like a little log.

[This was a picture I took a few years back while at DCA and is one of my all-time favorites.]

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, took a family nap (oh my gosh, you've never lived until you've had a family nap!), fed the boy and got dressed for the wedding. It took place at The Hacienda in Santa Ana by Anaheim. It was quaint and private with a pretty little fountain in the middle of the patio. We had mexican food and a killer salad and cake and fruit. I think the fruit may have been my favorite part. Or the cheezy enchiladas. Or the fruity champagne. (What was that stuff, anyway? I could have had WAY more than one glass - it was that good!) The ceremony was followed by the reception (cheezy goodness above!) and dancing, of course! Poor Squid was scared by the music (poor kid doesn't appreciate a hoppin' beat yet), so we left as the wedding was winding down.

We made the not-so-smart move to head back into Disneyland after we got back to the hotel (the park was open until 11pm) and hit one more ride, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Yep, we took the baby to Hell. Hey, it was cold out.. we were just warming him up. ;) He let us know all about how he cranky and unappreciative he was, the poor guy. After grabbing a gluten-free hotdog (bun, too!) on our way out of Main Street, we rode the shuttle back to the hotel and got settled for the night.

After day two of three, and his very first wedding, someone was VERY tired.

Our Disneyland Adventure (part I)

Last month we drove down Southern California to go to the beautiful little wedding of our friends Glen and Christina. Our friends are, like I am, huge disney fans and it was only proper that they have their wedding near the Happiest Place on Earth! Since the wedding was on a Sunday, we decided to make a vacation out of it and take Squid to the Park for his very first trip.

We left Friday evening after Dustin go off work figuring that the drive would be easiest on the baby since he normally naps on and off during the afternoon and into the night. The drive is about 6.5 hours straight down I5, which, if you're not familiar with California, is a long, straight boring interstate highway. I mean, it's BORING - super boring. Mostly flat (thinking about the midwest, this might be a non-issue, though! We're used to hills and mountains around these parts.) and dotted with orange and various fruit orchards. There is HUGE, nasty smelling ranch right in the middle, too. Harris Ranch, I think. It's a gross and sad feedlot and I try to avoid eating beef from that company like the dickens, if I can. Support local grass-fed farms! (AND, end my PSA for the day!)

Anyway, we stopped at in-N-Out for dinner (oh.. I hope they don't use Harris Ranch beef. I may have spoke too soon...) and to feed and change Squid. The weather was humid and warm, but not unbearable. Squid liked it, so I rolled the windows down (in the parking lot) and fed him (boob and bottle!) right there.

After we were all finished, we packed back up and headed out for the second half of our trip. It was pitch black by this time, with Squid sleeping soundly in the back seat, when a huge freaking lightening storm appears. HOLY crap. We'd never seen such a storm before. It spanned the whole view out our front window and we drove on towards it. The lightening favored three spots for striking. The three spots would take turns, gracefully and forcefully touching the earth, sometimes forgoing the ground and instead arcing towards each other until they formed a brilliant half-circle in the sky. It was so beautiful, albeit a little loud - almost like God's way of keeping us awake with nature's ballet.

As we actually reached the storm, most of it had dissipated. We couldn't figure out what the glimmering  patches on the side of the road was until we were driving past them. They were fires that the lightening had started, little flames along the dark fields.  It blew us away! You don't see that kind of stuff along the coast where we live!

The last two hour were dragging so the adrenaline from the lightening was a nice pick-me-up and we arrived at our awesome hotel around 11:30pm. We used Priceline and stayed at a 4 star hotel for $71 a night! We did have to pay for parking each night, but it still was very affordable for such a nice place.  We unpacked and told our little boy about the day that was to follow. He seemed pretty excited! Well, WE were excited for him.

Our day started bright and early 'cause Mommy gets a little giddy when it comes to Disneyland. We had borrowed my Mom's stroller, but alas, my brother Joey had helped load it up and smeared his freshly cologned wrist along the headrest - the smell gave me an insta-headache. It clung to Squid's hair and that just wasn't going to work since I have to, like, hold the child through out the day.  After talking about it, we packed up and drove to Target and bought a new stroller (which happens to be sitting in my living room at the moment and is listed on craigslist). How fortunate are we that we were able to just buy a new stroller like that? Dustin was 100% right about the importance of budgeting. (Thanks Dave Ramsey!)

Back to the hotel we went, put together the stroller and packed our bag for the day. We loaded up onto our Hotel's free shuttle and delighted as we realized that it was Squid's first bus ride.

[The guy at the end of the video is the groom, Glen!]
 

 

Like day one of our adventure?
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While Momma Gets Her Groove Back

While I adjust to life after Disneyland, taking care of Squid  by myself during the day and the whole unpacking and cleaning up the house bit, I invite you to sit back and let this picture of Squid soothe you.

He's figuring out that when I make funny faces and shove the little phone in his face,  that I'm doing something (taking pictures!)... and he doesn't quite know how he feels about that. :)

Check back soon!

xo,
Vi

p.s. ~ Isn't he so cute that you could barf or smile or bake 37 pies?

p.p.s. ~ I really like pie. If you do end up baking 37 of them, send me one?

Guess Where We're Going?

 

Hint:

We're going the same place that my Mother and her family went in these pictures.

  
 

[all pictures taken by my Grandfather, 1961]

 

 

Disneyland, here we come!

 

Leigh-Ann's Vacation!

 

 

Check out Leigh-Ann's post today. 

She stayed with us for a while in May before Squid was born and now, she's blogged all about her visit. She really is the cutest thing ever. Check it out!

 

And now, a picture of baby cuteness for your viewing pleasure:

 

Have a great day!

xo,
Violet