on our way to grandma's house, we saw...

california was calling our name and we answered with a trip out there. and you gotta know that ANY trip is gonna be good when you start off getting what we dubbed "the green dinosaur" as a rental car!

i can't believe we didn't get our own picture of it! but imagine it more like this:

we started off our weekend with a day in san francisco where we rode trolleys,

took q-baby on her first tuk tuk ride,

and even got foot massages in china town.

turns out the boy has incredibly ticklish feet. i thought he was going to kick the foot massage guy (do they get the title of "masseur"?) right in the face. our guys kept talking in chinese to each other and i'm pretty sure they were saying, "man - this guy's a wimp with baby feet! i bet his own baby's not even so ticklish!" ...and it's true.

quincy's perfected the art of flirting and she pulled out all the stops for the foot massage guys. i think she thought it'd get us a discount or something. it didn't

she's crazy about opening her mouth all wide like that these days and i couldn't figure out what that's all about... then i looked through our pictures and the proof was in the pudding (how great and underused is that phrase??)

like parents like daughter??

our green dinosaur then took us to visit my grandparents (q baby's GREAT grandparents) and the boy's cousins and uncle/aunt. quincy knew she was surrounded by her peeps and hammed it up good for everyone (i think everyone hammed it up good for her too...) ushy gushy love oozed around the entire weekend. it was great.

next, we went to the maker faire, which is a giant geek fest where people make random gizmos and gadgets then show them off... think life-size mouse-trap games, giant cupcake cars, a mechanical tongue that licks a lollipop down to the stick...aka, complete entertainment.

and what's a trip to california without a stop at in & out burger with aunt wendi and uncle karl. mmmmm milkshake

lessons i learned in idaho (long but worth it for points # 4 and 13)

so, imagine your brand new spouse says to you, "there are two back-to-back family reunions going on over the course of a week...wanna go?" while 99.9997% of people would say something to the effect of "umm...no," my brave and adventurous new spouse was actually EXCITED for such a trip.

so off to the eagle ridge dude ranch in yellowstone we flew* to spend a few days with my mom's side of the fam. here are some lessons i learned:

1. whenever possible, fly into an airport that's 50'x50'. you wont' be disappointed. maybe a little bored waiting for your ride, but not disappointed.


2. per aunt wendi's teachings, you should always take yoda along for the ride. because what adventure can't you find with yoda on your back??


3. some hot pots might look pretty and inviting and green...


...but stepping on them could cause lots of pointing and gasping from the people around you. also you might lose your cap


4. pickles with faces are the best



5. bring along a photographer who's not afraid of zooming in on the animals (nice work, the boy!)



6. always be sure to bring along puzzles to entertain the introverts of the family

i'd rather not talk about how long it took us to get that dumb yellowstone-map puzzle done... on the plus side, we sure knew our way around yellowstone after that!

7. only trust personal watermelon. even if you have no idea what that means


8. don't, however, trust any sort of stuffed animal bear that has a see through belly with other animals inside of it


9. don't try to take a picture that looks like old faithful is coming out of your mouth because it will just turn out looking like you're licking the guy's ear next to you


then off to idaho falls we went to spend the rest of the weekend with my dad's side of the family, where we learned

10. make it a point to take a spin in your uncle's "mid-life crisis"


11. take more pictures in idaho falls....

12. you CAN take raspberry and rhubarb plants on an airplane as a carryon. who knew?

13. families are fun, so we've decided to start one!


secret...and belly... is out!! we're due at the end of december and my favorite comment so far has been from my very own husband who said, "i sure hope you bake babies better than you bake other stuff!" thanks, sweetie ;)




* we were planning on driving up until the night before when we realized that it was a 10-hour drive instead of the measly 6 hour drive i made it out to be...i have a feeling that'll be the last time the boy listens to me when it comes to driving distances...

girls trip to the happiest place on earth

if somebody told you that you couldn't spend three-and-a-half straight days in Disneyland (especially if it's raining the entire time), then that somebody is lying. or is disney-phobic. and maybe there are a couple of other scenarios.

but, in OUR scenario, three-and-a-half days left us totally mickey-satiated and happy.

thank our lucky stars for megs, the newly self-declared family photographer, for doing such a great job capturing our trip play-by-play... makes blogging about it a cinch!

day (night) 1:

i broke a spoon at meghan's before we even left for the airport!


i lost my phone at the denver airport. off to a good start, huh?

i found my phone, lucky for me, some good semaritan turned it in and megs was a rock star in helping to keep me calm (see, it WAS off to a good start!)

here we are being welcomed to the disneyland hotel. isn't that nice of mickey and minnie to be there for the occasion?


day 2:
you know how when people go on boats, they grow water legs? when meghan goes to disneyland, she grows duck legs... i know, weird


we jumped up on the entrance gates to take a picture (what - we were excited!) and then got in trouble. so this picture captures us jumping off the gate. only meghan's taller than i am, so i'm already on the ground.


us getting in trouble right out of the gate (har har)


- rain


- rain


- puddles (check out that air!)



- soaked


- dry clothes! so fresh and so clean clean! (see what i mean about the thorough photo documentation?)


tower of terror. can i please say that i hate that ride? you can throw me on any roller coaster and i won't complain. but those up and straight down rides just don't do it for me. at all. i apparently screamed every time we moved (up OR down). let's just say that i woke up the next day with a very hoarse voice. what misery


why is this dinner roll talking to meghan? why because we're in disneyland, of course!


why is this brawny man polishing my head? why because it was dirty, of course!


day 3:
sometimes even though it's a girls trip, boys like to crash the party



so, in order to stay, they have to go through the initiation process


he passed that test, so we let him stay. which was a good thing because he did a great job keeping meghan protected from the rain... at least her right shoulder...


and then, this is just how mean these people are. they made me go on the tower of terror AGAIN! they were using my frantic reaction to the ride for their own entertainment!!


i relost my voice from screaming my guts out again. there was even a group of little girls (let's say about 8) on the ride with us. their screams as a whole were about half of what mine were. don't believe me? ask meghan - she secretly RECORDED THE WHOLE THING on her phone!! like i said, i was terrified for their entertainment. so, i lost my voice again. but at least...


when we got back to the hotel that night, meghan seriously walked into the room, fell backwards onto the bed... and was fast asleep.


but no worries because she woke up quite energized for

day 4:


we met goofy. and he was scared of meghan. so he didn't want her in the picture


she didn't take it personally. instead she decided to use it to her good and to hide herself throughout the park to make sure she was never excluded from a disney picture ever again



so, what do you learn from spending three-and-a-half days at disneyland?? to always hold hands instead of dancing at the edge of your seat. aka, "Permanece sentados, por favor"