Tyler was on a business trip to the UK and Amsterdam these past two weeks, so Jack and I hopped on an airplane ourselves to go visit my family in San Diego. I always get really lonely when Tyler is out of town. I cry in my bed at night and don’t tend to sleep very well. It helped to stay at my parent’s house, but hopefully there won’t be many long business trips in our future because Tyler, we missed you!

The flight to San Diego was the hardest I’ve ever had. I don’t travel with toddlers well by myself. I’ll summarize and say that it was mostly poor planning on my part, mixed with a delayed flight. I had a nearly dead phone battery before we even boarded (strike one, my fault), I didn’t bring enough to entertain Jack so he started to get overly-friendly with strangers around us (strike two), and had no book or anything to read or do for an almost three hour airport wait.

But worse of all, I unexpectedly got a re-visit (?!) from my period that had stopped the week before, and was completely unprepared.  (THANK GOODNESS I felt prompted to run back in the house and change from my light purple skirt to dark jeans right before we left! Can you imagine?! Actually, please don’t.) But I managed to make it through the flight and arrive in San Diego, where I promptly and idiotically left my cell phone in the bathroom on the other side of the security checkpoint. I had two checked bags and a toddler who refused to walk, and no way to find my parents who had been driving in circles waiting for me for an hour.

Just retelling that story gives me anxiety, but thank goodness it’s over. We survived.

I didn’t take many pictures when we were there (oops!) but then again, we didn’t do as much as we planned, either. My mama was sick on the couch the entire first week we were there with a sinus infection, and Jack was sick (throwing up) the last four days. He has some sort of stomach bug where he’s completely normal and cheerful during the day, but barfs three to five times from the hours of 11pm to 3am. Taking care of Jack on my own for four nights straight while my husband got to be in Europe wasn’t the highlight of my trip.

But again, we survived. And I got to go shopping a lot, which I enjoyed, of course. Jack and I had fun playing with his cousins (my brother and his wife and kids are living with my parents right now so it was a full house!) and best of all, he didn’t barf of the airplane ride home. :)

^^I never, ever thought I’d look at a big ol’ plate of veggies and salivate. The marinade/sauce they used was so so good!!

^^Jack loved the Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center in Old Town. Pumping water and mining for gold were his favorite parts – I wonder if he’d love it as much if that was everyday pioneer life? His middle name comes from a relative who was in the Mormon Battalion, so that’s pretty cool, too. :)

^^Also, here is proof that I let him eat my Dad’s ribs. All of the grandkids are obsessed with Grandpa’s BBQ.

^^We also stayed a weekend at my sister’s house in Orange County. On Saturday night I was sitting in the middle of their family room on the floor and through their window, saw what I thought was a Halloween decoration on the wall outside. It looked like a giant fake, hairy spider. And then IT STARTED MOVING and I nearly wet my pants with fear! It was a tarantula! Long story short, they relocated him far, far away and I had a difficult time closing my eyes that night. ;)

^^They took us to the Orange County Fair, where the highlight for Jack was playing in a giant sandbox. The picture above shows maybe 1/4 or 1/5 of it?

Thank you, family, for letting us intrude for two weeks! Hopefully next time we won’t have so many accidents involving toddler bodily fluids. ;)