CA - the end

the last post w/ CA pics. going minimal on the captions because if you really care about these pics, you prob already know who's in them. :D

@ our hotel

@ the airport

ethan is into reaching and grabbing things now. this is him grabbing the camera. for some reason I love this pic.

somebody (ech em kaylee) needed some swinging at the airport

on the plane at last

the rest of these pics were taken by my incredibly awesome cousin mimi. they're from the day we journeyed over to her parents' house.

the ladies - riley and kaylee

CA trip continued

the rest of our CA trip was great. the flight back was not quite as excellent as the way down - there was some fussing and crying in the airport and we didn't get a free seat so Ethan hung out on our laps, but there was very, very minimal fussing on the flight itself, so no complaints. in an effort to get caught up chronologically and get on to blogging about christmas and eating food (the babies, me eating food is not quite as exciting), I'll skim over the details of the rest of the trip and just give you a few pics and captions.

here goes!

babies in the airport on the way down

baggage claim at SJC (this was not all of our stuff)

Ethan reading his card from Nonnie (Great Grandma Caulley)

Nonnie, Kaylee, and me

Gramps in his "office." He spent a lot of the vacation working and waving at people who visited us through the doorway.

my dad, grandma, and uncle mike at dinner. blake watched the babies so I could join everyone at a restaurant - what a crazy idea! hadn't been to a restaurant in 4+ months...

two of alyssa's friends (and bridesmaids) were also able to join us for dinner - they were very fun to meet!

the kid table at the baers': darren, evan, mimi, tommy, kristin

the adult table: aunt kate, aunt risa, uncle brian, my mom, uncle george

ha! uncle brian, riley, and aunt kate

one of the few pics that includes jennie and philip! also tommy, blake, mimi, uncle brian, aunt kate, & riley

the kinex creation grows...

this is about the state it was in when we left. my brothers and parents stayed to finish it though.



kristin, tommy, blake & ethan, Darren,. evan, riley & mimi, jennie, philip, kaylee & me



these fine folks came to visit us at the hotel one day: my dad, my grandpa, great aunt bea, me, mom, darren, evan, donalee, lyn and rick (my mom's cousin and his wife)

the penguins and bear danced. so did my brothers.

yummy cookie.

tracy (my uncle mike's girlfriend) also came to the hotel to visit! I had actually never met her before and this was sorta a joke because everyone else in my family has met her several times, but we kept missing each other. kaylee really liked her.

annemarie and kaylee at breakfast at the hotel.

grandpa and ethan

grandpa and donalee and the babies

alrighty. there are a few more pics still on my camera, which I may or may not post later. but this is it for now and I'm off to work! if any relatives want a copy of any pic, just let me know. it was really great seeing you all and introducing you to the kiddos!

merry christmas

hangin' at the baers'

I thought I took more pictures, but there are only a few on my camera. this means that either a) I'm crazy, or b) I took pics w/ someone else's camera. option b is not unlikely, as my parents and the baers and I all have the same camera (possibly different years, but they all look the same). but then again, option a is not unlikey either!

anyways, here are a few pics I do have!

technically taken at the hotel right before we headed out the door



kristin and kaylee



for those of you non-relatives reading this blog you may remember kristin as the flower girl at our wedding.
tommy (pic below) was a ring bearer, but I don't have any of those pics on this computer.

tommy and ethan

tommy, darren, and blake playing dominion (dominion and dominion seaside to be specific)

kristin, mom, and evan building a crazy kinex volcano roller coaster thing.

Grandma (GG), Jim, and Uncle George watching TV and the kinex building

kristin, uncle brian, and kaylee

I didn't take this pic, but it's on my camera and it's cute!

4 month photo shoot

Also... after seven million hours of downloading pics (because the internet speed at this hotel is not awesome) I bring you the four month video. if I can get it to upload here...

ta da!

thanks again to danielle for taking these pics!

more CA fun

Well, we're having a great time in CA. The kiddos are being so much easier/happier than we had predicted they would be. We have been quite busy, and I'm a little behind on all the blogging I had planned to do, so I will cheat! Check out my cousin's blog for the fun we had on Thursday.

Babies, Babies Everywhere
Family Trees are Confusing (a statement I agree with)

Friday was fun with (Great) Grandma Caulley. She came to visit us at the hotel and hang out with the babies, and then we went out to dinner. By "we" I mean that Blake stayed at the hotel with the babies (and slept, it wasn't all a bad deal for him) and I went out with my parents and grandma, and we were joined at the restaurant by my uncle mike, Evan, Alyssa, and two of Alyssa's friends (who will be bridesmaids at their wedding). We were supposed to be joined by Darren also (dinner was in San Mateo because darren was flying into SFO) but his flight was delayed more than 3 hours, so he got picked up from the airport after dinner. poor hungry darren.

Saturday we went to the Baers' and were joined by Grandma and Jim and some cousins (others were also on flights that were delayed and/or at never-ending debate tournaments so we missed them). I have pics of that on my camera so I'll blog more on that later... and today is church in Piedmont (where we used to live) and then we'll see Grandpa and Donalee. Busy busy!

We made it!

Yesterday morning we woke up, got everyone dressed, and flew to California! Overall the day was a huge success... here are a few pics...

The limo came to my parents' house first, and then to our house around 10:00 am. (Yes, limo = cheaper than parking at the airport + fits all of us + fun). My dad is taking this pic.

Ethan wasn't entirely sure about this limo business, but if you laughed and smiled at him he forgot and smiled back.

Me taking a pic of the limo the other way...

trying to include the babies in the shot, and getting an odd look at the back of my head...

So that was the limo ride - very fun and relaxing. Then came the airport. Everything went really, really well, but we were juggling lots of babies and bags, so we didn't take any pics. But checking all our bags went well, we got a mileage plan number for ethan (we bought one seat for the two babies), and we did end up getting a seat for kaylee as well (free). we had a little lunch at the food court, and then headed over to the gate.
We boarded last and got the babies all situated, bottles at teh ready (giving them a bottle makes them suck on it, which reduces ear issues in takeoff and landing) and we were off! Ethan did very very mild fussing at the beginning, but Blake was a pro and he was soon asleep. Ethan that is, and my dad for that matter. And then my mom was asleep, and then Kaylee. Blake and I gave each other a little awkward high five (the seats were Kaylee, Dana, Aline in row 9, Ethan, Blake, Dennis in row 10) and then I tried to sleep. I woke up for drinks at which point Ethan was also up but everyone was super happy. I don't think any other passengers heard the babies AT ALL at any point in the flight. So that was pretty awesome.

Then we got to our hotel, checked in, and went to the 5th floor where we saw this door.

Blake was like "whoa, look at that door. that's weird." as we walked past, and I was like "shhhh, it's slightly open and there are people in there!" So we continue walking down the hall towards our room and then someone says "hey blake" and we turn around and who is there, but my cousin Kristin. "Wanna see your room?" she says. And then we come to our room, which is similarly decorated - the room we had passed was my parents' room apparently - Kristin and her mom (my aunt) had come and decorated both rooms with fun Christmas-ness.


Here are a few of the things we found inside our room:

the grinch, max, and some christmas socks

mirror decals



a welcome mat at the door to the bedroom (we have a one bedroom suite so that we can keep part dark during naptime)



and a tree (courtesy of GG) covered with ornaments with pictures of the babies stolen from my blog! This pic was taken this morning as the babies were napping.

there were also stockings, candy, snowflakes on the walls, etc, so our room is looking quite festive!

there's lots more to say (Ev and Alyssa visited last night, we just got back from visiting the Yuhas/Bartlett crew etc), but Ethan has decided to fuss, so I'm going to go love him now.