Traveling with a baby was an adventure. Two weeks worth of baby stuff, plus climbing stuff, plus our stuff, is a lot of stuff.
Our first stop was to stay with George, Jen, and Lucinda where we became Godparents at a Welcoming Ceremony. Lucy absolutely loved Emma. She would get a very concerned look on her face when Emma cried, and cried herself when Emma left the room. She kept trying to pet her, and Emma didn't care. The ceremony was very nice, and Shawn and I are honored to have been chosen Godparents.
We then went to my sister's house in Atwater for the night, thinking it would put us closer to Yosemite than Concord. We were wrong! But we did get to meet Emily Elizabeth when she was 6 days old, so that was exciting. The cousins are 4 weeks apart, but since Emily was born 9 lbs 12 oz and 18 inches long, they were pretty close in size. Mary and I spent the evening breastfeeding our daughters while Shawn chased after Tommy.
We headed out of Atwater trusting our GPS named "Jane" to get us safely and swiftly to Yosemite. We knew we were in trouble when she had us turn on to Chowchilla Mountain Road and we saw a sign that read, "No access to Yosemite." But Jane had never been wrong before, so we kept driving. Emma was freaking out in the backseat and would not take the bottle from me. When the road turned to dirt and the next sign read, "Road closed from November to May, End county maintenance," we knew that Jane had led us astray. Unfortunately, we had neither cell service nor a map, and every time we asked Jane to recalculate a route, it would get worse. We turned around and eventually found a man in his garden and he got us on track. Never say men won't ask for directions, Shawn did it twice on this trip! Finding the condo was almost as much fun as finding the way to Yosemite, but we made it and it was worth it.
The condo was everything a condo in Yosemite should be from the snowshoes above the mantle to the Brown Bear toilet paper holder. We settled in, cooked dinner, and had a quite evening. Shawn was even able to climb a boulder just past the parking lot. Shawn climbed a little the next day, but I was pretty useless either climbing or spotting, what with the breastfeeding, diaper changing, and tending to other Emma related needs. Craig came the next evening and Shawn had a better climbing/spotting partner than Emma and me.
Tara and Chris's wedding was wonderful. Tara was radiant, Chris was beaming, and the setting was beautiful. I am so happy for the two of them. Shawn was a groomsman and I spent the whole ceremony bouncing Emma with Binky in hand in case she peeped. She did a good job and I was able to mostly pay attention the wedding. The day was hard though because Shawn had wedding duties leaving the bulk of Emma care to me. By 3 pm I was pooped and we still had a few hours to go. I don't know how single parents do it!
The next day was Mother's Day and we all went to brunch at the Wawona hotel. I greatly enjoyed my first Mother's Day and proudly displayed my beautiful daughter to everyone. I got a carnation and being the newest mother, lead our party of 18 into the dining room. Emma and Shawn were too distracted with the trip and the wedding to get me a present, but we didn't get our own mother's anything either, so I don't blame them.
After brunch, we made our way back to the Bay Area to meet Toni, David, Brooke, and Brooke's grandma Mary for dinner in Jack London Square. It was wonderful to see them and to show Emma off. We had a lovely dinner. There was another new mom at the table next us and we breastfed and bounced our babies for most of the evening, occasionally handing the babies off to another so we could eat a little something. After dinner we took Brooke back to San Francisco and stayed with her for a few days. It is always so great to be in the city, especially when we get to hang out with Brooke. We went to the new California Academy of Sciences, shopped cute baby boutiques and consignment shops, hung out and talked, and even had Sushi delivered.
Then it was on to Livermore for the last few days with my family. Emily had filled out a bit since we saw her the previous week and it was nice to spend time with everyone. Katie came down from UC Davis for a few hours and got to meet Emmaline and Emily. We had nice family dinners, played with Lily and Tommy, and I even went to Dad's middle school production of Jekyll and Hyde, (which was very cute!) Mary, Emily, Brian, Tommy, Shawn, Emma and Itook a day trip to Castle Rock for some climbing/hiking. Tommy had a great time crawling and falling all over the place, and Shawn got some good climbing in. Mary wins the hard core mom award for breastfeeding while hiking at 2 weeks postpartum. They were really good sports and we all had fun. Dad let Shawn and I drive his cute convertible Smart car to a fantastic breakfast with Dad and Alyson. You just can't get Linguisa in Maryland.
The trip was great and as always, made us homesick. I really hope we can find a way to get back. There is so much more to draw us to the west coast, and not a whole lot to keep us in Maryland. We love our home, but it's just a house. We can be happy in another house, right? It's our family and our stuff that make it a home. We'll see what we can come up with in the next year. I'd like to have some money saved up and be able to rent our house until the market picks up enough to make a better profit. Then maybe we'll rent in California until we are sure where we want to be, or maybe get a VA loan and buy soon to take advantage of the low rates and prices now. I don't know....
