Day Two: Railtown, Columbia, and Dinner with Dad!

With our long day of travel behind us, and another travel day ahead of us (we were planning a trip to Yosemite for day three!), we didn't venture out too far Friday. My mom had to work that morning while my sisters were in camp, so we went for a little walk on the ditch (the creek that runs through our area), and then went to visit a bit more with my grandparents. They had been up for dinner the night before, but we wanted a bit of one-on-one time with them.

Ava had a blast playing peekaboo with her papa:

After we had visited with them for a bit, we grabbed lunch, and then met up with my mom and sisters at Railtown, a historic train park for the Sierra Railroad.

 We ended up leaving Railtown earlier than we had planned, since the trains weren't running on a weekday, and so we headed out to Columbia, a historic gold mining village. We had actually taken Ava there the first time we had brought her out to meet my family four years ago, though she clearly didn't remember :)

In an effort to never sit still over vacation, we made plans to meet my dad for dinner after leaving Columbia. My parents divorced since the last time I was home, so I wasn't sure how to fit it all in diplomatically, but it worked out perfectly, and we had a great visit! Whatever happened with my parents, he was my dad for nearly twenty years, and nothing could change that.

We rounded out the day by heading home and hitting the sack early - Ava woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4am that morning due to the time change and excitement, so we were straight up beat, and needed to rest up for our next adventure: Yosemite!

Our First Vacation as a Family of Four: Day One.

I've been a bad, bad family member. With the exception of my grandma having come to visit last fall for my baby showers, I haven't seen my family since our wedding. Our. Wedding. TWO AND A HALF YEARS, Y'ALL!

As such, we decided that this year we just had to go back to visit California and take Ava to see her grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, great-aunt and uncle, and cousins! My entire family still lives in California, and after three years without a visit, it seemed about time. It was also the first time that they were going to meet Jackson, and nine-and-a-half months is too, too long for them to not have met sweet Jack (which they let me know at every turn;)!

We set out bright and early Thursday morning (not even kidding, the alarms went off at 3:30am!), and arrived to the airport excited, if a bit sleepy and disheveled! Jack was more than a bit confused about why we were up and at 'em in the dark, but thanks to my Ergo, he was able to just sit back and enjoy the ride - and nap! Thank you, babywearing! 

Everyone was very excited to be on an airplane!

Amazingly, the flight went off without a hitch. Jack has definite opinions about how things should go and when he should eat and sleep and move around, and so I was expecting the worst, but he fell asleep nursing on the way up, and slept a majority of the flight. Ava was a saint as well, watching out the window for clouds and landmarks and playing with her books and dry erase cards. It went GREAT.

Once we got there, we had to swing by the rental car office to get our car, and then were on our way into the mountains. The main reason that I hesitate to make the trip out is the multi-hour drive after the flight - it's just such a long trip - but thankfully, San Jose proved to be the best airport I've flown into so far, and we were able to get into our rental car, on the road, and arrive in Sonora in just over two hours. Amazing! Since we were running way ahead of schedule, we decided to stop by my mom's office to surprise her, but instead, she surprised us by not being at her office - LOL!

We ended up catching up with her, and then headed up to see the rest of the family. We were staying with my aunt, since her house has the most space and is already loaded up with kids, so what was two more? When we got there, we were greeted by some very excited relatives, anxious to meet baby Jack!

We were so excited to arrive!

Traveling With a Toddler On A Plane: Our Story.

Things started off well enough. We were seated next to this very kind businesswoman who was happy to skip out on our aisle for an upgrade that she could charge to her employer, leaving Ava with her own seat. We were thankful for this, and excited about having the entire row to ourselves. That is, until we realized that the extra space made Ava feel stir crazy (surely the fact that our plane took off at nearly 6PM Texas time and landed at 10 had more to do with it...)

She initially read her Dora books, of which we had plenty! We seriously bought out the Dora section of our local Half Price Books so she would have new and novel Dora things to keep her attention.

When that inevitably lost her interest, we searched and searched for Dora on the seatback TV's (thank God for JetBlue!) to no avail, and only could find super crap shows like Spongebob. NO. FREAKING. WAY. Never fear, though...we're resourceful. We turned to Animal Planet instead and caught a show all about dogs - Ava's idea of heaven!

When the show ended, we took some time to just stare out the window. That may not sound awesome as an adult, but for a kid at 35,000+ feet? Bliss.

We played a bit of musical seats...

Try as I might to get her to lounge on one of our laps, she preferred the floor. Whatever. I'm not the type of mom to care or fight pointless battles. She wasn't hurting anyone, so lie on the floor to your little heart's content, Ava.

Figuring she was likely getting tired, we changed her into her pajamas, which seemed to give her her second wind. Of course. She then played peekaboo with the woman behind us. Thankfully, A's adorable and the woman fell for her charms - whew!

Starting to get tired again - a feeling that rounded out the remainder of our flight, and thankfully led to her passing out in the car on the 15-minute drive home from the airport.

All buckled up for our final descent!


Sure, it didn't go as well as our flight out did, but that's due mainly to the time of day (we left at 8AM our time - perfection - she even napped!). To keep her busy and keep her from getting restless, I recommend many, many different toys, a mix of new stuff and old favorites, as well as something that will prove slightly challenging, but not enough so to make them freak out - for us, that was the sewing cards. Also, SNACKS. We went through a ton of snacks, though she just wanted a few of each thing. I'm so glad we brought so many. We also brought a ton of candy with us (dum dums, smarties) so that in case the worse happened and she was inconsolable, we could bribe her. Thankfully, we didn't open a single one! Woohoo!

Keeping A Busy on the Plane: Idea #1

Learning to "sew" via lacing cards. Ava ATE. THIS. UP. Seriously, she was bound and determined to master this technique before we landed, and more or less, she did. Great, great, great investment for traveling (and days when mama needs to chill out!)

California Trip - 2011

I'm lacking for words, since I'm not feeling at my best and still had to go to the optometrist this morning and then work a nine hour day that still has six hours left on it, but here's a photo bomb recap of our vacation trip! Full post on advice for flying with a toddler forthcoming another day :) Enjoy!

Day 1: Arriving, and relaxing

Post-travel family pic (excuse the tired looks)..

Riding a big girl trike! What a big girl!

Playing with aunts and cousins!


Day 2: Cover's Apple Ranch and Down Time

Fun times at Cover's Apple Ranch and Petting Zoo (though super disappointed the train was down!)




Day 3: Pinecrest Lake

One very full car (1 of 3!) en route to Pinecrest

Welcome to Pinecrest Beach

Ava's major lifevest. No one was going to drown on this mom's watch:

Ava & G-pa!

Papa-paparazzi:

Shocked she would go in the COLD water!

Floating with mama :)

The gorgeous scenery that is Pinecrest Lake:




Day 4: Home again...

Our big family pic, with the three of us, Ava's three aunts (my baby sisters), and my grandparents:

Headed home!

Ava LOVES planes!