Day Three: Yosemite National Park!

Yosemite National Park isn't exactly the kind of place that lends itself to words, so other than to say that the two hour drive there and then back was not ideal for a woman who gets car sick and has been traveling a lot in a short time, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Yosemite was absolutely gorgeous, per usual. I grew up going there, so sometimes I think I don't fully appreciate it, but seeing it through Ava's eyes was truly spectacular. Sadly, the drought in California is so intense that the falls were all dry, with barely a trickle running :(

To end this fabulous day, we picked up some of my favorite take-n-bake pizza and went back to my mom's house, and got to spend some quality time with my mom and sisters. Ava absolutely loves her aunties, especially since they're so close to her in age (well, 10, 13 & 14, but still, much younger than most aunties!). Another great day in California!

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!