Thursday, April 23, 2009

Vacation Part 1: Virginia and Washington DC


Okay okay I know I have been really bad about blogging lately! But to my defense we did just get back from our trip on Monday, and I have been busy babysitting Sydney since Tuesday, plus getting the house back in order and Jeremiah back on a routine. So blogging has taken a back burner!

Rather than do one huge entry about our trip, I will just blog about the first half of it right now- Virginia and Washington DC.

First of all I have to mention that I am SO PROUD of how well Jeremiah did on the flights! We were so blessed to be able to use his carseat the entire way to Baltimore, and from Baltimore to Phoenix. He was incredible. Of course there was some moments of fussing but it was NOTHING compared to what I thought might happen... or would have probably happened had he been forced to sit on our laps. So in all the flights were uneventful...as was our first night in Baltimore. By the time we got our rental car and made it to our hotel it was almost 6:00 pm and we had been on the go since 3:30 am. I was beat... but I still had to take Jeremiah to Target to get his diapers and food supply that I didn't want to lug. I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the 6 percent sales tax (vs the nearly 10 percent it is here now!) Went back to the hotel, ate dinner, watched Survivor and attemptd to go to sleep. Jeremiah would not have any of his play pen that night, so he crashed with us, falling asleep to some prison documentary. Don't ask why but we always wind up watching prison documentaries or Cops when we are on vacation. We don't plan on it; it just happens.

Friday- drove an hour and a half to Leesburg VA to my Uncle Ken (Dad's brother) and Aunt Jeannie's house. Pretty much stayed there the whole day; Louis had to work. I hung out w/ Aunt Jeannie and my cousin Kyle, explored their gorgeous condo and took Jeremiah on a walk.

Saturday- rain! We were going to go to Washington DC but obviously didn't want to go in the rain. So we went to the Air and Space Museum instead. I"ve been there before and yes it was just as boring this time around as last time, but Louis enjoyed it. Then the rain cleared up and we went shopping at the outlet mall w/ my aunt Jeannie. Truth be told I wanted some "adult" time w/ her but Louis insisted on tagging along. I left him to shop w/ Jeremiah and my husband went to town... not only for himself but for me as well so I can't complain =)My husband has stellar taste and I am always pleased w/ what he chooses for me =)

Sunday- Easter! Kyle took us to Washington DC and played tour guide w/ us since Uncle Ken and Aunt Jeannie had to work (they are managers at different Bed Bath and Beyonds). It was bitter cold but a beautiful day. I keep joking that Jeremiah's future home is going to be the White House as the first Mexican American president (or half Mexican American!) Out of all the things that we saw in Washington DC Louis's favorite was the bohemith (sp?) which was a huge sloth at the museum of Natural History. My favorite was still the WWII Memorial. I can't get over how proud of I feel to be an American citizen every time I go to Washington DC (this was my third trip) and stand in the monuments. I feel so small yet a part of something so big. Obama is like a celebrity over there; I can't even tell you how much memorabilia there is around town of him, including cookies w/ his name on them at Starbucks. There was NOTHING like that for Bush when I went five years ago! Then we went to dinner at Aunt Jeannie's sister's house.

Monday- Last day! Louis and my family all had to work, so I went to Mt. Vernon w/ Marissa, her friend Meghan and Meghan's adorable daughter who is Jeremiah's age. We ate at this nice restraunt there and tried their famous peanut soup, which pretty much tasted like warm peanut butter, but I liked it. Then we went on a tour of George Washington's mansion. I can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous the property is and how beautiful the Patomic river is! I didn't stay there very long because I wanted to be on the road in time to beat the awful traffic, so most of my visit to Mt. Vernon consisted of eating lunch and waiting in line to enter the mansion.

Tuesday morning- said goodbye to Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Ken to drive up to PA... will continue w/ that later =)

Sorry I'm not going into too much detail; I'm so exhausted right now. I went to Disneyland this evening w/ Michelle, Braden and Jeremiah. I needed to get out of the house; Louis is away with his mom in AZ for the weekend for some Mariachi festival. I'm lonely and completely freaked out about staying here overnight by myself. I swear I can't sleep if Louis isn't here. Luckily tomorrow night I"m staying w/ my mom, and Sat. he should be home. I"m putting most of my pictures into an album on Facebook, but for now enjoy the few that I posted on here. Goodnight!!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Almost Home

Louis, Jeremiah and I have had a WONDERFUL vacation. It was so wonderful, in fact, that it was extended by an extra two days. We were supposed to be home last night (Sat.), however God had other plans. We made it from Baltimore to Phoenix, where our plane had a "stop over" (no getting off for those continuing to LAX). The connection from Phoenix to LAX was wide open when we left Baltimore but filled up completely while we were in transit. So, we were bumped off the flight- and told that if this were to happen that the following flight an hour later was also wide open. Yeah that one filled up as well- along with EVERYTHING until Monday morning. Praise God for us getting stranded in a city where I have amazing family! All I had to do was call my cousin Stacy and she and Mike dropped everything to come pick the three of us up, bring us to their house for the weekend and give us a heck of a good time. We loved it!

Now if we don't get on the 7:05 am flight tomorrow morning I'm going to cry. I'm ready to be home. 11 days away with a toddler is a LONG time. So yeah, please pray for that- along with our tickets. The boarding pass collector in Baltimore didn't give us back the proper documentation we as buddy pass holders needed for a possible transfer, so after half an hour of moaning and groaning about it not being our fault in Phoenix, we were given some sort of vouchers that may or may not be honored tomorrow morning. There are notes in the computer system about what happened but who knows how easily it will be taken care of. Thank you so much!

More updates to come... tomorrow =)

Thursday, April 9, 2009

3:00 AM

  • That is the time my alarm clock went off this morning, much to my dismay, seeing as I didn't make it into bed until nearly 11:30. Right now I am sitting in the airport, waiting to board our flight (which leaves in an hour). God has been SOOOO amazing! We were able to get on our flight just fine (standby tix, remember?) AND... this is what I"m most excited about... Jeremiah doesn't have to sit in our lap after all! There are enough empty seats that allow us to strap him into his CAR SEAT!!! PRAISE JESUS!!!!

    Anyway, the shuttle picked us up this morning at 4:30 with two suitcases (one of them a backpack style suitcase), our stroller, playpen, carseat, back pack, duffel bag and lunch pail in tote. Oh yeah and Jeremiah's child harness. We couldn't forget that! . We got to the airport around 5:15, went through security and ate breakfast. Apparently Jeremiah's milk was a matter of national security because we had to get it inspected and tested. Our flight leaves at 8:15, has a stop in Las Vegas (that doesn't require us to get off of the plane) and we land in Baltimore tonight around 5:15 eastern time. We are staying in Baltimore tonight rather than put Jeremiah through an additional hour and a half car ride down to my aunt and uncle's house in Leesburg VA. I'm rather excited about our hotel... we're staying at a Motel 6 (we were going for cheap over comfort) but the one we booked is brand newly remodeled complete with a 32 inch plasma tv. Looks like we'll be watching Survivor tonight!

    We don't have too many firm plans yet as to what we are doing when, but we are staying in VA until Tuesday and are driving up to Carlisle PA Tuesday afternoon to stay with Louis's aunt and uncle. My amazing friend Marissa is going to be in VA as well, around half an hour away from us this weekend. We are planning to get together Monday and go to Mt. Vernon. I am looking forward to finally meeting her high school friends from when she lived in Germany. I have been hearing about them for the past 8 years since I met Marissa in college and it will be nice to finally put a face to the name.

    Please continue to keep us in your prayers for a solid flight booking on the way home! I swear these free tickets were a blessing but a stomach ache at the same time. I dont' know if I would fly with them again if given the opportunity. Have an amazing weekend and blessed Easter- I will update you as I can!!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

This post will have to be a quick post like my prior post, so hopefully I will get everything in that I was hoping to write about before Jeremiah and Sydney wake up from their naps =)

I suppose the most important thing to write about is that next Friday (Good Friday- April 10) Louis, Jeremiah and I will be taking our first vacation as a family of 3! We have a 6:30 am flight going from LAX to Washington, DC! We will be staying with my Uncle Ken and Aunt Jean in Virginia til Tuesday and then driving up to Carlisle, PA to stay with Louis's Aunt Martha and Uncle Phil! Virginia is one of my absolute favorite states that I have been to, and my trip back east 5 years ago with UCO was one of my favorite ones ever. Louis has never been to the east coast, so I can't wait to show him all my favorite Virginia and Washington, DC spots =) Marissa will be in VA as well the same time we are, visiting friends that live rather close to my uncle's house. We are planning on meeting up one day to go to Mt. Vernon or Williamsburg. We will be gone 8 days, coming back home Sat. the 18th. Our tickets are free standby tickets that I won on a CafeMom contest last year, so if you could pray that our flight reservations are able to be kept I'd really appreciate it! So far the flights we chose are rather empty but you never know what could happen in a matter of a week.

My laptop is currently broken. You think being married to a man that runs a computer business, it would be fixed by now- but no, Louis is quite busy fixing other ppls' computers, so I have to make do w/ using the desktop when he's not busy using it for work (hence what I'm doing right now).

Jeremiah had his first trip to the zoo on Monday w/ Jenni (roommate from APU) and myself. For being at the zoo most of the day he did quite well, and even got in a nice long nap =) I was very excited about this outing with him at first, but after half an hour there I came to the conclusion that the zoo is a good place for older toddlers- not 16 month olds. They can't really focus in on animals that aren't overly huge and hidden. He liked the zebra and the gorilla, but that's about it. He loved being able to explore when I took him out of his stroller,t hough =) It was awesome seeing Jen- and finding out that she's extending her stay til next Wed., so I will have another opportunity to see her before she goes back to Idaho!

Since Im going to VA I will not be going to visit Kappie and Steven in Sacramento. I was going to use our free tix to go see them, back when Louis didn't think he could take time off. Now that he is able to we want to take that bigger vacation instead. God is amazing- our tickets expire in a few weeks, and Louis's time off coincides perfectly with when we need to take our trip, along with my time off coming up from babysitting!!

Thats about all I have time for- I have a million other little things to do before the kids wake up from their nap. I'll update more with pics when I can!!!

PS: To the reader with the crock pot tamale recipe- I'd LOVE it!! Thank you so much! You can email it to me erin.e.castillo@gmail.com