Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Exodus

Since I am caught up with Burke's progress in the hospital I thought I would back track a little bit and blog about our trip out to Stanford. Here are the kids with Kyle before we left! Kyle didn't want us to go. And the kids have been missing him while we have been gone. Kyle also went through Emma/Burke/Rachel with drawls.

We thought we would take our time driving and break up our trip a little bit. The first stretch was from home to LA. We stayed with Tyler's nephew and his family for the first night. It was fun for Emma and Burke to get acquainted with Evie their cousin once again. Summer was the last time they saw her. They also loved seeing Chet their new cousin. Both our kids wanted to hold him a lot. They LOVE babies! Here is E with Chet. Thanks Jake and Grace for letting us stay with you guys!!
From LA on we decided to take the 1 up the coast of California all the way to the Bay Area. Tyler wanted the scenic route and it was sooo worth it. It was a little long, but the kids did great and it was so fun!! We stopped many times to get out and check out the coast. We saw some interesting things on our drive. We saw zebra with some cattle. Yep, that is right- Zebras just hanging with the cows! That was right along highway 1 on the land in front of the famous Hearst Castle. We wished we could have driven up to see the castle, but you have to take a tour in order to go and see it. That was an interesting historical site. And they have had some interesting exotic animals brought in to add to the site.
Next we saw these awesome Elephant Seals! Ty got out to see if he could spot any before we got the kids out, and sure enough he spotted this whole beach just full of them. It was awesome. We were only about 8 feet above them. They woke up a few times to look at us and growl at us. The kids thought they were neat. Taking this route was great for our little family. We have never really been on a real family vacation-outside of Utah or Idaho where we could just relax and take our time and enjoy the sites. It was WONDERFUL and I smiled a lot during our drive up the 1.
We stopped just out of San Luis Obispo at this great beach. We got the kids out and they loved it. Burke was more interested in the waves and the beach than Emma. She stayed far away from the water- I guess she is still traumatized from the last time (her first time) we went to the beach after Disney Land. I kind of forced her in the water so we could wash all the sand off. Let's just say she HATED it. She was basically screaming bloody murder. Poor girl.
We got Burke these cool shades for him before our trip because he is always telling me the sun is in his eyes back home. It gets pretty bright there for sure. He wore his shades quite a bit on the trip- he loves them. He used to wear Emma's- that was a funny site. E checkin out the ocean with her wild post-two-french-braids- look! Classic.
Tyler has really gotten interested in Photoshop lately. Since he has had plenty of extra time because Burke's surgery was pushed back a week, last week, he decided to play around with a few pictures he took of the ocean. He thinks it is a little too photoshopped but I think they look awesome! He has a creative mind and is very detail oriented so photoshop is a good fit for him. He can photoshop all day some days. Nice work babe! Part of the 1 is very curvy and the road is right on the cliffs and the drop is about 500ft down to the ocean. Not so much fun. Right at the begining of this curvy part both kids fell asleep and were out for a good 2 1/2 hours! It was so great. Tyler and I were able to have a normal adult conversation!

Well, we ended our trip in Palo Alto two days before surgery. He had pre-op testing the day before the surgery was supposed to happen. That day mom and dad came and got Emma and took her up to their house. She was so excited to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa! Then that night we picked up Jan, Tyler's mom up at the airport. She came to be with us for surgery and the few days post-op. We picked her up and headed to San Fransisco Warf for dinner. It was a great night and we were so excited for surgery the next day, or so we thought it would happen the next day. Burke's face in this picture is awesome. He was in a funny mood that night.

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