A cool midnight breeze

We are back home from our crazy long road trip and the first thing that comes to mind is, thank goodness we're back in the land of cooler weather! :) Also, before I start this post, just wanted to warn folks it's a little long and I have quite a few photos to share -- hopefully you'll enjoy them as much as I have this evening putting them together!

As you saw from my previous posts along the road - we left Friday afternoon, a couple hours later than we had hoped, to drive down to LA. We had a pretty good drive down, even though the weather was ridiculously hot (it hit 107 degrees just before the Grapevine, somewhere in Kern County I believe), and made great time. I was thinking we'd have to stop every couple of hours but not so! Our little guy slept for the first half of the ride, and I kept an ice pack on my back and reclined most of the way. When he woke up, I moved to the backseat to hang out with him and distract him with funny faces and toys until we could find a suitable rest stop to stretch our legs and change him.

After we checked into our (super fancy schmancy downtown LA) hotel, we drove over to Jon's brother's house to meet our new little nephew, Luke! Luke is Curtis and Renee's first child as well, and is only a couple of months younger than Logan. So, it was great fun getting the boys together for the first time. Luke is much bigger than Logan was at his age -- so I think the two look a lot closer in age from sheer size! But, when you look a little closer, you can tell Logan's still a bit older since Luke is still working up to sitting on his own (but super close!) :) Logan and I were pretty beat from the drive down that day (my back was aching like crazy) so we didn't hang out too long, just enough to grab a quick bite to eat and catch up for a little bit before heading back to the hotel to hit the hay.

Saturday, we slept in as long as we could, then went to Kai's apartment to meet up with him and my parents, for lunch. Unfortunately, we were all running a little late and didn't get to tour the USC campus like I had hoped (Jon hasn't seen it before), so we'll have to do that next time we visit. We did get to see his apartment (he's got a GREAT set up) and go to a nearby diner for lunch. Logan did a great job sitting in his own high chair for most of the meal while we scarfed down our food.

Saturday afternoon was Scott and Monalissa's wedding down in Huntington Beach, so we headed back to the hotel to get ready and let Logan nap (I think the heat really took a lot out of him). Of course, we left later than we had hoped (we were never that timely before, but we are now way worse with a baby in hand!) and arrived about 15 min. late to the wedding. :( But, we got there in time to see them exchange their vows so that was cool :)

It was a beautiful setting in a really nice hotel along the beach. Logan really spoiled us all day with his wonderful behavior. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was THE center of attention at the wedding, second only to the Bride of course. ;-) The wedding was also quite fun because my entire family was there (Zane and Scott met at college and have been great friends ever since, so Scott has been a part of our family for some time), as well as some of Zane's old buddies that I haven't seen in years!

Logan slept fairly well each night at the hotel -- it did take some convincing to get him to go down since he was always SUPER tired and just couldn't fall asleep. But, once he did go to sleep (about midnight every night!!) he slept straight through the morning which was great for us. :) Sunday we slept in again, but woke up early enough to go grab some shirts for Jon before heading over to Ralph and Diane's house for lunch. Ralph and Diane are the parents of Bruce (my cousin Shawn's husband) and great family friends of ours. They have been long time residents of LA and have shown us another world down there that we've really enjoyed, as well as taken Kai under their wing while he's been at Grad School. Their son Paul, and girlfriend Monique, also stopped by since they still live in the area (they are the only "famous" people we know - Monique just did an advertising gig for McDonald's and Paul works in the music biz on awesome movies like Four Brothers and Hustle and Flow). We had an excellent meal, great conversation and a celebratory cake for Kai who's graduating from USC (yeah!!).

After a wonderful lunch, we headed over to Curtis and Renee's to spend the afternoon and evening talking kid shop, catching up on family gossip, having the kiddos meet and play together, letting "the big boys" do their brother-bond-watch-UFC-fights-till-you-drop thing and basically hanging out. We had a really great time and only left because the babies finally had enough and were getting really tired and cranky and ready for bed (poor Luke was struggling with his teething - he already has one tooth in and another is following!! and Logan was just plain tired with all the visiting, stimulation and ZERO naps all day long). As much as we loved visiting, it was for the best, since I knew Curtis and Renee had to get up early the next morning and we were pretty tired and needed a good night's rest before our long drive home today. It was a good thing too since we crashed hard and EARLY the minute we got back to the hotel.

Today, we woke up and lazily packed up for our trip back home. We loved all the visiting, but we were also pretty tired of sleeping in the hotel and braving the amazing heat each day, so we were looking forward to getting on the road and going home. My parents were driving home today as well, so they met us at an In N' Out just outside of LA for lunch before we all headed out for the long haul.

Unfortunately, Logan wasn't nearly as happy and content on the ride back home as he was on the ride down to LA. He DID fall asleep at one point, but while I was waiting for Jon at a pit stop, I decided to put a blanket up in the backseat window to help shade Logan from the unbearable heat. Of course, that woke him up and he was then Mr. CRANKY and UPSET baby. :( I crawled into the backseat to sit and play and distract and console him -- which only worked for a few minutes at a time. For the most part, he was unhappy and LET US KNOW IT, for a good hour, before finally falling asleep.

I've noticed him chewing, biting and gnawing on anything he can get his hands on, A LOT more than usual this past weekend. And today finally noticed little teeeeeeny tiny whites under his front bottom gums. When I feel them, they feel rough and agitated. Nothing has broken through yet, but it seems like it may be on the verge. *shrug* I really don't know (never dealt with a teething baby before) so we'll see. At any rate, I took some pictures during his crying session to see if I could catch a shot of his little white caps but it was challenging and I finally gave up. I moved to the front seat and after a little while, our little munchkin finally gave us some rest and fell asleep. We actually stopped at Babys R Us on the way home to get a few teething toys that we can stick in the freezer, to see if that will help him get through the next few days/weeks.....

It's way later than it should be and I really need to get to bed, but a few more things to add. Logan's finally fast asleep in his own crib -- he really wanted to go to bed as soon as we got home, the poor guy. Both dogs had a great time at the Hicksons but are also happy to be home and curled up in their beds. We're pretty sure Iz was pissed we left him "trapped" in the house all weekend long since we came home to pee and poop ON THE FLOOR in FRONT of the litter boxes, as well as a clawed up living room rug. He's now curled up at my feet, the little terd. And, if the smell of cat urine in your stuffy house isn't enough to come home to, how about spoiled food in your refrigerator? The scatter brain that I was before leaving for our trip (remember, this is the same woman who forgot to pack SHIRTS for her husband), I forgot to move the remaining items in our fridge to the temporary fridge we have in the garage.... *sigh*

We were, and are, happy to be home. But, suffice to say, we had a little bit of CLEAN UP to do, the minute we unloaded the car and walked into the house.