We're back! Vacation Highlights Pt. 1

Well, we've been back for well over a week now...sorry about the delay, folks. We're having computer *issues*-- grrr... this thing's only two years old!!!

Anyway, vacation really started before we headed out to California. Aurora's Grandmommy very generously gifted us a membership to Old Sturbridge Village... which is a place I simply adore... Thankyou Grandmommy! So, we headed up to enjoy a beautiful, unseasonably warm March day back in the 1860's. Aurora's grandfather drove down from NH to spend the day with us as well.

These sweet little lambies were less than a week old!

Aurora was *very* interessted in the nursing mama and baby sheep.
In her very excited words: "Lamb is dink Mama milk!"

A and her adoring Grandpa :)

O.K. now for California... well the beginnings at least, it will take several posts to cover everything, for sure.

The plane ride went really well I must say...and I was quite nervous about this part. We took Aurora's carseat on the plane with us (a big britax marathon) which I believe was absolutely the right thing to do. Not only was she much safer, but she felt much more secure and at ease as well, since it was so familiar. Aurora happens to love her carseat, often referring to it as "my pink carseeeeee!". A few things we had learned from flying last year (which didn't go so well), that made things much smoother this year was a) get a seatbelt extender from the attendent as you board the plane-- sooooo much easier to install a carseat with that ... and b) this GoGo Kidz thing is awesome.

A couple weeks before we left we had gotten this DVD called Shae by Air for Aurora to watch. It follows a young girl, Shae, on her airplane journey...everything is covered: packing, waiting in line to check in, taking your shoes off to go through security and your belongings (including Shae's teddy) going through the x-ray machine, being on the plane and the noise of taking of and the "tickle" in your ears.... even not kicking the seat in front of you. I think it was really, really helpful for Aurora, who can often be very intimidated by new situations and surroundings (who's not, really?). A lot of our conversations that day included the words "just like Shae!"

We arrived very late (by our internal East Coast clocks), but Aurora, having spent the last hour or so of the flight asleep, was ready to go... of course. Luckily she had a very happy and willing playmate in Gran waiting for her... complete with cuddles, snacks and gifts.

The next morning we walked down to visit the water and sand. (Aurora's Gran lives on Balboa Island... a small man-made island in Newport Bay....so we didn't have to walk far ;) )

Here she is re-acclimating to the, um, sunshine and warmth.

After a nap (much needed by all) we went to visit my Grandmother, Aurora's Great Grandma Bowler...who Aurora continually refers to as "Grandma Bowler and the little dog". (Apparently, to Aurora, my grandmother and her dog, Tipper, are one in the same ).

Aurora had a great time exploring Grandma Bowler and the little dog's back yard. Which was so amazingly, wondrously, spectacularly lush and green, to our slowly thawing Connecticut selves.
Did I mention there was sunshine?!?!

Well, this is just the very beginning. So, stay tuned!