SoCal Family Visit and Meeting Delanie

Last weekend we took a road trip to Southern California to visit my brothers, sisters-in-law, nephew Deacon, and our new niece, Delanie!  She was born the day after Caleb, on July 9, so it will be easy to remember her birthday.  She is such a sweet and mellow little thing and it was fun getting to love on her. :-)  And all in our family agree she looks quite a bit like our Grandma Joyce (our dad's mom)!

Playing games at Chuck E. Cheese's.  The one in Costa Mesa is new and much brighter and cheerier than what I remember of the one we went to in Stockton a time or two as kids.  Landon wandered sleepily around checking things out, but not so interested in actually playing any of them.  Caleb had a lot of fun though, and most enjoyed the water squirting gun and shooting hoops into the basket. 

Loads of fun and toys at Uncle David (or D-D, as Landon was told to call David after referring to both boys as "Joe-Joe".  Guess he can't tell David and Joey apart just yet :)) and Aunt Dana's house.  They have a big backyard and live right next to John Wayne Airport so the boys loved it every time an airplane roared overhead as they took off throughout the day.  

Video of Mommy driving Caleb in the Escalade:

Video - Deacon and Landon playing ball:

The first day there we put Landon into a pack-n-play for his nap.  Two minutes later we see him walking around the upstairs hallway.  He had climbed out.  So David kindly offered to lower Delanie's crib for us, and we attempted to put him to sleep in the normal crib.  Couple of minutes later, same story.... Landon out of the crib and wandering around!  We had a heck of a time keeping him in there over the weekend, and to our discontent, he immediately did the same when we got back home to Lodi.  He has spent this whole week climbing out of his crib moments after we put him in there, only to end up falling asleep on the floor with his blanket as a pillow and we then have to transfer him into his crib once he is asleep.  Looks like we have little choice but to enter a new phase with this little escapee... Converting crib to a toddler bed tomorrow, not even so much for the safety part (though accidents can always happen, he is such a good climber I'm not even that concerned with him falling...) but more because he will at least have the ability to climb back in by himself.  Hopefully soon with his door locked he'll get the idea that it isn't so interesting to climb out of his bed...

The boys had a blast running up and down the "hill" in their backyard (its so subtle that Joey and Lindsey hadn't even ever considered that they have a declining grass area, but the boys could feel that they were running up and down on it).  When they weren't running in the backyard they were busy chasing Stella and Maverick around, the two little dogs J & L have.  The boys absolutely loved them!

PB&J for breakfast at Uncle Joey (Joe-Joe, as Landon calls him) and Aunt Lindsey's new house. 

Video:

On Saturday we went to the Orange County Fair, which is right next to Joey and Lindsey's new house. The kids had fun petting the animals, seeing a 3-ton Bull, eating fair food (grilled cheese food truck, foot-long corndog, popcorn, and a sno-cone).  We only ended up riding the carousel, but the kids still had a fun time.

Next to some THREE TON bulls.  They were huge!

Caleb keeping the blue snow-cone to himself, for the moment (thought you can tell by Landon's lips that he had his fair share, too!)

Blue monster, Yikes!

We were able to meet up with our friends Mike and Kristy, and their boys Michael (3) and Thomas (2) at the fair.  The boys had fun running around the picnic area and eating snow-cones together.

An attempt to get a shot of all four boys.  Who were we kidding??!

Deacon was so excited to have two playmates in the tub with him!  The boys splashed and scream with excitement!

On the drive home we stopped at the In-N-Out at the North end of the Grapevine.  It was insanely busy.  I have never been at a restaurant when there were FORTY orders ahead of ours.  We were number 132.  They were on 92 when we ordered.  In one attempt to keep tired, hungry boys happy, I gave Caleb these cheesy shades that we got from the fair, and here is what he did with them.  At least it passed a minute or two and kept them from trying to get down and run around!