San Diego ~ the beginning

Where to begin!!  Holy moly do I have A LOT of photos and memories to sort through!  I think what I'm gonna do is rather than blog the longest post in blogging history I will instead break up our trip to San Diego into several smaller posts.  I want to include as many pictures as possible to preserve our special moments and multiple postings is probably the best way to avoid missing anything.  Sooooooo here we go........

The week or two, maybe three, leading up to our big day of travel I was getting a little nervous / stressed out about the thought of flying cross country for the first time with two little ones.  To say my last experience with Kayla on an airplane was a bit rough is an understatement (refresh your memory here).  We live a little over an hour away from the airport; factor in early arrival time at the airport, two flights, and an hour layover.....it makes for a very very long day.  BUT!  All my stress was for nothing because the kids handeled it all amazingly well!  When we finally touched down in San Diego Garrett and I looked at each other and said something along the lines of 'seriously? was the day really that smooth or are we dreaming?!?'  It seems that we are in this golden stage where Kayla is just old and mature enough to be excited and enjoy the experience of a long day of travel, and Gavin is just young enough to sleep when he needed to sleep and just be content sitting on my lap.  I'm sure the next time around won't be so nice because by then Gavin will most likely be a toddler and it's been my expereince that toddlers and airplanes DO NOT result in good times.

Kayla watching a movie and listening through her little earpiece: 

Day one down, day two we were off and running visiting with a few friends.  First off was meeting sweet little Madeline, our friend's, Kelly and Kevin's, new baby girl.  Kelly and Kevin have recently been stationed in SD and her mom, Susan, was conviently visiting them while we were in town.  This turned out to be such a great visit because Garrett had not seen them in about 4 1/2 years (I had a time or two over the years) and it was awesome to catch up, hopefully one of these days Kevin and Dennis, Kelly's dad, can be there too!  

That evening we had Kelley, Eric, and CJ over for dinner.  I went to high school with Kelley and their little CJ was three months old when Garrett and I married; now he's in the 2nd grade!  A well known fact about Kayla: she loves boys, and CJ is one of the sweetest, so they had a great time.

Gavin, rockin some cow print baby-leggs!

When we went home back in October, myself and four of my cousins were pregnant, and another had recentlly had a baby.  So this visit was all about the new babies in the family!  First off was my cousin Christie and her baby doll Ava.

Kayla looks a little silly here, but she was having a great time with the babies :) and Gavin and Ava, first of all look like they could be siblings! and second of all really enjoyed each others company, as much as seven month olds can, I think.

Could she BE any more adorable!?!

Garrett's cousin, Kristine, drove all the way down from Oregon with two of her three boys for a quick visit while we were in town.  She spent some time with me in Hawaii while Garrett was deployed back in '05 and it was so nice to see her again.  Thanks for making the marathon trip Kristine!!

Kayla and her 2nd cousin, Taylor; Garrett's 1st cousin once removed!  Oh yeah I looked it up because all these cousins and cousins kids were driving me crazy trying to figure out the technical terms!  And by the way San Diego, Taylor is a future awesome babysitter in the making, Kayla adored her!

Garrett, Great-Grandpa Willie, and Gavin.  All we're missin is Garrett's dad Ron for a four generation photo
:(!

Grandpa Ron!  Gavin LOVED pulling on his beard.

OK.  First post down, so many more to come!  Even though I have SO many photos to sort through, I'm realizing just how many faces I missed that I'm super bummed about!  I think I missed a lot because, now that we have two kiddos, Garrett and I each had our hands full most of the time leaving fewer opportunities to bring out my camera.  I guess those memories will just have to rest in our hearts and minds :)