Trip to So Cal

Hank, Sam and I took a little vacation to Southern California. Here we are celebrating my brother Daniel's birthday. As you can tell we had a really fun time.

My brother looks really cool in this picture. Here he is with his pretty girlfriend who is an absolute delight!

Hank went back home only after a day so Sam and I had a mid-week adventure. We went to the Underwood family Farms and picked strawberries among other things. I had fun but from this picture I am thinking Sam questioned the validity of the outing.

Another birthday dinner for Dan! Sam was acting so crazy. He watches a lot of home videos and sees his extended family in them a lot. I think seeing everyone in person made him feel like he was spending time with celebrities. He kept laughing to the no breathing point for no reason. Oh boy.

We had to spend a day in Santa Barbara with Anna. Bethany came along as well which makes everything more fun. Sam has taken a liking to Anna and her name was the first he pronounced "unt nana"

So Anna had these vanilla wafers and Sam kept going back for more so I told him he could only have one if he gave Anna kisses. He picked up on it immediately. He does what it takes to get food, plus he really likes seeing Anna laugh. Now he kisses on demand.

We walked to various places in Santa Barbara, one of which was this carousal. Pure joy, pure joy.

When we lived at home Bethany and I would have a cooking club and in that tradition we spent the day making food for our family. I was proud because we made everything up and it all turned out so yummy.

The main event arrived on Saturday. Norah Ilene, my sister Sarah's newest addition to the family. I describe this precious little baby as delicate, sweet and little. I hogged her quite a bit but I couldn't help it, she was so cute!!!

We did a lot of celebrating on Sunday Mother's day, Sarah's baby shower and Daniel birthday again. It is so nice to be with family.

Sam had to practice a lot of self-restraint with Norah. You could tell he just wanted to squeeze her cute little face. Well we all felt that way, so precious.

Grandma Marty and Grandpa Sam were out of town for most of the time we were down but fortunately they came home just in time for us to see them! We had a really nice visit. They know the way to Sam's heart...ice cream!

One of main reasons for our visit was my Grandpa's 90th birthday, which I don't have pictures of yet. My grandpa was wearing this Laker's hat and Sam stole it and for some reason really enjoyed it. I guess he's a Laker fan. My grandpa ended up giving it to him and even now that we are home he still likes his hat. Don't be fool by his expression in this picture I think he's disgusted at the state of that oven mitt.