We have a one-year old. Two actually. And they have been keeping us busy. I’ll get to posting what we’ve been up to the past two months soon. We need it for our records … so much happens in such a short time with kiddos. Back to the one-year olds. Laine has officially been around over a year so we went home to California to celebrate her birthday with family and friends.
We started our journey on Saturday, July 14 in the morning when we left for the airport. Travelling with the kiddos isn’t bad, we’re used to it so we packed light, tossed Lainey Bug in the backpack and Blaise in the stroller ready to navigate SeaTac. Little did we know it was cruise day … the longest lines ever and full of retired vacationers who liked to commentate on line lengths and speculate how long it would take. Thankfully the older crowd loves kiddos so ours were occupied by oogling grandmas and grandpas. After the five-mile line (okay, more like half-mile line, seriously) we checked our bags and made our way to the plane. The flight was easy; Laine slept and Blaise relived his babyhood and watched The Backyardigans (he’s also easily occupied with a cup of water with a straw).
We made it to hot Sacramento and settled in at my mom’s house, or daycare based on the amount of toys and snacks she had in preparation. The cousins came over late Saturday afternoon and after playing hard, we packed the kiddos up and went to see Grandpa and Grandma (Brian’s dad and stepmom) or Toys “R” Us based on the amount of toys they had for the kiddos. I’m not sure how the kids managed to stay up since we typically run a tight ship for naps and bedtime … I’m pretty sure they were running on fumes. We just tossed their schedules out the window for the week knowing there were too many people and places to see.
Sunday, part-tay day. Laine’s big day. She had a BLAST. It was a hippy chick theme, peace and love. (I picked three options and let Brian pick the final one and apparently Laine is a “hippy kind of girl” according to him.) The day was full of family and friends, and over 250 balloons. Brian’s stepmom did an awesome job planning, preparing, and hosting the party. The decorations were beautiful, the food was fantastic, and the company was very enjoyable. We started partying around 11am and after cake and presents, the birthday girl tapped out on the couch around 5pm. She’s probably happy to have slept through brother’s skinny-dipping jaunt with his Uncle Kelly (who wasn’t skinny-dipping). I bought swim trunks for the trip but left them at my mom’s so Blaise’s option was to not swim or to swim nude. Poor kid was swimming with all Californians so his pasty self stood out among the others. Laine eventually woke up, Blaise put some clothes on, and we left for bed around 9pm. We all slept really well that night.
Smash cake progression:
The pasty skinny-dipper:
The rest of the week was jam-packed with family and friends. To sum it up: a photo shoot followed by a slumber party with cousins; another party celebration at Chuck E. Cheese’s with cousins and Grammie; dinner with an old friend and her son; yet another party celebration on Laine’s actual birthday, July 19 with cousins and another cake; a trip to the California State Fair with just dad and Grandpa; and a final Friday night dinner at Brian’s dad’s house with all his brothers and sisters. Our kiddos are lucky to have such a loving, fun, wonderful family, and so are we.
We ended our official stay in California Saturday, July 21 when we flew back home with three additional suitcases (and each large enough to fit a body) all full of Laine loot. It was good to be back home; the cats and dogs were happy, and we took the rest of the weekend off to relax and vacation from our vacation with two one-year olds.
Jumping Raccoons 
