Holidays in California

Even though we were sick, and managed to get everyone else sick, we had a great time at the Ogden house in CA. Santa sure rewarded Ian for being such a good boy this year. Scott and I must have been good too because we were sure spoiled on Christmas day! Most of all, it was just nice to be around family and loved ones back in the Bay Area, including my grandparents who were visiting from Lake Havasu, AZ. We sure wish we could have seen the Larsons as well this year. We miss you guys!

Actual Christmas pictures are on a CD someplace, and will be coming soon. Until then, here are some pictures of daily life at my parents place. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone, and everyone offered lots of help taking care of Ian. I uploaded so many pictures for this post that I don't want to bother organizing them in any kind of sequence... but here they are, at long last nonetheless.

On New Year's eve, we took a drive with my parents to China Camp, a former fishing village that has expanded into a lush and wooded campground. It was green and gorgeous!

This picture is at the San Francisco Bay, where Chinese immigrants fished shrimp in the late 1800's. The fisherman would sell some shrimp locally, then dry and send about 90% of the catch to China. At the time, the Chinese faced discrimination there and across the nation and were not allowed to vote. Locals were uncomfortable with the quickly growing population of Chinese immigrants, and environmentalists were concerned that the shrimping methods were damaging the environment. Eventually the community passed laws making it nearly impossible for the Chinese to continue life there, and without the ability to vote, the immigrants were powerless to stop them. Some of these laws included making it a crime to dry shrimp(how they justified that is a mystery), which left the Chinese without the ability to export shrimp as well as to eat they way they were accustomed to. Today the land is maintained by descendants of the original shrimp fisherman. A neat museum is set up in one of the old buildings.

The campground and trails were farther inland, and were fun to explore.

My mom waving from the inside of a giant tree.

Ian and grandpa
New PJs

One morning Ian kept gagging and making odd gurggly noises. Ian was safely in his carseat in the hallway, and I figured he couldn't be getting into anything, and we were racing around on our way to meet Allison and Jason for breakfast, so I kept my eye on him and didn't think much else about it.

On the way to the restaurant however, Ian yawned and revealed an entire leaf, including a stem, sitting on his tongue! How he got it while in his carseat and indoors is uncertain, but it sure explained all the gagging! See how fondly Ian is looking at the leaf?

Breakfast with the gang. I ate the best turkey and bacon sandwich ever.

Ian is just starting to sit in a restaurant high chair. He loves it!

Bath time. He really liked splashing in my parents baby tub. He didn't like having his crusty, green nose whipped, however. Yes, it was green and yucky the whole time we were there.

One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip.

It seemed like everyone fought for a chance to feed Ian. I guess it is rewarding to feed such an eager eater! Ian especially liked it when auntie Allison sang him "Slippery Fish" at mealtimes.

Too much yellow squash?

My loyal friend, Connor. He slept through most of my visit, but we did our share of catching up as well.

Scott and I went on a DATE! Without Ian! Other than Scott's work Christmas party (which we got our first teenage babysitter for), this was the first time Scott and I went on a date without Ian since Ian's birth. I never would have guessed it would take almost 9 months for that to happen. My parents watched Ian all afternoon and evening one Saturday, and Scott and I enjoyed some romantic adult time out on the town. We road the trolley and wandered around swanky downtown Walnut Creek, went ice skating, dined next to a warm fire at the fancy Il Fornaio, window shopped (he really loves me!) and held hands and made lovey eyes at each other all night long, without ever needing to hurry home before Ian's bedtime. It was glorious to spend some time with my sweet Scott.