our little trooper in sj

We often call Elizabeth our little trooper, and our trip to San Jose showed this once again.  Leaving Friday in our rental car (since our car that can fit Ellie can't make the drive, and our car that can make the drive can't fit Ellie...) we weren't sure what to expect, but knew it would be a good trial run for next weekend's trip to Yosemite!!

::driving::
Hours of LA traffic, 2 stops to nurse (forgot the batteries for the pump!), 375 miles, and 8 1/2 hours later, we arrived at my parents' house at 1am.  Ellie had done great - I climbed in back to play with her a little during the LA traffic and that helped.  Then she fell asleep for the night around 8pm, so we had 5 hours of straight driving.  (The drive home Sunday was 7  1/2 hours with construction traffic... we were able to pump and bottle feed in the car, and she took awesome naps - one was even 2 1/2 hours long).  Way to go Peanut!

To keep her head from flopping we folded up her little lambie thumbie and she used it like a pillow :)

::cousin fun::
Before Pearlie (5 yrs) came out to see us she said, "My heart beats so fast to see Auntie Bethy!  I haven't seen them in a long time!" :)  It was too fun seeing the cousins together.  Samuel (3 yrs) loved "baby Eh-yee," and he and Pearlie both got to hold her.  It was the first time my oldest sis got to see and hold her too, and it was really fun seeing them together. :)  Uncle John had fun seeing Ellie in Pearlie's old clothes and remembering when Pearlie was that little.  Loved our family time!

::meeting the addington 5::
I started babysitting Isabella when she was 3 months old.  And now here she is, 11 years old and holding my 3 month old, what?!?! :)  David and I had a great time showing little Ellie to Bella, Maddie, and Jakey - my favorite kiddos ever (along with my nephews and nieces of course!).  And of course it melted my heart to see my Brandi with her.  Ellie had tons of smiles for her (and a great big spit-up too, yikes!).  We had an awesome lunch with Dave, Brandi, and the kids while little Peanut slept, and got to share tons of memories of the kids when they were little.  David and I made sure to remember our gift for Maddie this trip - we got her a snowglobe (her fav!) from Disneyland in December but keep forgetting to bring it with us.  A little something for our goddaughter to know she is much loved and prayed for. :)

::meme & horsie time::
One of my favorite times was taking Elizabeth up to Mom's room Saturday morning after her 7am feeding.  Mom read Ellie her "Good Morning, Good Night" book and we talked and played.  Later that day we went to the stables and Ellie got to meet our two horsies - and she even sat on Cody. :)

::yay for family!::

Overall, awesome weekend.  Of course, time is always too short!  But we managed to fit in a fun scrabble-like game  (David, Mom, John, and me - and of course Mom creamed us), Karen and I got to talk babies (and she lent me some adorable Pedipeds for Ellie!), I got to read two books to Pearlie and Samuel (Pinkalicious and Ponyella... reading to the kids is an Auntie Bethy fav), and I got to see Karen's baby bump growing!!  Can't wait till the next time we're together again...