So a few weeks ago Nikki, Zaiden, and I drove down to Woodland Park to meet up with Chris ‘n Sherry ‘n Analiese and Brad. From there we drove on up Rampart Range Road and took a few jeep trails off to the side here and there. We ended up on one trail that was blocked off by a downed tree. Chris and Brad got over the tree just fine. I, of course, being the rookie, took a bad line and got part of the tree snagged on my skid plate. I had to horse the FJ over the tree and I ended up tearing out a chunk of the tree. After that, the trail got really fun. Lots of side-to-side tipping and such. It was a very short section of trail, though. At one point my FJ had the passenger front tire off the ground about two or three feet.
As usual, click on the photo to the right for a few photos of the event.
We got up this morning and found out that the Easter Bunny came! We went and got Zaiden and we hunted around the house and found out the Easter Bunny hid his Easter Basket in the shower! There was some candy, the game Barrel of Monkeys, and Zaiden’s favorite: Thomas the Train! He just LOVED it. The older kids at his daycare play with Thomas and he’s grown quite fond of that little train so having his own just made him extremely happy.
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We colored Easter Eggs the night before Easter and read ‘Twas The Night Before Easter (a take on ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas). Zaiden sat in Nikki’s lap and just loved coloring the eggs. As usual, click the photo to the right for more pictures.
So … I don’t have a lot to say as I have quite a few pictures to upload. The first batch, here, are just miscellaneous ones we’ve taken over the last few months. There are quite a few of Zaiden and Moose. They’re so cute together!
We got up this morning and packed (no small task b/c we had Christmas gifts along with all our other stuff!). We checked out and mosied to Balboa Peninsula where we ate breakfast at (gag) McDonald’s. Zaiden isn’t feeling so well and he was a little lethargic. He didn’t eat much breakfast. :\
We mosied over to Newport Beach (the beach, now, not the city) and hung out on the pier and down on the beach. Two trips to the beach/ocean in as many days for Zaiden. Sweet! Again, he didn’t like the water but was just happy as a clam in the sand. Click on the photo to the right for more pictures.
From there, we visited Nikki’s Uncle Ron and Aunt Evie as they live in Newport Beach. We hadn’t seen them since the wedding and it was excellent to introduce them to Zaiden and spend some time — even if it was quite short as we had to get to the airport.
We drove to the airport, drove to the rental car drop-off, then drove away from the airport to the gas station — OOPS. $5 / gallon if we don’t return it full? To phrase it like my pops would, they can shove that “where the sun doesn’t shine.” We filled up, returned to the airport, and still had plenty of time before we had to board.
We asked in advance if the flight was full. It wasn’t so we grabbed a row (we flew Southwest where you don’t have seat assignments; rather, it’s first-come-first-served) for the three of us despite the fact that we didn’t have a ticket for Zaiden (he was a “lap baby” — you can do that until the child is two years old). Again, he was wonderful on the plane. Despite being sick and not getting enough sleep, he didn’t sleep. He fell asleep in his stroller on the bus back to the car and slept all the way home including a short stop at a grocery store. We got home about 10pm and we all fell asleep for then next 11 hours. It was a FABULOUS trip.
We got up this morning and figured we would head to the beach, today. Zaiden hasn’t seen the ocean and hasn’t been to a beach. We found a cute little diner on the PCH (turns out it’s a chain — I was disappointed by that fact) where Zaiden got a kids menu that turned into a caboose! They had stickers, too, and he just had a blast putting stickers on it. 
From there, we mosied south to Aliso Beach Park — that’s where I proposed to Nikki four years ago. Zaiden loved the beach an walking through the sand. He wasn’t so fond of the water. We hope it’s because it was cold and not because he doesn’t like water. :\
As usual. click on the photo to the right and view some photos of the event!
Nikki, Zaiden, and I drove down to Nikki’s cousin Ruby’s house. We spent some time with her family at their house. Here’s a quick list of the folks present in the pictures: Nikkis’ cousin Ruby, Ruby’s husband Paul and their children Paulie and Isabella, Nikki’s cousin Rudy (Ruby’s sister), Nikki’s cousin Richard (Ruby an Rudy’s brother) and his son, Dagger, and Ruby, Rudy, and Richard’s mom, Rosie (Nikki’s Aunt), Nikki’s cousins Daniella, Delinda, and Dina. Believe it or not, I typed that myself (with a few questions!). Her family is great and they just loved Zaiden. I really enjoyed myself and I’m pretty sure Zaiden and Nikki did, too. Click on the photo to the right for some pictures of the event.
From there, we gave Delinda a quick ride home and then drove to our hotel in Newport Beach for a little mini-family vacation to end our Christmas in California. It’s a pretty nice hotel and we’ll be here two nights. Should be fun!
I got up with Zaiden, this morning, an let Nicole sleep. Belinda mosied on down and the three of us spent a little time together. I snapped a few photos of Zaiden with his Granny B. As usual, click on the photo to the right for the album.
Oh! It was RAINING today so we brought the cars back. I took a nap. Nikki woke me up and said that it’s snowing and we need to move the cars, again. So I mosey outside and … it wasn’t snowing. Oh no! It was a freakin’ ice storm! In California! Nice! There was a good inch or two on the stairs that Nikki, Mike, and I worked so hard to clear and it was SLICK. Our initial thought was to bite the bullet and dig out the drive way. Good luck — the ice pack was not about to budge without some serious hardware; thus, we moved the cars down to the village. Wow!
Then we had a lovely dinner and we partook in another of Nikki’s Christmas family traditions: a birthday cake for Jesus and we sang happy birthday. It was a wonderful Christmas.
Nikki’s mother’s husband’s brother, Mark (didja follow that? got here, today. We’re ready to party. Almost. It turns out that there are signs that if you block the road for snow plows, you will be towed. We weren’t sure if we left enough space for the plow to pass and we sure weren’t going to be able to scoop the snow out of the way to make more room. We had several theories about what to do but Nikki came up with the winning solution. We called the hotel at “the village” (at Lake Arrowhead) to see if we could pay there for parking. We couldn’t but heard from a little birdie that tow trucks don’t fit into the parking garage. So, we shuttled four cars down there and brought one back. We decided that if the one car gets towed we’d all split the fees. We decided to keep Mike’s car (for those of you in the back, Mike is Nikki’s mother’s husband — got that? because we can put chains on his an not on the Toyota Hylander we rented (which was doing excellent in the snow with crappy tires, mind you).
Then someone special visited — Santa! He had some presents for the kids and we followed up Santa’s visit by opening gifts. Nikki’s family has a nice, organized way of opening presents so it’s not a big free-for-all with paper flying (kinda like it’ll be when Zaiden gets a little order!). Everyone got some nice gifts and we had a wonderful time. Click on the photo to the right for some more pictures of this. It was really fun!
We got up really early, today, to drive to DIA for our trip to Sunny California for Christmas. Oi vey — 5am. Nikki and I were up quite late last night packing and tidying up the house a wee bit so we’re runnin’ on fumes. Zaiden loved being at the airport — he loves planes. He was great on the plane, too. We sat in the very front with a lady that didn’t mind if he was a little noisy or anything from time to time — which he wasn’t. When we landed, she let him sit in her lap to look at planes out the window (she had the window seat).
Did I type, “Sunny California” earlier? That should have been “Sunny in some parts but not where we are going California.” We heard from Nikki’s mother, Belinda, that there was snow up in Lake Arrowhead (where their “cabin” is) and that automobiles were required to put chains on. So, we upgraded our rental car to a 4wd SUV. We aren’t allowed to put chains on but at least it’s 4wd.
When we got to the “cabin,” it appeared that they did, in fact, get an amount of snow worthy of a little commotion. I guess about 30″. Plus, the snow plow scooped all the snow off to the side of the road which included blocking in some driveways. I’d say their drive way had about 5-5 1/2′ (yes, FEET) of snow in front of it. So, we shoveled the steps down to the front door and we all got nice and settled. We’re all ready for Christmas!