The Holla Daze - Act 1, California

Opening Scene: Three weary travelers, a husband, wife and their infant son, arrive in Orange County, California. It's 12:30 pm, the parents have already been up for over twelve hours and the baby just lost his favorite teething toy, Sophie Giraffe. And so begins the Holla Daze.

I'm not clever enough to keep up my faux-playwriting but you get the point. Being in California for Thanksgiving was great. The travel, not so much. Owen was not interested in sitting calmly for two flights and a layover. I can't blame him but a four hour flight feels especially long when your kid is on a sleep-protest.

Once in California, a good time was had by all. Let me rephrase that, Owen had a blast. We stayed on the beach and Owen spent an entire week with his Bubbe and Aunt Amy.  Here's the crew snuggling up on the couch for story time.

We took advantage of the nice weather by getting outside as much as possible. Steve and Owen have been taking swimming lessons and were able to show off their new skills in the pool. I was a nervous wreck watching my baby "jump" into the pool but the guys had great fun.

Owen also came to cheer me on at the Dana Point Turkey Trot. He was very impressed with my finishers medal and I was just happy to have finished the race.  Here we are at a post-race Thanksgiving day brunch.

Seeing as this was Owen's first Thanksgiving we tried to teach him a lesson about gratitude. I told him that I was thankful for him and being able to spend time with our loving family. He looked at me with his big blue eyes and sucked on his pacifier. He didn't have to say a word but I knew exactly what he was thinking. Owen was grateful that he just learned to crawl...watch out world!

Act 1 of the Holla Daze ended with a whirlwind trip to New York and a Lehrman family reunion. Owen met the rest of his cousins including the littlest Lehrman, Mable.

 
After a quick intermission, we drive to Chicago for Act 2.