California, Baby!

Marcus and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary on August 2nd. In the weeks leading up to that date, we had mentioned it to each other a couple of times and casually discussed what we might do to celebrate. Our first anniversary had been spent in Vegas, which is where we had gone for part of our honeymoon. That was pretty fun, of course, but no such plans were considered for our second anniversary. By that time, I was nearly eight months pregnant with Emrick. I don’t even remember what we did do for that anniversary, but I suspect it involved Carrabba’s. Then for our third anniversary, we spent a week in California, and on our actual anniversary night, Marcus and I ate dinner at Mr. Stox, which is where our wedding reception had been (hmmm… I am noticing a trend here). We left a ten-and-a-half-month-old Emrick with my parents that night, and then came home only to find out that Emrick had screamed the entire time we were gone. 🙁

But this year there were no trips planned, so by the end of July it looked like year four was going to be another Very Special Carrabba’s Anniversary, to add to our past celebrations: A Very Special Carrabba’s Birthday… and the semi-monthly A Very Special Carrabba’s Tuesday.

Or so I thought! Five days before our anniversary, Marcus out of the blue forwarded me a flight itinerary: We were going to California, baby! Five days and four nights at the luxurious Casa Morgan, complete with full kitchen privileges and complimentary babysitting services. So on August 1st we made the short flight to Orange County and began our long weekend in California. The next evening was our anniversary, and Marcus and I celebrated with dinner at Morton’s. It was excellent. We both had the filet mignon; Marcus had his Oscar style, while I had mine with rosemary butter. Mmmmm. And thankfully, Pookie was much more fun for his sitter this time than he had been the previous year. Grandpa Ed was out of town, so Grandma Cinda watched him by herself and had no problems. Of course, Pookie has been good like that for a while. I think he better understands now that Mommy and Daddy are going to come back!

There are no pictures on my camera from Wednesday or Thursday, so apparently I didn’t take any. But on Friday we made a trip out to Palm Desert to visit with Chris and I took along my camera. We met him at his art gallery, which I had not seen since I moved to Utah, and which Marcus and Emrick had never seen at all. Pookie poked around a bit, but he was most captivated by a storage ottoman-bench that was in the gallery. If there is one thing Pookie loves more than anything, it is opening things to see what’s inside.

Next we went to the Westfield Mall to cool off with some smoothies (over 100 out in the desert) and let Emrick play in a play area they have there:

It appears that Emrick does not exceed the height restrictions.

vroom, vroom!

A couple of times while in the play area, we saw a choo choo train circle around with a couple of kids on it. Each time it went by, I help Emrick up so he could see it. You know, he has a wooden choo choo train at home, and it occurred to me for the first time that he probably did not realize that trains are not just toys in your play room… of course, now that I think about it, the train at the mall wasn’t exactly the real thing either. So I guess Pookie has gone from thinking that a choo choo is a toy to now thinking that a choo choo is a thing that gives rides at the mall.

Anyway, of course we HAD TO get Pookie a ride on the choo choo. Marcus walked him down to the other end of the mall, where the train loads, and I waited in the play area with Chris. The idea was that I would have the camera ready to snap a picture of Pookie as he went by on the train. So the camera was out and in my hand.

But then Chris and I got into an involved discussion about Breaking Bad and the next thing I knew, I looked up and the train was already approaching. Long story short, I got some pics but they’re blurry because I was rushing.

Mea culpa.

After the trip to the mall, we went to Tommy Bahama’s for lunch, where Pookie cooled off with some ice.

It was also at Tommy Bahama’s that Emrick really started to take a shining to his Uncle Chris.

Apparently Emrick thought Chris tasted pretty good, too, because he was soon (gently, I hope) gnawing on Chris’ finger.

But because he is such a sweetie, he kissed Chris’ owies after he was done creating them.

mmmmmmuah!

Emrick eventually took to biting non-human things.

For the record, we normally discourage Emrick from biting. More on that in a later post, maybe.

After lunch, we took a few pictures in the restaurant lobby where they had a sweet sitting nook.

So that was our fun day with Chris! And I am so glad Emrick got some more time with his uncle…

Stay tuned for more pictures from California!