California here we come

Tomorrow morning we're heading to California to give Noah his first Disneyland experience. To say he's excited is quite the understatement. i'm honestly surprised he even fell asleep tonight.

as for me - getting ready to head to CA with Aaron's parents (we're staying with his brother, so it will be the whole Walker family together again) reminds me of the last time we were all together in CA. It was 4 years ago November. I'll share one story from that memorable trip - but first, let me clarify, i love my father-in-law dearly, he's the sweetest person you could ever meet and he treats me more like a daughter than a daughter-in-law. My sister-in-law can testify that he really is the greatest guy. that beings said.....

it was our last day in CA, and it had been spent on the beach trying to get a great family picture taken. that may sound like a great time, all day at a beach in San Diego - but try doing that with a 20 month old who was sick of having to hold still, he didn't like the sand on his feet, he was mad because we wouldn't let him in the water and who hadn't had a nap that day. Noah was in rare form.





I wasn't in the best of moods either because we were 3 weeks shy of moving across the country to DC, we still had no idea where we were going to live, i was stressed out of my mind and Noah's temper tantrums from the previous three days had taken their toll. To top it off, it had been a very long day and we were all hungry and ready to get home.

Foolishly we thought Noah would calm down if he ate sooner then later, so we stopped at a restaurant. Within in 10 minutes of sitting down Noah had succeeded in throwing everything he could reach off the table, he was screaming and crying and i had had enough. I asked Aaron to get my food to go and i would take noah to the car and let him watch a movie (he loved watching the cartoon Robin Hood) on the dvd player and when they were done eating we could head home. I literally dragged Noah out of their screaming and crying (I should specify - Noah was screaming and crying... i was still holding it together, by a very small thread).

Once in the car, i strapped Noah in his car seat (in the middle of the row) and i sat on his left. Once his movie started he quited right down. by that time, the stress of all i had been going through seemed to overwhelm me and i just sat there and cried. A few minutes went by when there was a tap on the window on Noah's right. It was Aaron's dad. i unlocked the doors and quickly turned my head so he couldn't see i had been crying. he got in and sat next to noah and we all sat there quietly listing to noah's movie.

after a few seconds Terry says, "It's been a long three days and you have a lot going on. You have a big move coming up, which is hard. It's even harder dealing with stressful things when you're not at home and you're being dragged around all day every day."

At this point, i couldn't help it, the tears just fell down my cheeks as i began to feel validated for all i was going through. it had been a long three days. i did have a big move coming up and i had never felt more stressed and yes, it was hard dealing with all of this in another state when i'd rather be home packing and getting ready for the upcoming weeks. I felt so grateful that my father-in-law was so understanding and seemed to know just what i needed to hear.

And then, as he starts patting Noah's leg, he says, "And you're just really tired, aren't ya little guy."

Yes, he had been talking to Noah. For the love.

But it's all good. We eventually made it home, all of us alive, and we successfully moved across the country three weeks later. All in all, it was a fun trip and i'm looking forward to doing it all again.