Road Trip

A few weekends ago, Bella and I drove down to my sister Cindi's house in San Dimas. It's about a 4 hour trip but we stopped in Tulare to go to the outlets. I shopped for a bit longer than I had planned, but then fed the baby, changed her diaper and we were off. I got about a block before she started screaming. I pulled over and calmed her down and after about 30 minutes we were off, again. She fell asleep and kept sleeping for a long time. I had to go to the bathroom SO bad but didn't want to stop for fear of waking the baby. I was also realizing my chance of NOT hitting L.A.-Friday-Evening-Rush-Hour-Traffic wasn't looking good. I finally stopped in Castaic- which is on the grapevine. Made it to the potty and back to the car...and then she woke up. She started crying again about a half hour down the road. Pulled over, calmed her down. Got on to the 210 and sailed! I was stoked! But then I hit Pasadena. Aaaah Pasadena. There's a part of the 210 in Pasadena where it splits off and you have to exit and go through a tunnel to stay on it. She started SCREAMING just as I pulled over to the right lane to do the whole split off thing. My poor baby! It broke my heart. We were just completely stopped in traffic. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the next exit. Pulled over, once again, and fed her. Kept going, still in traffic, baby starts crying again. The poor thing must have been completly bored and DONE being in her car seat. Held a binky in her mouth, didn't want it. Made a bottle for her, while in traffic mind you, didn't want it. Stuck my finger in her mouth, bingo. She fell asleep. Took me over an hour to do the 15 mile drive from Pasadena to San Dimas. NINE hours after leaving Fresno, we made it to the Watkins. This is now known as the trip Bella learned to cry. She figured out how to do that poor pathetic cry when mom and dad aren't paying attention to her. Great.

I had an awesome time at the Watkins. The Mills were also visiting for their Spring Break and so Bella met a bunch of her Berry cousins for the first time. At any given time Bella was being held and surrounded by adoring spectators waiting in line to be the next to hold her. She is so loved!


We went out to dinner that night to an AWESOME Thai food place there in San Dimas. SO good. The next day, Bella had her first day at the beach. It was a really warm day but there was this blustery wind which made it pretty chilly. Bella spent half the time wrapped up in a blanket...

and the other half in the car. It was a fun trip though, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and I even got a nap on the warm sand. One of my absolute favorite things to do.


On Sunday I, of course, went to the Jon Heder/Napoleon Dynamite fireside with my nieces.





Other than that, we went out to eat a few more times, and just hung out. It was awesome to have about 5 willing babysitters at any given time.



The trip home was great...Bella slept almost the entire time. I stopped to feed her (and myself) once. Awesome weekend. Good times.