Friday, December 5, 2008

Thanksgiving at Memere's House! (and a long trip on the road...)

We decided to hit the open road with Lily over Thanksgiving week, and drove (yes, drove) from Oakland, California to Green Valley, Arizona to visit Memere, a 1700 mile round trip. It was a whirlwind of a trip, two days on the road each way, with a stop in Palm Springs on the way down, and Palmdale on the way back. (We learned that Palmdale is no Palm Springs, but they do get to see the Space Shuttle land at Edwards Air Force Base from time to time, including just a day after we drove through... oh well.). We learned much about traveling with our Lilybug, including that 15 minutes out of the car, does NOT count as a rest stop. Those need to be more like 1 hour, and they better involve lots of playing and giggling, and reading rest area signs on the local attractions (including, might I add, that California's Interstate 5 through the Central Valley provides numerous opportunities for sight seeing and recreation. - Nice try.). We also learned how to go "cord free" with Lily's nebulizer treatments, including a slick 12 Volt battery/inverter set up that allowed us to keep up with her schedule while on the road, either in the car or at a rest area picnic table.

Thanksgiving was terrific, and we shared our thanks with Brian's cousin Marie, her husband Alan, their son Alan, and friend of the family Jill. We also had a chance to tour around Green Valley, including a trip to Tubac to look at the beautiful Mexican pottery - Lara's favorite! Memere was a great host and had toys, a crib, blankets, even a swinging chair just like Lily's at home, for us to use. We felt right at home, and Lily was more than happy to stay put for a couple days.

Thanksgiving meal was wonderful, Memere did a lot of planning and cooking... lots of fun, lots of turkey and all the fixings. But poor Lily only had the one thing on her menu... milk. Not to worry, Lily's been watching us very closely these past few day, wondering what it is that we keep putting in our mouths when we sit at the table... solid foods are coming soon...

We hope you enjoy these new photos...

Rise and shine...


















Rest stop playing and nebulizing on the go...

















Lily's first Thanksgiving!





































On the road again...







Home again and wiped out...

1 comment:

Anna Williams said...

Wow, kudos to you guys! Very nice work on making each rest stop look so cozy and fun - I wanted to crawl right on that activity mat with Lily and get giggled and cooed at by mom and dad.

Nice Britany Spears that you pulled in the golf cart...I suppose there are times when Memere's fierce grip can count as an approved child restraint system on non-road legal vehicles - what's the top speed on that thing?