post-vacation.......

Arriving home from a vacation is always nice, but for the first few days I'm practically useless. I don't want to clean. I don't want to cook. I just want to sit. it's weird.
Owen did AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMAZING on the flight to SFO. He literally passed out right when the plane got in the air, and woke up like 15 minutes before we landed.
Tara picked us up, surprising me with In 'N Out Burger! Owen and Jenna sort of shared a grilled cheese. I say "sort of" because it was mostly just thrown on the floor of Tara's car, ha!
We went straight to my Dad's house and sat around on his back patio drinking beers with all my besties, my sister who lives in Texas, my Dad and his wife. It was so nice. My Dad BBQ'd burgers and Mary made some bomb potato salad.
Owen gets along SO well with Jenna and Jeremiah. Jenna is 20 months, so she's on the verge of the "terrible-twos", and Jeremiah is 1.5 months older than Owen, putting him at about 16, almost 17 months. There were like NO baby fights. I was impressed. Usually someone steals something from someone and there's tears and screaming. But nope.
Owen would and could survive on nothing but PB&J sandwiches. Tara brought a tupperware full of PB&J's cut up into bite sizes pieces, so that's what the kids had for snacks, dinner, and desert. Ha! Along with fruit, of course.
After dinner, we went to Tara's house in Concord, where Owen and I stayed while in town. Concord is about 50 minutes from my Dad's (basically San Jose), and Tara, being the amazing friend she is, drove us down to San Jose EVERY SINGLE DAY I was down there. AND fed us hella good food everyday we were there.
I tried to get Owen to sleep with me in my bed, but he would not stay still. So we ended up busting out Tara's pack 'n play at almost midnight because the kids would not go to sleep! Tara's roommate gets up super early and is out the door by 5am every morning, so we were trying reallyyyy hard to quiet the kids down. Owen and Jenna were literally running around screeching. It was hysterical. But we felt bad for the roomie....so we ended up just separating them and forced sleep upon them. :]
Oh! I have a video of the screeching! It's only a few seconds, but it's cute & funny:

So once Owen was asleep, he was OUT for the night. So awesome. Slept till 7, which at home is usually cool. But Jenna doesn't wake up until almost 9, so we woke up way before Tara and Jenna every morning we were there.
But hot-damn, once they got up, Tara made a big delicious breakfast! Pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. At home, I just eat toast. Or nothing.
We went to Santa Cruz later that day with Ashlee, Jen, and Jeremiah. We had a blast! We went early enough that the kids had all somewhat napped, and we got a few hours of hot sun on the beach with kids, who were in awesome moods.

Owen seriously LOVES sand. He is like mesmerized by it. Makes me wish the parks around Tacoma had sand.
The next day, we basically just relaxed until dinner time when we went to Spaghetti Factory in San Jose to have dinner with my Aunt & Uncle. They absolutely LOVE Owen. It's cute how excited they always are to see him. I love my family, and I wish we lived closer to them.
On Friday, one of our good friends threw her birthday party. My Dad and his wife babysat Owen. When we left for the party, I felt really nervous leaving because Owen doesn't really know them very well, and I was afraid he'd flip out like the entire time. Which isn't like him, but still. I just thought "Oh NOW would be a horrible day to act crazy, Owen". But he did really well! They said he basically just walked around talking and playing until about 8:30, then he had a cup of warm milk and they rubbed his head until he fell asleep. He's such a great baby!!! I can't get over how amazing he is.
The party was fun. I dressed up as Catwoman. Here's a picture, in case you are interested:

My face looks weird in this picture, but I like the way I'm posing. ;D
That was my last night in California. I stayed up till 5am, and slept until 8am.....that part sucked.
The day we flew home, we left Tara's in the morning and headed to a beach in San Francisco. Again, Owen really liked the sand.

The beaches in San Francisco are more "bungle up because we're going to the beach" type beaches.
Reminds me of Washington beaches. The ocean beaches, I mean. Most ocean beaches are probably cold.
The flight home wasn't as smooth for me and Owen. He was not enjoying himself. However, he wasn't as upset as the looked-about-8-month-old-baby that sat 2 rows ahead of us.  He was having a serious melt down. Owen would start fussing when the other baby would scream at the top of his lungs. Everyone who sat around me complimented me on how well he behaved so I guess he wasn't as bad as it seemed inside MY head. I get a little anxious when Owen fusses in public, even though people around me don't mind too much. Owen never freaks out. like I ALWAYS say, he's an amazing baby.
Nothing more to say for now! Till next time.....................................