The "School is finally done" Trip home...

All of our visits to Northern California over the past year have been either a)short or b)somewhat stressful knowing that I will be welcomed back to San Diego by loads of homework. That's why this last trip home was so much fun. As soon as my final clinical shift was finished on March 27th Eric, Annika and I headed up north for about 2 and a half weeks of fun with family and friends.

Our first airplane experience with Annika was great. Those of you who know her understand why we were a little nervous about taking her on the plane...BUT, she did awesome and actually slept through the entire flight AND the entire car ride from Sac to Ripon. Its amazing how much more difficult it is to fly with all of the baby gear though...we were glad to have my mom's help on the first leg of our trip. By the way, you know you're a mom when over half of your suitcase is full of your daughter's clothes and you find yourself wearing the same three things all vacation long...

We were able to spend time with both Eric's and my family in Ripon, Dublin, and Pebble Beach and we even made a quick trip up to Tahoe to see the Tanks for a few days. Northern California is just so beautiful this time of year and we felt so refreshed after a couple of weeks up there. What can I say, once a norcal girl, always a norcal girl...



Annika loved the exersaucer...she's still so little so we had to pack blankets around her to keep her steady, but she spent a good 30 minutes in there each time we tried it. Guess we'll have to get her one to play with at home...the girl's going to have more "furniture" than we do soon.

Here's is a picture of uncle Kevin holding Annika for the first time. Kevin is my sister's husband. He's a great daddy and I know he will be a great uncle to Annika too. In the other picture Annika is having quite the conversation with my Dad. She has started cooing and smiling so much (when she wants to:)) We don't have a picture of it, but she spent hours, literally hours, talking to Eric's dad while we were at their house too. She also loved her cuddle time with Nana(my mom) and Grandmama(eric's mom).


Seeing Ethan with Annika was absolutely precious. He has a lot of practice being gentle and sweet with babies because of his sister Morgan. He would talk to Annika in his sweet little baby voice and give her lots of kisses. He kept saying to me, "Auntie, she's so 'yittle'...look at her 'yittle' toes!" When Morgan and Annika get fussy we put Ethan on "Binkie patrol." He makes sure their binkies are always in place. Morgan also LOVED her cousin. She would start kicking and smiling and reaching for Annika every time she saw her...so cute!

We went to visit my Grandma a few times while we were home. Grandma just loves seeing all of her great grandchildren. She was so happy to finally meet Annika, though she did keep telling me just how good my sister's kids are while we were there...:) Its ok Lynds, I think they're pretty great too! Annika did cooperate and took her morning nap with grandma one morning. It was pretty special. It was fun getting a "four generations" picture with my mom and grandma too.

Ethan definitely prefers his uncle to me now. I knew the day would come, and I'm ok with it now that I have my own little one to take care of:) Eric is such a good uncle. He plays soccer, basketball, baseball, and of course golf with Ethan and spends lots of time "rough housing" with him too.

I love that picture of Annika in her "bath" at the Pebble house. Look at those roles!