Trying to play catch up.

January came and went pretty fast it seems like. The month started out well and ended not so well.

First off it rained a lot and I mean A LOT! We received a years worth of rain just in the month of January. It was crazy and lots of flooding and scares of flooding. All in all we enjoyed and needed the rain even if it meant a lot of time spent indoors.

This is the Yolo Bypass full of water.
It is used to divert water from the Sacramento River to prevent the city from flooding.

In the middle of the month, my little sister got married. I was fortunate enough to fly out for it. However it proved to be quite the adventure.

Airport food. Delicious shrimp tacos.

My flight was delayed by 3 hours so I sat in the Sacramento airport for a very long time. Luckily my connecting flight was also delayed. However once at LAX, I had to run to catch my connection which was kindly being held for me and the other guy needing to get on it too.

I can't remember if this was at Sacramento airport or LAX.
Either way, I was documenting the fact that I was on a plane.

With all the delays, I arrived in Salt Lake at the wee hour of 2 am. Sadly though my suitcase hadn't arrived with me. So all I was left for an unknown amount of time was my messenger bag and this fun toiletries bag the airline gave me.

My sister helped me throw together an outfit from her closet and a quick walmart run the next morning. However I missed being able to attend the sealing. :( At the temple my other sister came prepared with makeup so I could at least look good for the pictures.

My adorable nephews and nieces, just a handful. Some of them tried to fit on that couch together.

At the luncheon, I became the bunt of everyone's jokes. My facebook post from that afternoon:

"My family has started calling me bag lady because all my belongings fit in a shopping bag.

A recent burn:
My niece said, "Hi bag lady."
As I'm waving back my sister in law says, "At least she owns it [the bag lady name].
Then my brother said, "She has to own something."

😂

😂 I'm dying here from the cold and laughing."

After the lunch, I got into a snowball fight with my sister, the bride. I think I won. But maybe I didn't because snow is cold and I don't do cold anymore.

I had such a fun time with my family. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. I danced like crazy and just tried to have a great day despite that I didn't have my luggage or that Tracy and the boys weren't able to come.

Ok. Back to the wedding. My sister made a beautiful bride and I wish them a long happy life together.

First Dance

Selfie during the first dance

Selfie during the couples dance.
I was feeling sad I didn't have my other half there to dance with.

Some time between the luncheon and the reception I got a call that my luggage had arrived. YAY!!!! So after the reception my sister drove me up to the airport to get it. It felt great to have it back.

The day after the wedding I hung out with my long time friend and her boyfriend. We chatted, ate delicious food, and saw Moana. It was a great way to spend my free day in Utah.

All too soon it was time to head home. The trip home went without any hitches. No delays, no lost luggage. It felt good to be reunited with my boys.

Little plane souvenirs for my boys.

Comparing the air quality of Salt Lake and Las Vegas.
Top Vegas, bottom Salt Lake.

The mountains peaking up above the clouds and smog of Salt Lake were beautiful.

Somewhere over the Sierras. The mountains I have grown to love.

Reunited and they both sat here on my lap for a very long time.

The following are just some random pictures I took through out the month:

Charles loves the selfie cam.

Breakfast with Tracy and this cutie.

We love coming to this bakery by our house after dropping James off at school.

Charles discovered he can also climb the cat tree.

This was the most delicious bread. We bought it at the bakery by our house.

A break in the rain storms meant we could go on a walk. Charles had been asking to get the big stroller out, so I did.

When the grocery store has 5 lb crab, you buy some and make something yummy.

I volunteer to switch out books once a week for James' class for the book in a bag program.

Book in a bag is a program where the kids take home a book at their reading level, each time they return it they get a new one. In the work room where the books are stored they have blocks for the little helpers to play with while the big helpers change out the returned book. Charles made an impressive block tower one day.

Another picture of the Yolo Bypass. This time the sun was just rising.

A park in town just opened the new playground that has been in the works since we moved it.

Charles had a fun time exploring the new equipment. Tracy took James on the day it opened and he too had a blast.

Tracy took a quick trip to Utah to help his parents, so I took the boys out to dinner one of the nights he was gone. It was hard trying to get the three of us in the picture but it was fun taking turns wearing the crown.

California has some great foggy mornings. This particular morning it was especially dense. You could loose a kid in this.

James and his milk mustache that he was very proud of.

One of the days at school it was dress as your hero day. James chose to dress up like his grandpa.

We had the perfect shirt that is similar to one his grandpa would wear. His grandpa also almost always wears a baseball cap.

There's this park near our house with a large concrete slide. I finally convince James to try it out. It only took 2 and half years.

Charles loves trains almost, maybe even more than his brother.

Sadly the end of January we had to put our cat Eowyn down. She started to not act normal, so we took her to the Vet Hospital on campus. After some tests they found she had an enlarged liver. The plan was to hospitalize her for a couple of days, so the Vet could determine the cause and to treat it. After staying for a night, they also discovered problems with her kidneys. At this point there wasn't much of a chance at a full recovery, if she did come out of it OK she'd be on medication the rest of her life. So we made the difficult decision to put her to sleep. We had the appointment set for later that day. We made arrangements for Charles to go to a neighbor since he was too young to really know what was going on. However, they hospital called us and said Eowyn had stopped breathing. They were able to get her breathing again but they didn't know how much longer she was going to last. We packed into the car immediately and drove to the hospital to say our good byes.

She was so happy to be in the room with us that she started purring and even tried to meow a bit. She hadn't done that since we had dropped her off the day before. Tracy went with her and held her till she went to sleep; she went purring happily in the arms of the one who brought her home nearly 12 years ago.