Part 3

My grandparents have an old cat and Hunter thought that thing was hilarious. Every time the cat moved, Hunter crawled right behind him! I’m sure the cat was getting annoyed but it never tried to bite or claw him. At one point, Hunter was trying to pet it and he pushed his hand through the back of the cat! The cat was really skinny, so his hand went straight to the floor! I was horrified because I didn’t want him to kill the cat! The cat didn’t even flinch – it just sat there like nothing happened!

My Aunt Kelly met us one of the days and we all decided to go to the Santa Ana Zoo. The zoo is small compared to the San Diego Zoo but it was just the right size for Hunter’s attention span. There were a ton of monkeys and Hunter’s favorite was the Lemur. I think that had something to do with the fact that it kind of looked like a cat… There were a few exhibits with small waterfalls in them, so instead of looking at the animals, Hunter just stared down the waterfall. (Remember the post about “wild” water?) We would be like 20 feet away from the exhibit and you couldn’t even SEE the waterfall but you could HEAR it, and he would start to get all jumpy and nervous. It was sort of sad but also kind of funny...

My Grandma left a little earlier than we did from the Zoo and when we got back to their house, there was a little t-shirt and book on their coffee table. She had bought Hunter some souvenirs at the Zoo! How nice!

My Grandpa has a little room right off of his deck that used to be a storage area. He put a window in it (overlooking the golf course they live on) and turned it into his little "hideaway." Hunter apparently needed a little break, so we got one of his Baby Einstein programs out and me and him went in my Grandpa's little room and watched a DVD! Hunter thought that was interesting...

We also went to a park right by their house. There were lots of ducks there that Hunter could look at. He wasn’t too sure about them but he didn’t cry… which is always a good thing. The park had a baby swing, so Hunter was very happy about that!

After the park, it was time to make our way to San Diego. We had lots of fun with our family and we were glad that we were able to spend a few days with them.

To be continued…

Part 2

We continued our drive to Cali on our new battery. Since Hunter was awake now, we had to keep him occupied. So, we hooked up the DVD player that I had borrowed from my grandpa and turned on a Baby Einstein program for him. He thought that was awesome!

We made it to Cali and got checked into our hotel. They had put us on the top floor – the 14^th – so when you looked out the window, you could see the whole city of Anaheim! (We stayed in Anaheim because my sis gave us a free 2 night stay – thanks Kara!) Hunter thought it was so cool! The windows were low enough, so he could crawl right up to them, pull himself up and look at his awesome surroundings!

We met up with my grandma and grandpa who live in Irvine. They had never met Hunter, so they just thought he was the cutest thing! My grandma’s mom also lives with them and she kept saying how adorable he was!

My grandma had Sprite on hand for us because she had asked what we liked to drink before we came. She poured the Sprite in red plastic cups each time we had it. Josh made the mistake of giving Hunter some of his, so every time we had a red cup in our hands, Hunter knew that it had some yummy sugary Sprite in it! But that’s not the end of the “big boy” food that Hunter had while at my grandparents… Josh had decided that Hunter could try any and every food that we had! The things I can remember off the top of my head are quesadillas, guacamole, spaghetti, garlic bread and of course, the Sprite. He loved all of it! So, I guess any inhibitions I had about what foods Hunter could eat went out the window!

My grandparents had a ton of wind chimes, which Hunter loves to play with at Josh’s parent’s house. So, we had to walk around with him and let him play with all of the wind chimes. He would coo and kick his legs in excitement every time we would even get close to them! It was so cute!

They had this rope mat that was by the door to their deck. They would just leave the deck door open so we could go in and out of the house. Hunter was inside playing while we were on the deck and he decided to join us. He had to cross the rope mat and when he got onto it, he apparently didn't like how it felt on his skin, so he got into this "froggy" position. It was so hilarious because he wouldn't move... he would just sit there in this position! By the end of our time with my grandparents, he got over the "weird" feeling of the mat and was crawling back and forth between the house and the deck...

To be continued...

A Side Note...

Before I continue with the rest of our trip, I realized that I never posted an important detail about Hunter that will affect some of the stories that I’m going to post later… The beginning of August, we went up to Bear Lake with my family and took him to the lake. We thought he would like it because he loves taking baths and swimming in pools… but we were wrong. He kept squirming and crying and really wasn’t having a good time. We figured that maybe he just didn’t like it because the water was so cold…

A couple weeks before our trip, we decided that it would be a good idea for us to take a test hike with the backpack we would be using in Yosemite to carry Hunter. We hiked up Farmington Canyon to a little creek. Hunter was fine with the hike until we reached the creek. As soon as Josh got him out to get closer to the water, he freaked out. He was crying and was squirming to get away from the water.

After the incidents with the lake and creek, we decided that Hunter doesn’t like “wild” water. He’s fine with “tame” water – i.e. pools and bathtubs - but doesn’t like lakes and rivers…

Road Trip - Part 1 "The Beginning"

From Sept. 6 - 13, we took a family vacation to California. We drove to Irvine, San Diego and then went to Yosemite. Since it was such a jam packed trip, I will have to post our travels in a few posts. So, I guess I should start from the beginning...

We left at 2 am on Sept. 6, so Hunter could sleep for a lot of the drive down. We were doing great... well, I don't know if I can say "we" because me and Hunter slept thru all of Utah while Josh drove and I know he was exhausted... But we stopped in Mesquite, NV to get gas. Because of the time difference, it was 6:15am. We hadn't accounted for the time difference into our calculations but we figured something would be open for breakfast. Well, we filled up and went to start the car and... nothing. Didn't turn over at all - just clicked. We were like, "WHAT?!? This car is only 3 years old! Why isn't it starting? CRAP!"

By this time, Hunter was awake, so we were trying to figure out what to do. We had just bought jumper cables for just an occassion, so we had someone try to jump us... again, didn't start. It was getting hot and we were parked in the sun, so Josh decided that we should push the car into the shade. Josh told me to push on the front of the car, so I did exactly as I was told - so I thought. He just sat there and stared at me and said, while laughing, "Uh, you have to push in the direction that the wheels are going, not against them..." Well, that made sense looking back (duh) but since I have never "pushed" a car before, I had no idea what I was doing! The attendant at the gas station could see we were obviously having issues, so he came out and helped Josh push the car into the shade.

Now, it was decision time. What do we do? There was an Auto Zone a half a mile down the road that could check out our battery for free, but it didn't open for another hour. And we would have to push the car down there - and since I am apparently a "car pushing" dummy, that would have been disastrous. OR we could call someone and tow the car since the problem was possibly an alternator or starter - which would take who knows how long to fix. Well, we decided that a tow was the best option, so we called the only place open. The guy came and towed the car to his shop about a mile away. The drive in the tow truck was interesting because Hunter got to ride in Josh's lap - which he thought was the funnest thing ever!

Well, we get to the shop and they test the battery and it was completely dead. So, they replaced it (which took all but 5 minutes) and we were good to go. Apparently, when we plugged in the GPS into the car about 5 minutes before we stopped for gas, that had thrown the old battery over the edge... lol.

Josh went to pay for everything while I strapped Hunter into his car seat. Josh came out of the shop shaking his head and got into the car. This is obviously not a good sign after coming out of a mechanic's shop, so I asked, "How much was it?" He said, "A rape... $250." SAY WHAT?!? They charged us $100 for the tow (for 1 mile of towing - ridiculous), $40 for labor (for the 5 minutes of labor - also ridiculous) and $110 for the battery (not so ridiculous but whatever...)

We arrived in Mesquite at 6:15am and left at 7:30am - not bad for all of the issues we had. We decided that it really sucked that we had started our trip with that huge unexpected cost but we were determined to not let it get us down. So, we just put it out of our minds and continued on our journey. Looking back, the cheaper option would have been to wait for Auto Zone to open but how were we going to get the vehicle down there? What a conundrum...

To be continued...