Quarterly Update

It's been a while since we put anything up here, but I have a good excuse...I promise!

But I'll start with the update, and a few pictures.

In March, we must not have done anything, because I don't have anything written in my calendar.  I am sure it was a good month, but that's all I can say about March.

In April we were busier and better documented; Jaime spent a week in San Diego doing the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People training.  He took the train down, and spent the week there.  On Friday Tiago and I drove down to meet up with him and spend the night there.  We found Jaime, and went to the Seaport Village where we grabbed dinner and enjoyed the views of the ocean.  T had just learned to say "pool" and he spent a while pointing out at the water and telling us that it was the pool.  We had a hotel room booked, and just like the last time we spent the night in San Diego, T declined to sleep.  It was a long night, but we survived.  The next morning, we went to Old Town San Diego to check it out, and walked the streets, saw the sights, let T play on one of the buses and generally just enjoyed the morning.  We met up with one of Jaime's cousins for lunch, then we headed back to Long Beach.

 Ice cream in Shoreline Village.  We might get a cow chair for the house.

 When we called this place a park, T asked if there were swings.

Things for sale.

Thinking about getting one of these for our house - he stopped at EVERY one we passed.

Tiago was very interested in the mariachi guitar player.

The next week we got busy.  Jaime headed to Texas for a funeral and a job interview (more about that later), and I was prepared for a slow week at home with T.  But then I got a phone call that my Grandpa John had passed away up in Walla Walla, WA.  I wanted to try to attend the funeral, so I tried to put together a travel plan that would be manageable for me and a 2-year-old.  Fortunately, I was able to find two tickets into Walla Walla, with a three hour layover in Seattle.  I checked it out, and discovered that they have an AMAZING play area at SEA-TAC.  It was so perfect for those three hours, and made the trip really pretty amazing.  Also, the connecting flight from Seattle to Walla Walla offered free beer and wine, so that was also a good thing for Tiago's Mama.  Tiago was also happy because we were able to take the shuttle van to LAX and the train through the Seattle airport.  He's such a kid for transportation!

We got to Walla Walla, my Dad picked us up, and we found the rest of the family.  Funerals are always difficult, and the silver lining was getting to see the family.  It was interesting to watch T interact with my aunts, uncles and cousins.  He definitely attached to several people, especially my Dad.  Every morning when he woke up in our hotel room, he would ask me about Jack and Anne.  It was sweet.

That was a difficult trip, but I've never been there in the spring time, and it was completely beautiful.  My grandparents are buried near several dogwood trees which were in bloom while we were there.  And the Blue Mountains are a spectacular backdrop.  I apologize for the lack of photos, I either didn't take any, or can't find the right memory card.  Really need to sort photos, download them and organize...maybe someday.

So Tiago and I traveled home to LAX.  I was afraid that we might have delays as this was that time when the air traffic controllers were making their presence felt during the sequestration and flights all over the country were delayed.  Fortunately, we had no issued and finally got back together with Jaime.

I'll have to continue the update later, this is longer than I expected!