Halloween's Rescheduled!

I was hoping to bring you a post this week of the girls dressed up for Halloween but it will have to wait.  Even though we're on the very outskirts, Hurricane Sandy is saturating us with tons and tons of rain and very high winds - gusts up to 60+ mph - which are to continue through tomorrow night.  Due to safety concerns, they've rescheduled Trick or Treating until Sunday night.  Secretly I'm relieved because I didn't really want Audrey to have to go out in the rain!  I think I've seen it all in Ohio when it comes to Halloween though - rain, wearing a winter coat under your costume because it's so cold out and even snow.  It's never been rescheduled before and there's never been a hurricane.  I guess there's a first for everything!

Cali Part III - Photo Booth Fun

There was a photo booth set up at Kristin's wedding and it was SO fun!  It should be mandatory that all events have one of these.  I just hate that I often look at the wrong spot and not at the camera.....however, as is apparent in this first photo, none of us knew what we were doing!

Vivian wasn't so happy:

I love that each of us is doing our own thing in this first pic:

This first pic below would have been so nice had I been looking at the camera!  So mad! 

Second pic: Hang loose, man!

Audrey and Bill with Uncle Randy and Noah:

We can't wait to do this trip all over again for Marie's wedding in April when Audrey will be a flower girl!!

California Love Part II - The Wedding Day

Saturday was devoted to Kristin's wedding.  There's not much to say other than it was a beautiful day with a beautiful bride.  Audrey soaked in the festivities (although, the reception was a tad loud for her so we spent the majority of the time in the kids' room or racing around the lobby).  We don't really have any young kids in our family in Ohio so it was so nice to see her interacting with her West coast cousins.  I wish we lived closer so she could grow up in this environment.  I have so many wonderful memories of growing up with my cousins (there were 8 of us) and I wish Audrey and Vivian had that too.  In any event, we loved hanging out with everyone and the day went too fast. 

Where's Vivian??

Check out her purple shoes - her favorite color!

Our fun shoes!

Looking forward to being a flower girl in her Auntie Marie's wedding in April!

Resting before the reception:

With cousins Isaiah and Noah:

Hanging out in the kids' room (and trying to steal a kiss!):

With Aunties Lori Ann and Aleth:

By the end of the night (although still early in the night, really), Audrey became obsessed with the wedding cake, asking everyone, even the bride and groom, where it was!  "Where's the cake??"  After eating a delicious piece, we headed to bed shortly thereafter in order to get up at 6:00am for our early morning flight home.  They had a photo booth at the wedding too but I'm going to post those tomorrow in a separate post.  After that, I'll write about our adventurous meal at Incanto.

California Knows How to Party

This will likely be the first of many posts on our vacation to California we took last week.  And by "vacation" I mean a somewhat stressful but very fun long weekend.  We went out there to celebrate Bill's cousin Kristin's wedding.  Bill was out there 2 years ago for his Stanford interview but I hadn't been since July 2009 while I was still pregnant with Audrey so I was excited to see everyone.  Both girls came with us which meant everyone would be meeting them for the first time (aside from Audrey's Ninang Ay Ay and Uncle Dane) and it meant we had a 5 hour flight (Viv's first!) to keep them entertained.  I purposely booked a nonstop flight and was sure to pick three seats together - Viv would be a lap baby.  When we got to the airport we noticed that they had completely split us up, Audrey included!  Luckily our anger, high blood pressure and sweating was all for naught as the gate agents were able to move us all back together again.

Anxiously waiting - "Our plane, our plane!"

Check out the pink headphones!

I won't lie though, I told one agent that if they couldn't get Audrey with at least one of us that I wouldn't fly.  Although looking back, I don't think she really cared because I'd just be hurting myself.  Anyway, the flight was extremely uneventful.  I can't believe how blessed we are with such laid back girls.  They were angels and the flight was actually nice and we got compliments on how well behaved they were.

When we landed it was 2:30pm local which meant 5:30 EST.  The time change piece of it all was probably the biggest stressor of the whole trip.  Vivian goes asleep for the night by 7:00 and Audrey at 8:00 so that meant 4:00 and 5:00 local time.  Kind of puts a damper on being able to do anything at night.  By the time we got our luggage, rental car and drove to San Jose where we were staying, it was 4:15.  Poor Vivian was hungry and tired and Bill, Audrey and I hadn't eaten yet either.  The wedding rehearsal was going on that night and we had already declined the dinner invitation for the sole purpose of getting the girls to bed at a decent time.  Well, that plan went out the window fast.  Bill's parents were staying in the adjacent room and filled Audrey up with snacks, I fed Viv and off to the church we went (another hour's drive) to try and get some visiting time in.

 Bill's cousin & Audrey's Ninang Ay Ay:

It was fun to see everyone and they adored the girls.  We were afraid that Audrey would get clingy when the masses decended on her (you have to understand, Bill has a very large and very loud (and by "loud" I mean loving ;) family!) but she was GREAT.  In fact, I think she ate it up - all the hugs, kisses, compliments.  She even gave her Uncle Cy the hang loose sign and said "Hang loose, man!".  We'd been working with her on that.  It was 10:30pm EST by the time we left the church, both girls were still awake and Bill and I still hadn't eaten anything.  We were craving In n Out Burger and finally found one, finally eating dinner (Audrey, too, really) at 11:00pm EST.  We. Were. Exhausted.  Another hour's drive back to the hotel and we were all passed out by like 9:30 local!  But in true Tabayoyong fashion, we all slept through the night and woke up 10 hours later fully rested and officially on Pacific time.

Ay Ay and her husband Dane invited us over for lunch and swimming on Friday before Bill and I had to head to San Francisco for dinner at Incanto (a separate post on that to come).

Dane:

She doesn't get them very often but she's a chip FREAK.  Thanks, Ay, for getting her a big bag! lol

Seriously, one hand putting a chip in the mouth while the other is getting the next one.  We finally had to cut her off.

Bill's parents with Vivi:

Who, by the way, woke up with a full body rash.  Vivian, not Bill's parents!  :)  I had noticed the spots the day before but it had been a little warm on the plane so I thought it was just prickly heat.  Turns out Bill remembered that he had mixed some of her clothes in with our laundry and didn't use Dreft AND used a dryer sheet!  Poor thing was covered.

Okay, back to the afternoon.  Someone was excited to be in a swimsuit for the first time!

The water ended up being really cold so Vivian didn't make it in.

Audrey didn't mind the cold, she was having too much fun jumping in:

After the pool:

Ay and Dane made us an amazing lunch and it was so relaxing to eat outside in the California sun.  We had such a good time visiting with them, catching up and making plans for them to visit us in Ohio next Summer.  I think this is a good place to end this first post.  I'll pick back up tomorrow with the wedding day because there are a lot more pics to post!  :)

Boo!

We were "booed" last night by our neighbors and got quite the goodie basket!  It came with 5 more wine glasses that you don't see!

This is just another fun annual event our street has in which you take turns "booing" each other during the month of October.  Each family boos another by bringing Halloween treats. You leave the goodies on their porch, ring the doorbell and run. Last year we got a bunch of Halloween themed things for Audrey, candy and a 12-pack of Sierra Nevada.  In turn, we gave a neighbor a gift bag of wine, cheese, crackers and chocolate. It's pretty organized with a list of participants that get checked off once they're boo'd and a sign to hang in your front window to also indicate when you've been boo'd.  I love it! 

Owie!

Audrey was racing her teacher (??) on the playground today, tripped and face planted!  It figures this happens shortly before she's to meet all of Bill's family from the West coast.  I am strongly considering using makeup to try and cover it up!

Letters to Vivian

Some of you may remember that I write letters to Audrey.  In addition to this blog, I thought it would be nice to occasionally write her a letter to tell her what's currently happening in life and delve into more personal thoughts and feelings.  I wish more than anything that I had something like that from my mom, just to give me a glimpse into her younger years, her real thoughts on life and motherhood and her overall psyche.  Anyway, I am now writing letters to Vivian too.  You know the drill, if anything should happen to me, please be my messengers and be sure she gets her letters.

A is for Audrey