"Grandma's house? Grandma's house!"

An unexpected email arrived two weeks ago from Doug, Randy's dad, that Carmen, Randy's mom, had fallen and broken her wrist.  She was walking in her neighborhood and was being chased by a dog.  As she tried to calmly walk away, the dog ran between her legs and tripped her, causing her to fall on all fours and break her wrist in two places as well as chip a bone.  Soon we found out that Carmen would be having surgery on her wrist the following Thursday (a week ago) to repair her wrist.  The unspoken concern through all of this was that Doug was leaving the country on the Monday prior to the surgery to go to Jordan for the summer.  

Maybe it's because of what I went through with my mom, but my first instinct was "Trey and I are going to California."  There was no way I could think of Carmen alone during her surgery and her recovery.  She argued, I insisted, and Trey and I were on our way.  

Before we left, we spent our last morning with Tango.  

As you can imagine, flying alone with Trey caused me a fair amount of anxiety.  You all know how hard it is to keep a toddler entertained for five minutes, let alone two and a half hours in a small confined space.  Trey did better than I thought he would and only had a screaming fit when he had to sit in his own seat with his seatbelt on during takeoff.  

My sweet boy 

Requirements for a happy flight 

After we arrived at Carmen's house, we made a trip to the store to stock up.  I was excited to try some new recipes for Carmen, and I was especially looking forward to cooking some of the vegetarian and seafood dishes that Randy won't particularly enjoy.  I will say that this grocery trip (and the one that followed the next day) were possibly the worst grocery trips I have ever had with Trey.  He didn't want to be in the cart, didn't want to be in my arms, and only wanted to be on the ground.  He wanted to pull things off the shelves and screamed whenever I picked him up.  A little tired, maybe?  

Running from me in the store

(I let him get a little farther than normal so I could take this picture.  

One might call this shot slightly posed.)

Thursday morning was Carmen's surgery, so we packed up in the car to take Grandma to the doctor's office.  The surgeon came out to talk to me afterwards and showed me these pictures.  

pre-surgery 

post-surgery 

Carmen handled her recovery like a champ and was a pretty good patient.   I had to be a bit bossy with her at times because she was trying to do too much (i.e. unload the dishwasher), but I was also able to get her to rest, elevate, and ice for a fair amount of time.

Grandma and Grandpa have a hot tub in their backyard that they have turned into a koi pond.  It may be one of Trey's favorite things.  Each day when we went outside, it was the first thing he went to.  

"Whatcha lookin' at, mama?" 

I bought Trey an inflatable pool that he spent A LOT of time in during the week we were there.  It gets pretty hot in Riverside (90's each day), so we would sit outside and Trey would swim and I would put my feet in the water.

As you know by now, Trey is not a great napper for me.  While we were at Grandma's house, we either went on a car ride for a nap (not super fun for Mama when it's so hot that you can't stop/turn off the car like you can in Portland), or I would take Trey on a walk in the HOT weather up and down the hills of Grandma's neighborhood until he fell asleep and then park him under their upstairs deck in the shade with the nice breeze.  I would sit next to him in their reclining lawn chair and read my book.

On Friday we went on a brief outing to Barnes and Noble to escape the heat and get Carmen out of the house for a little bit.  Trey was very happy to find his "guys" again and spent the whole time playing with them.

We left the store with one of the Ernie dolls, and I don't think Trey let go of him for at least 24 hours. 

Grandma and Trey cooling down

 Running back and forth on Grandma's deck

Don't you just love the blue sky?

I was driving around on the day of Carmen's surgery and all of a sudden remembered that Darlene, the school counselor from my school in Woodburn, lived nearby.  I pulled over right where I was driving and sent her an email to see if we could get together.  Carmen, Trey, and I drove to Idyllwild on Saturday to visit Darlene and Paul, and I was SO EXCITED!  I haven't seen her in six years since she retired and moved to New Mexico (where they lived prior to CA).  I love her spirit, and I was so happy to catch up.  It honestly felt like not a day had passed since we were sitting in her office talking and bonding about something.

 In Darlene's backyard looking out on amazing landscape

Even after we left, I couldn't get this viewpoint out of my head.  

How perfect would it be to sit in these chairs at the end of a day with a glass of wine and a great book? 

Paul (who Trey kept calling "Pa...funny!"), Darlene, Trey and me 

Carmen and Trey during our delicious lunch in Idyllwild 

Paul and Darlene

A week straight with my boy and my mother in law is something special, and we had some good times.  Below are some pictures of some of the fun things we did:

Bathtime, California style 

Checking out the animals at Tom's Farms 

First train ride 

(if you can call a three minute loop around the property a train ride)

Lunch in the shade 

Relaxing with his crayons 

Around nap time, Trey started saying "sleep" and "nap".  I thought, "you've got to be kidding me."  But what he meant was that his guys had to take a nap.

At Irvine Spectrum waiting for Kim and Kaili

Pre-lunch with Kim and Kaili

Trey wasn't too sure about sharing his "guys" with Kaili.

Lunch was delicious and it was great to catch up with Kim.  

I'm bummed we won't be in London with them to watch Dave compete this year, but I look forward to (and will be jealous of) hearing about their adventures at the Paralympics in August.

Lunch at Randy's cousin Melissa's house on the fourth of July.  

Trey was really into Kainoa's trike, but unfortunately his legs are a little too short. 

We flew home on the evening of the fourth of July.  Ontario airport is one of the worst ever.  Randy and I have flown through there numerous times, and everything is ALWAYS closed.  I honestly can't figure out when anything is open.  The upside to this is that Trey had plenty of room to run.  We made it home safely with minimal fussing on the flight.  The attendants were super nice to me on the flight back (as opposed to the way there), and I pulled an Elaine (my mom) and called Alaska Air today to tell them how awesome the attendants were and how much they helped me with my boy.  

Now we are home for two days before we head to Black Butte for a week.  I've been looking forward to this vacation for several months, and I can't wait to spend a week in the sun with my family and friends.