Rose Bowl Champions

After discovering we would deliver and undergo surgical procedures at Stanford we became huge Cardinal fans and wanted them to succeed in all endeavours. Prepping to depart for a multi-month excursion is taxing under normal circumstances, fortunatley Beth tackled most of the details; suspending trash service, heater turned down to 45 degrees, animals at various friends houses (although I did have to carry the fish tank and find sitters for both the cat and dog), she also covered plant sitters (who the hell would think of plants?) and then she covered all of the schoolwork stuff at Powell's pre-school and spoke with Bella's principal, teacher and counselor (all while packing a little broked up little guy in her belly). My primary concern was to take time off from work, fortunatley as a firefighter I can bank sick leave and vacation leave, on the down side I had used a lot of my vacation leave attending school. I put a request out to the department informing the guys as to my situation and requesting a few trades to help extend my time, in the fire service we are fortunate to be able to work for one another and "trade" time. As long as the seat in the fire engine is filled with someone of your same capabilities we are allowed to swap time with each other. My request for trades was intended to find half a dozen guys of similar classification that would work with for me while I needed time off therfore extending my sick and vacation leave if conditions necessitated, guys whom I would pay back and work for them when things quited on the home front. Intead I ended up on the receiving end of what firefighters do and why people love them. They act! I recieved over 5 weeks of donated vacation leave which does not include the 3 months covered by guys working shifts for me, most of them with no intentions of me paying them back. That's over 4 motnhs of paid leave completley covered by my Brothers... that's some humbling, loving stuff. In addition to all our friends looking after the house, animals and plants, many of you provided us with gift cards and cash to help us live our remote life, thank all of you so much! We are so humbled and blessed to have so many wonderful friends. On Dec. 28th we set off (we were going to leave on the 27th but my folks' neighbors and our friends Rob and Alice mentioned they had family in Winnemuca and slide offs were all over (was that redundant?) and we should hold off a day (which gave me time to take care of the crap i was supposed to do the previous day). My Father and Mother decided they needed to follow us (by which I mean drive in front of at an erratic rate of speed) to make sure we arrived safely (by which I mean they needed to get out of the cold and see friends in Yuma) which we did (by which I mean I love them very much for making it look like they were travelling with us for any other means). For the last week we have been residing at a Hotel (they call it an "Inn" and they mean well) in Mtn. View, about a 250 sq. ft. room, 1/4 of which is jacuzzi tub. I would comment on the irony but it would be lost on Powell who loves at least one tub bath a day.

We closed out 2012 with a trip to the beach and enjoyed a brisk day on the California coast, I was able to watch a sea lion surf and the kids had a cold, wet, fun day. Powell had received a science kit (well 2 of them) and we had to do the mentos/soda experiment...
I love the fact he has both feet off the ground... it is solo exciting!

The kids hit a few beaches, collected some rocks and left a few carvings.

My favorite part was the sexy chick on the beach (which I guess would be why we are here...)

The rest of our time has been spent orienting ourselves to the area and spending ungodly amounts of cash feeding ourselves at Whole Foods. Tonight I thought I would get us an awesome economical (I mentioned I was a naive romantic) dinner and filled a WF trough bucket with an asian, italian and middle eastern selection finished with brownies... yea 45 bucks later. So we're figuring things out. Today Beth was a trooper and so were the kids. They were all awesome, 11 hours in the hospital. Oh yeah, this is my fav. so far... we have to unplug the fridge to use the microwave as they both use descending plugs so only one will fit at a time.

Fortunatley tomorrow we are supposed to move into an apt. for the next month, at the birth of the baby we have to move out and can hopefully then move into the Ronald McDonald House. Congratulations Stanford on an awesome Rose Bowl!