SoCal 2010 part 1: Pitstop in Oregon

Alright, I think I'm finally ready to start blogging about our trip. Y'all ready for this? Because I think it's probably going to be a six part mini-series! Of course, a lot of time and effort and energy goes into preparing for the holidays. Throw in a 2-week roadtrip and leaving a week before Christmas [which means I like to try and have everything done by the time we leave] and you've got a crazy-busy first half of December. And just because we wouldn't be home for Christmas, does not mean that we skimp on the tree, decorating, baking, etc. I think you can tell from previous posts that Christmas still came to our WA home, even if we weren't exactly there the whole time.

This was taken the day before we left - I wore that poor kid out!

And this was the tree we had to un-decorate before we left [didn't feel like living on the wild side this year and risking the fire hazard]. We worked our booties off, packed up the car - poor Ethan was so excited to go that he insisted on first sitting in his carseat and then being strapped into his carseat while we continued to load up the car. First stop, Oregon.
"Christmas Eve" with my family.
Ethan was allowed to open two presents that first night - his "Christmas" jammies from Sean and I and a toy from Grandma Julie and Grandpa Greg. This dragon goes along with his "dragon castle" that he got last year and he was super excited to get it.
And here's the little stinker thinking he's going to sleep on my comfy air mattress. Nice try, bud!
"Christmas morning" with my family.
Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Chuck stopped by in the morning to wish us a Merry Christmas and see us before we continued on our trip. Ethan got to open more presents. To say he was excited to get his GeoTrax train set from Grandma Julie and Grandpa Greg would be a severe understatement. He loved it!!
And insisted it be opened and put together right away!He also got to open one more gift from us [for now].A new winter coat and hat!! I am such a mean mom. I had been making him bundle up in his slightly-too-small fleece and raincoat for the past couple weeks since his new coat was a Christmas present! At least I let him open it early, right?!

And here's a better shot of his Christmas jammies - he's holding up some cute, err... studly new shirts from the great grandparents.

One of my main objectives that day was to get a family picture in the red sleigh at Oakway. We got there just as daylight was slipping away. While we waited for our "photographer", I snapped these pictures of Ethan...

And here are the family shots we got....

This is the one we used for our Christmas card.

"Christmas night" with my family.
This is when we did our actual gift exchange - minus the annal photo calendar I had made, but had sent to CA in case it didn't get to our house in time.

Lizzy and her own DVD copy of 17 Again.

Ethan helping Christine open her gift.
[Ethan will give absolutely anyone gift-opening assistance - whether they want it or not!]

Annual new Christmas book - 2010

Ethan's first board game.

And with that, we re-loaded the Explorer late that night and headed off to Southern California, or so we thought......
Stay tuned for the next part in our exciting adventure!!