Home, Sweet Home and Ringing in the New Year!

The morning of the 18th Gabe had a basketball game which was mandatory for him to be at and ended up being rather I guess you'd say exciting and terrible at the same time. Luckily all those involved in the incident are just fine. Then we went to the Farmer's Market, which is mandatory, and then we always go to the temple on Saturdays, which is of course mandatory also. Then we had a choir practice that afternoon for our Christmas Program, which was the following day in church, from 12-3pm. Then I needed to practice a song with my sister that we sang for church the next day, which was mandatory, lol, because you don't just whipped out a duet without practicing and that was our only practice before we sang it. We also had to do all our laundry and pack our bags, which was mandatory, for our trip! Unfortunately we got everything checked off our list except the 3 hour choir practice. But, we were packed and ready to go so we didnt have to pack anything on a day which is not ours; Sunday. We finished our last minute errands on Monday and headed off to West Virginia via San Jose Airport at 3pm.
This was the first time we have traveled on a plane with Sydney and I was a little frightened I'll admit about how she would handle it, but rather how I would handle it. Two flights with a layover in Dallas. I was very happy that San Jose was not using the scanners, because no way was Sydney going through one of those and I was going to opt for the pat down. But I didn't want Sydney to get the pat down either, so I was very glad that they were only using the metal detectors and we didn't have to worry about all the inconveniences.
The first flight Sydney slept most of the way. The layover in Dallas was just fine. The second flight... well, the first half she was crying and the last 45 minutes she was passed out from the crying. She just didn't want to go to sleep until the light was turned off in the cabin, and yes, they were left on until the last 45 minutes of the 2 hour 35 minute flight.
We arrived at Reagan International at 1:15 am Eastern time, and arrived at Gabe's parents house around 4 in the morning and went straight to bed. All of us. Poor Blanca, Gabe's mother, picked us up and drove us to their house probably totally her time in the car to around 5 hours in the late and early hours of the night.

For the next couple days we lounged ad recovered from our travel. I think that was the first time I can remember feeling jet lag. Usually I adjust to the time change pretty well. Then Sydney started teething and our 3rd night there, we didn't sleep, and I am pretty sure Gabe's brother Alex, and buddy Michael, got little sleep that night also, being closest to our room where Sydney was probably heard crying for most the night. Then the Stomach Flu started making its rounds. Christmas Eve dinner was delicious and Christmas morning was wonderful! Here is a little recording of some of the festivities:

Gabe and I woke up Sunday morning feeling sick, Gabe more than me, so I stayed home with him to help him out and also to make sure Sydney wasn't exposed to anything that might be at church. By Tuesday Gabe was feeling much better, but then Sydney got it. Lets just says that when we woke up that morning, the legs of Sydney's sleeper seems to be eeking a strange color. She had it for a couple days and was fine by Friday. Thursday we went to visit the Amish communities up in Pennsylvania. It was a 2 hour drive up there and Sydney tolerated the drive well. We went to several shops and a restaruant all run by the Amish. We had lunch, we went to a bookstore. I bought two Amish Children's devotional readers that they use in school. We went to a bakery, and a hat shop that sold the Amish mens' hats. We saw them riding in their carriages and the children walking home from school in their traditional clothing that they wear. The married men all had beards and rode in covered carriages. The single men and women rode in open carriages. We also went to a little zoo that one Amish family had on their property. They had a little pond that could fit about 100 people for ice skating they said. There was a Llama, a Bisen looking animal, a Kangaroo or something similar, rabbits, pigs, goats, donkeys... birds... and more that I can't remember. Well here is a little video of our adventure there:

Gabe and I and Sydney stopped in Lancaster to shop for my birthday gift; we went to Hollister at the mall and got me 2 new pairs of jeans, and we got them for a great price since the entire store was having a 40% off sale. And we had a Visa gift card from Christie. Thank you Christie!

Sydney has started standing up and grabbing onto things. She is also walking along the couch so she will be walking in no time. She has been saying a whole ton more and will say Ma-ma and and da-da, although I don't think she knows what they mean quite yet, maybe she does. She responds to "no" when she is told most of the time. She hears is enough that she now hesitates when she is going near something she knows she shouldn't. Everything is going by so quickly. I was thinking about how she will never been this small and cuddly again and how much I'm going to miss it. And how much she is going to hate hearing about it when she is a teenager. =P