November into December: Week 2 of Trip

On November 28th we bid farewell to Granbury and went back to our old stomping grounds. More than being in Texas, more than being in the mid-cities. We went back to our old street and spent the night three doors down from our old house. Our very generous friends Natascha and Scott hosted us for the night and the next day, November 29th, I snapped a few pictures of the kids. This is Emily and Sonja (turning 3 in March)...

and then one of the big sisters with their baby brothers (Nash turned 1 last month)

That afternoon we were on the road, heading to our next stop - Mimi and Papa's!

November 30th was mostly spent unpacking and getting settled in. Everett enjoyed his time in the midst of the chaos...

and was shocked to learn that he spent most of the day chewing on a shark! Or, he learned that sharks poop in the ocean... one of the two.
(if you don't know the back story about the shark poop you can read about it HERE)

On December 1st it was warm enough for Emily to go on a walk with Papa (it had been too cold the day before)...
and later that morning we surprised Uncle Ryan at his office to deliver a birthday picture and some cake...
before running some errands. The last errand we ran was to a Goodwill - hoping to find Emily a big wheel to have on Mimi and Papa's deck for the month. It was a great surprise when, instead, I found a brand new princess trike! It had been donated to Goodwill by a store and only had one teeny issue... it lacked a front right pedal. But, the nice lady told me about a couple of places that could probably help us out. The first spot was a bust and the man there recommended the same alternative as the lady at Goodwill, so we went ahead and drove to the other store - a local bike shop. As Emily and I were preparing to go in she told me very clearly that SHE was going to ask for a new pink pedal from the man (I had told her that we might not get a PINK pedal but it would be okay if we didn't. She said that she wanted to ask the man for a pedal and show him the bike and that he would look at it and realize that we needed a pink pedal.)
Unfortunately, even with Emily asking, we still fell short. He told us that no bike shops would be able to replace that pedal for us.
Emily was very excited to have her new trike but did really want to find a pedal.
She was happy to learn though that it was still "ride-able" without one.

(Check this out. I was shopping in Target on Dec. 11th when I saw a matching trike for sale. REALLY matching... look closely.)
That night, Emily tried to convince us that she could still use "her" old high chair at Mimi and Papa's...
but we told her that Everett fit much better...
and a few days later we ended up getting the booster seat we would bring back to CA with us

December 2nd was a rainy day. Emily still wanted to ride her trike though and tried really hard to keep it dry.
But, she soon realized that covering the front with her jacket made it really hard to ride...
and before long she abandoned it completely so she could skip in the rain. (She is a really good skipper!)
Once inside, she chose much better rainy day activities like playing with reptiles (she played with these A LOT during our month stay)...
and snuggling with her brother.

Now that you've seen Everett's bed you can see our (Mama and Emily) bedroom too - with Emily napping in her bed on the floor.

That afternoon I looked over just in time to see Everett roll up in the sheet on the floor.

He thought it was GREAT!
I guess he is like his sister since that is basically how she sleeps.
To finish off the day, Emily put on her new bathing suit...
and jumped in the "pool" with Papa. Always a favorite for her!