Cajon Pass . . .

So after enjoying a wonderful Christmas vacation in Salt Lake we headed back to San Diego at about 10:00 am (Salt Lake time) on Sunday morning.  The sun was shining, but it was still freezing as we made our way south.  We kept our eyes on the in-dash temp gauge and enjoyed seeing the numbers creep up as each hour passed.  We had decided to make the whole trip in one day again and the munchkin and puppy were being pretty agreeable.  We hit a bit of slow traffic around Vegas, which we knew was going to happen, but it wasn't the worst Vegas traffic we had seen.
About 11:00 pm (California time) my mom called to see where we were at.  I informed her that we were about 2 1/2 hours away and that things were going pretty smoothly.  About a half an hour later we were sitting in stand still traffic watching as people were pulling off to the side of the road to play in a small dusting of snow that had begun to fall.
Now, seeing as how we were now in Southern California, a small smattering of snow is kind of a novelty.  And yes, perhaps people there are a bit freaked out about driving with a bit of powdery whiteness on the road.  But that was no reason to bring traffic to an absolute stand still.  We moved about 3 miles during the next 45 minutes.  Luckily the boy was sleeping peacefully in his car seat, for now.  We started using our blessed internet-connected phones to try to map out an alternate route.  We got off of the freeway and headed up the frontage road, which was still very slow, but moving faster than the freeway.  Still too slow for us, we hit up some side roads to try to skip ahead.  This worked rather well, but we were in a smallish town, so it really wasn't getting us much further ahead. 
By now we had discovered that because of the "snow" (2 inches, tops) they had closed Cajon Pass down to one lane.  And keep in mind that this is the Sunday after New Years, so traffic is kind of heavy, since this is the main access to San Diego and LA from Vegas.
Finally we decided to go a bit further west and hit up a small highway and avoid the main thoroughfares all together.  It took us a while to get out there, and yes, the small back road was a bit slippery, but nothing a couple of Utahns couldn't easily handle.  After all, a few days earlier we had braved the roads after a snowstorm left 6 inches overnight.  No big deal!!  When we finally got to the top of the highway, right before it started into the "canyon" we ran into a police blockade who were turning everyone back who didn't have chains on their tires.  CHAINS!!  Are you kidding me?!  There was literally 2 inches on the road!!  2 INCHES!  It was ridiculous!  So we had no choice but to head back to the freeway and the frontage road.
By now traffic was at a dead standstill.  We sit on the frontage road for over an hour in the same spot.  I don't believe we moved more than a few feet.  During this time Riley wakes up and starts to fuss.  He is done being in his car seat.  I completely understand what he is feeling, because everyone is done being in the car by now.  I get Riley out of his seat and we pass some of the time watching Toy Story on the DVD player (thank heaven for that!).  At about 4:00 am we decide that we should try to maneuver out of this mass of traffic, head north a little ways, and find a place to sleep until morning.  We tried 5 different hotels/motels, all full of people who long ago gave up on the wait.  Finally, way back in Barstow (about 30 minutes north of where we were when my mom called at 11:00) we find a place to stay.  We don't know if they allow dogs or not, but we don't even ask and we sneak Jack in with us.  We are thankfully able to finally lay our heads down at 5:30 am.
Our trusty alarm clock, Riley, even after a rough night, wakes us up bright and early at 7:00.  He is ready to explore our temporary new digs.  We turned on the TV to try to get an update on the traffic situation, which was still bad, but at least had started moving.  We get breakfast at Burger King and head back to the room to eat and relax for another hour.
We pack up again at about 9:30 and head out.  We might as well get going.  We run into pockets of stand-still, but nothing that lasts too long.  When we finally reach the top of Cajon Pass we are stopped for a moment to let two huge snow plows go ahead to clear the "snow" off of each shoulder.  They go about 35-40 miles an hour all the way down the pass.  It felt like it took forever, but after that it was clear sailing the rest of the way home.  It took us about 3 1/2 hours to make it home that morning, but we finally made it!!

Seeing Red . . .



Making his "silly face" while wearing his "snowsuit" pants

 So Riley is a pretty healthy kid.  The only sickness he has ever really suffered from is a small handful of colds.  They last longer than they would in an older kid or normal adult because he has not yet learned to blow his nose, so he has clogged-mucus-head for longer than most other people do.  (Any suggestions on how to teach a kid to blow their nose would be very helpful.)  He inevitably gets sick every time we go to Salt Lake.  I'm sure it is because when we are there he is exposed to LOTS more people than he is ever exposed to here in San Diego.  Everyone wants to kiss his pudgy cheeks and sweet little mouth, and, let's face it, he is a really lovey kid and likes to give kisses too!  This Christmas was no exception. This time he added a hacking cough to the routine.  Wonderful.  You know you have to be at least 4 years old to take any kind of real cough medicine, so little kids are left to suffer most of the time.  My sister, Ivy, gave me some cough medicine made mostly with honey and homeopathic ingredients that had worked really well for Anya.  The weird thing was that each time I gave it to Riley he would cough more.  I though that perhaps it was just thinning the mucus and it would help him get over the cold more quickly. 
This went on for a few days, until . . .
We were going to my mom's cousin's daughter's wedding reception.  (I know it sounds a little far removed, but we love these guys, and like I have said in early posts, we are really close to our families, no matter how distant.  Plus, everyone else would be there too, another family-reunion-type party, yeah!!)  We got all dressed up, like you do for receptions, gave Riley some medicine to help him feel a bit better, and headed out to Bountiful.  On the way there Riley was hacking away, but also jabbering happily from the backseat.  We went inside, congratulated the bride and groom, and made our way into the party.  The reception was at the groom's parent's house, which had a basketball court in the basement.  That is where the tables and food were set up.  In the middle of the room there was a big, tiered, cupcake holder full of beautiful red velvet cupcakes.  I needed a sugar rush, so I grabbed one and we grabbed a seat at the table that my parents were sitting at.  Riley was sitting on my lap and eagerly eating any cupcake bites that I would give him.  However, almost immediately after the cupcake was finished he started coughing . . . a lot.  Then the coughs turned in to hacking and then he started throwing up . .  a lot!  He has never thrown up in his entire life!  He hardly ever spit up as a baby.  And remember, he had just eaten a good portion of red velvet cupcake, so of course, it is red.  Very red.  Gary said that he was really concerned when he first looked over, thinking that Riley had thrown up blood!  It got all over the little guy's pants and sweater vest and a little bit on his shirt collar.  I came away fairly unscathed, considering he was sitting on my lap, and only got a little on my skirt. 
Well, of course this would happen when I am completely unprepared!  I have no other clothes to change him into.  What a blessing that we weren't somewhere on our own, but surrounded by family who immediately rushed to our aid.  After cleaning up what we could at the table we gathered in the bathroom to see what we could do.  Of course, just like a little kid, he is jabbering away again, like nothing happened.  I'm sure he was feeling much better.  We ended up rinsing his pants and vest and putting them in a plastic bag to take home in the hopes of washing out all that red.  (It actually all came out, if you can believe it!)  We rinsed his shirt collar too and put is shirt back on him.  Luckily he is little, and cute, and has scrumptiously pudgy legs, so no one minded too much that he was now attending the reception in just his shirt, socks, and diaper.  We stayed and visited for another half and hour or so.  When it was time to head home we couldn't put him in that freezing cold car with his bare legs hanging out so we put his coat sleeves around his legs and zipped it up around his body as much as we could, and made sure he had his hat on tight around his ears.  In the picture it looks like he is wearing a snowsuit.

Christmas Time . . .

We went to Salt Lake for Christmas. Gary and I were both able to take about two and a half weeks off of work, so we got to spend a lot of time in Utah. We left early in the morning on Friday, December 17th and decided we would try driving straight through. I was a bit nervous about it, but I figured we could always stop if we really needed to, so we went for it. We used to always drive straight through when it was just me, and Gary and the dog, but since Riley has been around things have been different. The few times that we have driven up after Riley was born we broke it up into two smaller trips, starting our trip late in the afternoon and stopping in St. George or Mesquite around midnight, and then starting off again the next morning. It seemed easier, and Riley would sleep during most of the first day (bedtime) and half of the next day (morning naptime). Sleeping baby during a road trip = more peaceful time for everyone. Our straight-through drive went better than I had expected, in part because Riley is starting to really get into movies and we had some of his favorites ready to play in the DVD player. Plus, we really took our time and made a bunch of stops along the way so that everyone could stretch their legs and use up some of that excess energy. It ended up taking about 15 hours, instead of the usual 12. But it is worth it to know that you don’t have to spend money on a hotel or inconvenience someone by invading their space for the night, and also to know that you don’t have to pack everything up again the next morning and drive and drive for half the day.


Once we were in Salt Lake we were busy, busy, busy. Lots of family parties and get-togethers. And of course we have to hit up some of our Utah favorites (Café Rio’s yummy salads, Taco Time’s crunchy tacos, Arctic Circle’s shakes).

We stayed at my sister Ivy's house. She has a daughter, Anya, who is about 14 months older than Riley, and it was fun to see them play together. Riley's first word in the morning was always "Anya" and he would run upstairs to find her as soon as he could. Here is a little video of them playing together at my parents’ house:

It was wonderful to spend so much time with family! We have really missed everyone. I was amazed to see how big all the cousins were getting. We took a picture of all of the cousins at Gary’s parents’ house.

The afternoon of Christmas Eve was spent with my family playing “Minute to Win It”, where you have one minute to complete different tasks. Tices declared themselves to be the winners, but everyone had a really good time. Here are some pictures:

Had to stack 8 nuts on top of each other using only a candy cane

It was really hard!

had to slide three nuts down the sticks and then balance ping pong balls on top



Sam trying to move the cookie from his forehead to his mouth


We also opened all of our presents, fun fun fun!!

That evening was spent at Gary’s Aunt Pam’s house. We had dinner (yummy soups), and cake (for baby Jesus’ birthday), and then we gathered around the piano.  The kids dressed up and acted out the Nativity and then we all sang lots and lots of Christmas carols. It is such a fun tradition and really puts you in the right spirit for Christmas.

Christmas morning we headed over to Gary's parents' house to open presents and visit with family and then we went to my parents' house for more family time.  We love and miss our families a lot and it was such a treat to be able to spend so much time with them!