Next stop: Oakland

Thankfully the drive to Oakland from Napa was on pretty straight roads, so no vomiting episodes!

We decided to visit McDonalds for lunch so that the wee ones could burn off some steam in the play area before strapping them back into their car seats!

Oakland, as anticipated, was the highlight of Mark's trip. He has been an Oakland Raiders fan for a LONG long time and it has been his dream to go to a home game. So we did. Piper actually gave him his ticket for Father's Day.

It ended up being an amazing day! I was a little bit worried about bringing Piper at first, since I didn't want the people around us to be bothered by a baby in the stands. I worried for no reason. It actually ended up being the complete opposite senario. She became the mini-mascot of our section. People were stopping me and asking me if they could take her photo. ALL of the people around us were playing with her throughout the game and I even caught an old bearded man a few rows behind us playing peek-a-boo with her. It was so fantastic. Raiders fans are notorious for being aggressive, yet we seemed to be surrounded by a bunch of baby loving teddy bears. :-)

I'm sure her game attire did attract some of the attention. As if she isn't cute enough already, she was also wearing her football socks, an Oakland Raiders onesie and the cutest headphones EVER for protecting her little ears from the crazy loudness of the fans! The headphones worked perfectly and Piper was even able to nap during the loudest cheers of the game!! They also pushed her little cheeks forward making her look like a little chipmunk.

And to make it all even more amazing for Mark: the Raiders won the game in overtime!

We were all so happy for him!

xo

Do do do do do!
I'm lovin' it!

Busy at work playing hard!

Practicing standing at our hotel!

Daddy brought his own cheerleaders to the game!

A cheerio break during halftime!

Let's go Raiders!

The game is done... and so is Piper!
Zzzzzzzzz...

Napa

I would love to say that our trip was smooth and incident free, but I would be lying.

Really lying!

On the day that we left San Francisco, Piper was sitting on the bed helping me put things into my purse. And by helping me, I mean she was pulling out everything that I was putting in. I don't know how it happened, but one second we were doing just that when all of a sudden both Piper and my purse were in a heap on the floor. Yikes. A mini freak out followed this, by me, not Piper! I won't be getting the mother of the year award this year!!

We rented a minivan and set off for Napa via the Muir Woods. A beautiful drive, but oh so incredibly twisty turny and winding. This was nauseating for all of us who were facing forward, but you can imagine how it felt for poor little Piper who was riding backwards.

Imagine no further. With the twisting roads no more than 5 minutes behind us, she started to projectile vomit all over herself and the minivan seat. (Thank God for leather seats!) Ugh!

Recalling the reactions of all the other passengers on board made this incident at least a little funny in the end. After the communal "UGH" ended, here are the reactions:

Me: Of course the worrying mother trying to hover over her and hold her little hand to make sure she was okay.

Mark: "She just projectile vomited everywhere". Tell us something we didn't know!

Kelly-Anne: Being the other mother in the car, quickly produced a package of tissues for me to use to start the clean up.

Ryan: "Is it going to smell?? Cause if it is I'm going to need to pull over!!" Ha! Oh don't worry Ryan, she's just fine. Thanks for asking. LOL.

Nathan: "Piper made a mess!" :-)

Oh my. Have I stated that traveling with a baby has really change our travel style?

Piper was (is) just fine! I wish I could say that this was an isolated incident, but then I would by lying again. The California coastline is NOT very straight, so we had a repeat moment traveling from Oakland to Morro Bay.

That just happened the be the very same day that Piper also had a poop explosion that almost reached her armpits.

This may also have been the same day that Piper pulled Mark's coffee cup towards her at lunch and started screaming as the hot coffee spilled onto her hand and arm.

No. No mother-of-the-year awards being handed out over here. But I do think I should get some sort of award for surviving this trip... and for keeping Piper happy while doing so.

In Morro Bay, there was a beautiful little fire pit just outside where our rooms were. I had envisioned sitting out there with a glass of wine once Piper was in bed. Instead, I spent the evening scrubbing vomit and poop off of her little clothes in the bathroom sink. Hmmm, now that I think of it. I really should have at least had the wine!

Enjoy these photos of Napa. We went through a lot to get them!

xo

At the entrance to the Muir Woods!

Hangin' with the big trees.

Playing with the recyclables was much more fun than
playing with my toys!

But playing with the full bottles was more interesting again!

Wine tasting in Napa! 

Hands up! You're under arrest. It's the POOlice!

At the pool with Daddy!

If only every day could be like this!

San Francisco

Over the course of our two week vacation, we were fortunate enough to venture down the beautiful California coastline. We visited San Francisco, Nappa, Oakland, Morro Bay, Anaheim and San Diego. I've decided break down my posts based on these stop points.

So, first of all is San Francisco.

BEAUTIFUL!

It was everything we imagined it would be and more. We would have loved to have explored the nightlife there, but little Miss has changed our traveling style. I can't imagine a better reason for skipping the bars and choosing the parks instead!

The trip was off to a slow start, as our flight was delayed by 5.5 hours due to a snowstorm here in Yellowknife. This meant that instead of flying from here to Calgary and then straight to SF, we had to go via Vancouver. Not a big deal except for the fact that we had horrible turbulence during the Calgary Vancouver leg. I was terrified and was fighting back tears while Piper was bouncing on my lap and laughing as I allowed her to watch Rollie Pollie Olie on the little tv screen. :-)

We spent three nights in SF exploring Fisherman's Warf, Pier 39, the Golden Gate Park and more. With each touristy destination we took in, we managed to find a playground or park for the wee ones to stretch their legs and burn off some energy. It really was lovely!

Enjoy!
xo

My first day in the USA!

Swinging is just as fun here as it is at home!

Tunnels are fun too!

Eek! I'm having fun!

American slides are fun too!

Mine!

Do I have something on my face? 

Monkey bars for our little monkeys! xo

Hahaha. Do you think I'm actually going to sleep in here mom?
Not likely!

Golden Gate Bridge

Cool dudette!

Alcatraz!

Playing in the park!

And passed out after a busy few days of sightseeing!

Piper the Polar Bear

Hello all!

I apologize for the lack of posts during our two week adventure in California, but as I suspected, computer is too old to support this website and/or uploading photos. I would consider getting a new one, but we really aren't mobile enough anymore to need one.

The trip was really fabulous! Piper is turning out to be quite the little trooper. Maybe not quite the traveller that her momma and poppa are, but she did great. I will post more about some of her 'shortfalls' in the next few posts with photos! It was not an uneventful trip, that's for sure!

That being said, I'm much too tired to start posting photos of our adventures just yet, so I will just post a few pics of Piper's very first Halloween party today! Heaps of fun with her little buddies!

Enjoy and I promise that tomorrow I will start uploading some vacation shots!

xo

Grrrr....

Polar bear rug?

Those long locks just can't be hidden.

Oops. Lost my head!

Taking a break. 

The Real Party POOPers of Yellowknife!

Daddy and Piper Cee

This could possibly be the last blog post for a couple of weeks. We are leaving for our trip to sunny California in the morning!!

Of course we will be continuing to take heaps of photos, but our laptop computer is almost a hundred years old, so we're not sure if it will allow us to upload photos or not. I do promise to try though!

xo

Today I am Little Miss Yellowknife.
Tomorrow I will be a California Girl!

Good Old Fashion Entertainment

Who needs toys when you have a plastic bowl and a wooden spoon?
Daddy calls her the little Foreman. 

Top o' the mornin' to ya! 

And enough of that! 

Police Officer in Training!

Piper sported this bib with big plans to follow in Daddy's footsteps...
until Momma said NO WAY!
Worrying about one police officer in the family is enough.
I'm encouraging her to become a librarian!
I don't think she's impressed.

My loot!
A lady sold me all of this beautiful 'previously loved" clothing
for only $20!!

Honestly. I love Yellowknife for the number of people that "recycle" children's items. I have gotten many things for Piper that were previously loved, in perfect condition, for super cheap! Two of the pairs of shoes that she sold to me weren't ever even worn. Her daughter outgrew them before she got a chance to put them on her! Here's what we got:

1 fleece lined sweater

3 leggings

2 pairs of pajamas

4 pairs of shoes

2 sweater dresses

6 sleepers

ALL FOR $20 = STEAL!!

I love getting a bargain!

xo

My very first ponytail!

As I mentioned in earlier posts, we've all had a cold for the past few days.

Because of this, Piper has gotten a little spoiled with being in Mommy's arms for longer during the day AND we have been watching Elmo. We tend to try not to let her watch too much television, simply because she becomes completely enthralled with it when she does.

She is not one of these kids that can have the TV on in the background and just pay attention when a song comes on. Nope. This child will sit and watch Dr. Phil if you let her!!

You can see it all too well in these photos. I pulled her hair back into her very first real ponytail and was able to snap away taking her picture because Elmo was teaching her how to be a Knight for a Day. lol

xo

My very first ponytail.

Can't. talk. must. watch. Elmo.

Once Elmo was turned off, she was off to explore again.
Here she was trying to reach the toys on the couch,
when she noticed her pink feet!

And another attempt at the stairs!
Being sick just doesn't slow this baby down!

Mommy's Little Girl

Last week Mark caught a cold.

A few days later he gave that cold to Piper.

I was doomed. It was inevitable that I too, caught this cold.

Yesterday Mark had the day off, so I was able to go upstairs for an hour and a half and have a long beautiful nap.

When I came back downstairs, I laid on the floor as you can see in this photo. Piper immediately came crawling over to me, pretend crying the entire way, and then proceeded to lay her head on me and cuddle. If this doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what would!! She acted like she hadn't seen me in a week.

I love my baby girl!!

xo

Oh Mommy, how I missed you!

More than TWO HUNDRED YEARS of Lynches!

This photo was taken back in June when Piper was only 5 months old, but I wanted to share it. 

We have FOUR generations of Lynches here.

If you add up the "Lynch Ages" shown in this photo, you get well over 200 years. 

Mrs Lynch alone has covered 102 (soon to be 103) years!

Piper has some quality durable genes in her little body! 

xo

More than 200 years of Lynches!

We have a sick baby girl.

Yesterday we played hard.
And touched lots of stuff...

After an hour Piper started getting very cuddly
and wanted to be in mommy's arms A LOT.

This morning we woke up with a runny nose,
which resulted in a cuddle nap on the couch in the morning
and a cuddly nap on the living room floor in the afternoon. 

But being sick didn't stop me from getting into trouble!
I learned to climb one stair!
(Look who is enticing her!)