In July I had a High school class reunion to attend in California, so Hannah and I drove the 11 hour trek. It was great, we stopped in Lakeview, Oregon, the first night. As 11 hours is way to much time for an infant to spend in a car seat, in my opinion. She and I stayed at cheap hotel and spent many hours watching too much T.V., something we don't have at home. Man even the stupid reality shows are addicting, I think I need help!
The next morning we drove to Sacramento, CA and stayed with Grandma Coni. I was able to introduce Hannah to her Aunt Andrea, Aunt Marcy, Uncle Brian, Uncle John, Uncle Tony and her cousins; Sydney, Andrew, Theodore and Riley.
I was happy to have Hannah meet everyone, as we don't get down that way often, even now, living in Oregon.
We also made a surprise visit to see Hannah's Great Grandma Alberta in her retirement home.
As most of our trips go, quick, we only stayed in Sacramento two days, and then headed down to Modesto to see the rest of the family.
While in Modesto, we visited Great Nonna and Papa D'Accardo, Nonna Renee, Aunt Linda, Uncle Gary, and cousins: Brianna, Athena, Big Ed, Edwin, Emani, Amina, and Amira.
Nonna Renne watched Hannah the evening of my reunion, and got to have some bonding time, while I was out playing.
The reunion was very nice, and it was great to see many of my high school friends.
I enjoyed seeing my girlfriends, and chatting like old times. Not much had changed, and many of my classmates were still the same in both personality and appearance.
I won to awards that evening, The person who traveled the furthest, and also the individual who had a baby most recently. I thought I should of also gotten a free drink or something for having won the most awards. Oh well maybe in another fifteen years.
Hannah and I made the trek back up north in two days, again stopping midway, as not to take advantage of Hannah's good attitude in the car. During the trip, I broke off my food restrictions/diet that I had been doing for two months to help Hannah's digestive system. How, one might ask did I fully initiate myself back into the world of food, other then rice this and rice that? I had a vanilla milkshake and bacon cheeseburger, of course. Also on the return drive, I woke early in the morning to beat the heat and accommodate Hannah's sleep schedule, I broke down and got a fancy coffee - a mocha with whippidy and chocolate syrup. I can't wait to include Mexican and Thai food back into my diet in the very near future.
Of course, like many of us, the fire was very mesmerizing to her, and kept her attention for some time.
Robbie set up the sleeping bags perfectly to allow me to feed Hannah through the night, and we all slept well. There is something about sleeping outside under the stars, and the sound of peace and quiet.
Here is a short video clip of Hannah taking care of nature's call outside the tent. (Only a baby could make this cute.) She has been able to go potty on the toilet for some time now, but has graduated to great outdoors women.
We went for a hike yesterday outside of town. It was a perfect day for a walk, not to hot, and we had the trail all to ourselves. We saw a few animal tracks; elk, deer, and bear.
I am glad I packed an extra plastic bag, as we stopped and picked huckleberries along the way.
Here are a few shots and short video of Miss Hannah getting her first real taste of solid food, well, dirt and huckleberry juice that is.
I'm looking forward to making something extra delicious with our bounty.
The next morning we drove to Sacramento, CA and stayed with Grandma Coni. I was able to introduce Hannah to her Aunt Andrea, Aunt Marcy, Uncle Brian, Uncle John, Uncle Tony and her cousins; Sydney, Andrew, Theodore and Riley.
I was happy to have Hannah meet everyone, as we don't get down that way often, even now, living in Oregon.
We also made a surprise visit to see Hannah's Great Grandma Alberta in her retirement home.
As most of our trips go, quick, we only stayed in Sacramento two days, and then headed down to Modesto to see the rest of the family.
While in Modesto, we visited Great Nonna and Papa D'Accardo, Nonna Renee, Aunt Linda, Uncle Gary, and cousins: Brianna, Athena, Big Ed, Edwin, Emani, Amina, and Amira.
Nonna Renne watched Hannah the evening of my reunion, and got to have some bonding time, while I was out playing.
The reunion was very nice, and it was great to see many of my high school friends.
I enjoyed seeing my girlfriends, and chatting like old times. Not much had changed, and many of my classmates were still the same in both personality and appearance.
I won to awards that evening, The person who traveled the furthest, and also the individual who had a baby most recently. I thought I should of also gotten a free drink or something for having won the most awards. Oh well maybe in another fifteen years.
In June, Hannah had some very special visitors, Great Grandpa and Grandma Piehl. It was a wonderful visit, filled with lots of love for Hannah.
In late June I had to go to AK to take a course towards my Masters Degree. Robbie, Hannah and I flew up there for a two week adventure. (Robbie was only there the first week.)
Juneau was just as we had left it 6 months earlier. It was wonderful to be back and visit many of our friends we made while living there. If it wasn't for my class, I'm not sure we would have gotten back there so quickly since the move.
Robbie watched Hannah during my class the first week and the second week Hannah attended college with me. As usual, she never seizes to amaze me. She did superbly during class, and believe it or not, I even completed my assignments on time and received an A in the course.
Although I couldn't of done the second week on my own, thank goodness for our friend Carol. She helped out each evening with Hannah so I could accomplish my homework.
We got out Halibut fishing on Chad and Monica's boat early in our stay. Hannah didn't catch the big one, but maybe next time. The fishing wasn't great, but it was wonderful to be back out on the ocean. Robbie got out fishing several more times in the evenings with Chad also. In the future though we won't be mixing business and pleasure again. There's just so much we wanted to do, but I had to be responsible and leave the playing to another visit.
Grandma Coni came to visit Hannah for a week.
Hannah also got to meet Uncle Lance and her best pal Giddy.
