Back from San Diego

So, this last week has been really nice. We had so much fun in San Diego, and we weren’t ready to leave on Wednesday. Earlier in the week we took the boys for a walk to a playground near my parent’s house. While the boys were playing in the sand, wearing their short-sleeved shirts, and I was walking around barefoot, Michael called and talked to our friends in Milwaukee and they said that it was negative four degrees with wind chill out there. We had become acclimated to the nice San Diego weather, and when it dropped down to about 55 degrees at night we were wrapping blankets around ourselves to keep warm – so we have had to adjust to the cold now since coming back to Milwaukee.

Michael had his interview in San Diego for the transitional year program there at Scripps Hospital. He really, really liked their program, which I was very excited about! And a couple days before we left, Michael, Mom and I got to go to the temple together, which was very nice. And then Eli’s third birthday was the day after we left San Diego, so before we left Mom took Eli out birthday shopping and got him a special little Thomas the Tank Engine train track with gates that open and close and make different train sounds – which he loves. He wanted to take it on the plane with him, but we finally convinced him to let us pack it in the suitcase. He was really excited the morning after we were back in Milwaukee because I got out their old train set from the closet and the new train set they got for Christmas and his special train track, and they all fit together and the boys were having a lot of fun with them. While we were in San Diego they also had a little cake for Eli and candles that he blew out, which was fun for him.

It was nice being able to spend time with the family while we were down in San Diego. We asked my parents if we happened to end up in San Diego for the transitional year if we could stay with them (this way we could save money for the down payment on a house while enjoying the time with family). And before we left my mom told me that she had mentioned this idea to my brothers to see what they would think, and they both said they would love for us to stay with them. She said that Matthew told her that since I am older than him he never felt that close to me when I was living at home because he was just a little boy then, and since we were there this month he felt like we really had a good relationship and like he had a new sister. That was really nice to hear.

We left San Diego on Wednesday. We had a long flight in the morning that was a little delayed, so we had to run to catch our next flight, but we did end up getting home late that night. Thank you, Karissa and Tyce, for coming to pick us up! And then the next morning we left for La Crosse, Wisconsin for Michael’s last interview. We were concerned that we might have car troubles on the drive since we had had trouble getting the van to start after being gone so long, but were glad that it didn’t die on us for the whole trip to La Crosse.