Visiting in the Valley

Ever since returning from our Christmas vacation, Bill and I have both been keeping very busy with work. I actually worked 6 days a week for most of the month of January, picking up extra hours at both my full-time job at the nursing home and at my PRN job at the Veteran's home. Bill was in the field for half of the month of January where he basically worked for 20 days straight and spent many of those nights sleeping in his work truck out in the desert. We finally got a break this week. Bill had a four day weekend, and I took a three day weekend. We headed down Thursday morning to the San Fernando Valley area to visit Bill's younger sister and to get some baby shopping out of the way.

On the way down, we stopped in Upland which is close to Ontario to get a 3D ultrasound done so we could get another sneak peak at our little bundle of joy. Of course, it was just our luck that Hank chose that day to be stubborn. He was sleeping and didn't want to be bothered. In his defense though, he does do a lot of his sleeping during the day. Once he did wake up and started moving, he would not get his hands away from his face so that the technician could get a good shot of his face. Here are a few of the better pictures that she was able to get:

His face is in the middle, and I think she said the stuff to the right is placenta.

You can see the nose, eyes and forehead, and his hands are off to the right side of his forehead.

This is a good shot of his hand.

Once we checked into our hotel, we headed out to get some shopping done. Bill has been wanting to try on these Vibram Five Fingers shoes so we went to REI (I think it stands for Recreational Equipment Inc.). Bill got his Vibram shoes, and I purchased a jogging stroller that I've had my eyes on for quite some time now. I think these Vibram shoes are the funniest looking things, but they're supposed to make it like your running barefoot without tearing the soles of our feet up in the process. Bill went for a run in them the next morning, and of course his first comment was "they don't have much cushion." I reminded him that was the whole point of the shoe.

Vibram Fivefingers

On Thursday night we ate at the mexican restaurant that Bill's sister Kalli works at and hung out with her boyfriend, Trevor. Friday morning we headed up to Santa Clarita to go shopping at BuyBuyBaby, which at this point is my favorite baby store by far. We ordered my comfy gliding/swivel/recliner chair for Hank's room and picked up a few other miscellaneous items. We then met Kalli and Trevor lunch and went to see the movie The Fighter, which is a very good movie that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. That night we finally tracked down a Target that carried the red Chicco infant car seat that was on sale this week. Now, I wouldn't even mention this fact except that I just can't go without showing you pictures of this stand-alone Target that had a parking garage, people escalator, and cart escalator. Bill said that I looked like a total tourist when I first saw the cart escalator, but they don't make Targets like this in the Midwest!

The cart is on a separate escalator in the middle and the lady in black is riding down along side it.

Parking garage off to the left.

On Saturday morning, we went with Kalli and Trevor to this cool park called Stony Point. Bill hiked almost to the top while I hung out in the shade. It was so nice to visit with his sister and her boyfriend this weekend since we haven't seen her since Christmas 2009. We'll get to visit again soon since we have to go back down to pick up my chair in a month or two.

Bill at the top.

I know this is a long post, and I promise that I'm almost done. I just want to leave you with something you might only see in California. As we're leaving Los Angeles county, Bill spots this car on the interstate:

I'm going to add that there was no license plate on the front or back of the car, and at least the 2 year-old child in the back seat was fastened in her carseat in the middle seat.

Stay posted, I'll get a new side view of the belly up soon!