Big Trip, part 2---California, here we are!

We arrived in California on Sunday, March 16 and went directly to the apartment complex that was going to be our home for the next month.  But when we realized how much paper work we were going to have to go through before we could move in, we opted to first take care of our top priority---seeing Josie and Evan (and Matt and Cheryl, of course!)  They had just gotten out of church so they drove over to Loma Linda and met us for lunch. Those first hugs in the parking lot of the restaurant were priceless!

After lunch we went and took care of all our paper work and got moved into our apartment.  It was a very nice apartment and was completely furnished with anything we might need, except for wi-fi, but we managed to get along without that. After getting unpacked we went over to Matt and Cheryl's house--it was about a 15 minute drive, and we became very familiar with that drive! 

Our first day in California was very hot---over 90 degrees!  So what could be better than some ice cream from Baskin Robbins?

I've decided that I'm not going to try to do my California posts in chronological order.  I had very good intentions of keeping a journal while we were there, so that I would remember what we did and when we did it. Yeah, that didn't happen.  Well, I pretty much remember what we did, but not so much when we did it.  So the next few posts will follow more of a topical approach.  And since I'm still in the process of getting all my pictures organized,  that process will probably determine the order of the posts.

Next up---Sea World!

The BIG TRIP, part 1---Iowa

Well, I did accomplish one new thing--I managed to write a blog post on the iPad and actually got it to post!  That left me feeling quite confident, so I decided to try another post, this one with pictures.  So I started another post, got to the point where I wanted to insert a picture---but alas, I could not figure out how to do that.  I know that there must be a way to do it, and it is probably very easy.  Just not easy for this old lady. :(  So I had to send my pictures from the iPad to myself by e-mail and now they are on the computer and I can go back to my old way of writing posts.

So.....on March 10 we packed the Escape and left Brookfield for almost 6 weeks. That is a long time to be away from home!  The first stop on our trip was Ankeny, Iowa.  We spent a few days there to help Rachel out with some babysitting.  She had parent-teacher conferences that week,  and with Adam in Michigan she needed some help with taking care of Jeremiah.  Of course we are always up for some time with that boy!  He still spent a couple hours every morning at his daycare so that he could participate in the pre-school activities, but the rest of the day he was ours.

On the two days that Rachel had conferences she put in very long days! So the only way that she could spend any time with Jeremiah was to have us join her at her school for dinner.  So that's what we did---she picked up dinner from McDonald's one day, and we picked up sandwiches from Subway the other day. (That was the day of the spilled tea fiasco.)

Jeremiah and his Mommy enjoying their "Suvway" meal

So many good books!

Jeremiah loves to visit his Mommy's classroom.  In addition to all the good books, there are lots of other fun things to look at and play with.  And he's just about the right size for the desks and chairs!

And here are just a few pictures of our time at home with Jeremiah. 

Doing a little yard work, now that the snow is actually gone!

Singing "Jesus Loves Me" before nap time

On Friday, the 14th, we left early in the morning and started our trip out to California.  We spent about 2 and a half days driving, with overnight stops in Amarillo, Texas and Kingman, AZ.  We got to Loma Linda, which would be our home for the next month, at about noon on Sunday. It was over 90 degrees that day! Wow! We knew we were not in Wisconsin anymore!!

More posts to come about our time in California, once I get more of my pictures organized. 

Technology frustrations

I am WAY behind on this blog, and that is mainly because of the camera issues that I had while we were on our trip in March and April. I had bought a new camera shortly before we left on our trip and was learning how to use it.  At the last minute I decided to take my old camera along as well, and I am so glad that I did!

We spent the first few days of our trip in Iowa, helping Rachel out with some babysitting because she had two evenings of conferences that week. Each of those evenings we went over to her school with Jeremiah to have dinner with her.  On one of those visits,  I managed to spill a large cup of sweetened iced tea all over my purse, which just happened to contain my new camera. The camera got pretty wet, but I dried it off and it seemed to be ok. I took a few more pictures with it that evening. But after that I was not able to even turn the camera on---it was totally useless!  I'm so glad that I had gotten it at a really good price at Target---I didn't lose too much money on it.

Once we got to CA, I continued to have some camera issues. I had my old camera with me, but the memory card from my new camera wouldn't work in it. Got a new one, but it had to be "formatted" which Matt did for me. (Because I had no idea what that meant)  So I thought my problems were solved. Oh no,  I was taking pictures on one of our outings when all of a sudden I lost all the pictures I had just taken.  Still don't know why that happened. But Matt "formatted" the memory card for me again--he thought maybe he had not done it right the first time.  And since then I haven't had any more issues.

But....now I have some pictures on the computer, and some on the iPad, and some on the tablet. I'm trying to figure out how to get at all of them so that I can put together some blog posts.  And I'm also trying to figure out how to write blog posts on the iPad and the tablet, since that's where some of my pictures are. All of this is a pretty big challenge for me. :(

So....this is the first attempt at writing a post on the iPad. I'll see if it actually works, and if it does I'll see if I can do one with pictures next time.