Out West in Beautiful SoCal

Here I sit in Hallie's parents' backyard enjoying the blue skies and short sleeve weather! We had such a mild summer and pleasant fall in Michigan (no snow before we left, hooray!! The next time we will run into Old Man Winter will be in 2010), and now we get two more mild late fall/early winter months. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled.

Our flight went smoothly, although Landon is not a fan of those long hours in the air. Not even Cars on DVD could distract him. My dad picked us up from the airport, and we visited with Mom and Dad and cousin Haydn for a bit before heading for Hallie's folks' house.

Once there, we got out Landon's new bike, and even now he is pushing it around. It will take him a bit to get the idea that he should ride it. He and I ate grape tomatoes fresh off the vine in the backyard, and we're all having lemon ginger cake made with lemons straight off the backyard tree. Tomorrow morning we'll have fresh squeezed OJ with Valencias from the other tree before I head down to Anaheim for the UCEA Annual Conference (our reason for coming out now rather than in December). Paradise. Too bad milk is almost $4.00 a gallon and the cheap gas is $2.85 per gallon. I like living in a place where my milk is cheaper than my gas. . . . Anyway, Landon is enjoying playing with his new bike and the other backyard toys, and I must get back to work (cuz while our location has changed, I still have a paycheck and tenure to earn). Hallie will keep you posted of our other SoCal adventures.