California!

My apologies for the serious lack of posting for the last several months. When November rolled around, craziness ensued. Good crazy, though!! My 9 1/2 month preggo bestie Brooke called and told me that her doc wanted to schedule a c-section for mid-November and she didn't know what she was going to do with her first daughter, Clara (my Goddaughter), while she was in the hospital.

Sooooo, Godmomma to the rescue!!! I had not seen Brooke (or sweet Clara) since May 2010, when this happened:



Clara was just a month old, and I wasn't even pregnant with Brewer yet. Little did we know how life would change so drastically while we were apart...

In early July 2010, we found out I was pregnant. In August 2010, Clara was diagnosed with cancer. In January 2011, Clara's life was saved by an 18-yr-old boy's bone marrow with a bone marrow transplant. In March 2011, I had Brewer. And in November 2011, we finally got to see each other again, with Brooke meeting Brewer for the first time.

There are no words for how I felt when Clara and Brewer met. Clara has been immuno-suppressed for so long, and has NEVER been allowed to be in close contact with another child. After not seeing her for so long, and then getting to see how vibrant and big she's getting- it was incredible. She was delighted with Brewer. I love her so much!





Brewer got to go on his first plane ride. (This included a hysterical flat-out run through the airport with me screaming "EXCUSE ME!" and "WATCH OUT!" at the top of my lungs. And my pants were falling down because I didn't have time to pull them up.) Brewer enjoyed the sprint, and was pretty great on the plane, too. ;-)

We went to the Computer History Museum, my husband's nerdy mecca.



And we went on a day trip to Half Moon Bay, where I finally got some pumpkin pictures of Brewer,



saw my first banana slug (eww.),



had an unbelievable crab sandwich, stalked a saltwater taffy shop and visited a winery.

And then I got to take care of sweet Clara (stop it! I can't handle the cuteness!)



while Brooke and Alan met Rosalyn for the first time!! Rosalyn Elise Boyle has the most precious cheeks you've ever seen and the funniest little cry.



And Alan ate sushi with me! (Neither Brian or Brooke like sushi so Alan and I gorged on it one night while Brooke was in the hospital.)

I even managed to fly back with Brewer on my own, since Brian had to return earlier than us for work. I sort of felt like super woman! I know other moms do this all the time, but it was a serious struggle with all of his gear. Again, he did great on the flight!



We miss you, California! We'll be back soon!

AFRICA!

While I would love to say that Brian and I both had been visiting Africa recently, sadly, that is not the case. My sweet hubby got to visit Sierra Leone, Africa, several weeks ago for work. Here are some pictures of his adventures there!



Look at that sexy mining man!! (I made fun of him for this serious look, but apparently he was just trying to get one shot of himself at the mine. The gal he was traveling with really didn't like taking pictures of people, and I had threatened him within an inch of his life if he didn't come back with lots of pictures.)



On a hill overlooking the mine. They are mining for iron ore here at this operation.



Taken out of the window as he was heading from the mine site to the resort for a weekend of play for the mine workers. This is a little market.



The mine workers (seen out the front window here) had apparently already started drinking on the way to the resort and had to stop for a pee break. The people driving past were honking like crazy according to Brian. His travel partner, Sarah, was mortified. From what I can tell, Brian was just extremely entertained the entire time. ;-)



This was the beach at the resort. The terrain looks very different to me than any other beach I've ever been to. It's pretty rocky in places, and there's a sandbar a little off shore.



This was at the resort. This was a little river that came through the resort and flowed into the ocean. This will play an integral role in an upcoming story. The little hut you see there is one of the guest accommodation huts.



Some of the nightly entertainment.



So when Brian was going over his itinerary with me, he told me they were going on a "booze cruise" over the weekend. Brian showed up on the beach when it was time to go, looking for the "cruise". It took him about 20 minutes to figure out that this rickety canoe you're seeing here was in fact the "booze cruise". There was no booze, as you might have guessed. He's still yet to figure out if someone was joking about that, or if whoever scheduled the trip thought that this was supposed to be something different.



The boat had a two man crew. A driver, and a bucket man. You've got it right, folks. A man specifically designated to bail out the water leaking in the sides of the boat. Brian said it was like a cartoon with the water spurting in at different spots. Here you're seeing the inside of the boat, with the weird gum substance coating the inside of the boat and water streaming down the side.



So these rivers. On the way back from the boat trip to Banana Island (where Brian got lost in the jungle, BTW) a cluster of circumstances led to the boat tipping over in the ocean about 100 yards from shore. As the waterlogged boaters swam in, they noticed that they were swimming through an area where two rivers emptied into the ocean. Rivers that had flowed through little villages. Where villagers washed. And did other things. Now Brian is swimming through it. So you can imagine how he smelled when he got out of the water. Yeah, folks, he brought that smell home with him. G. R. O. S. S.



After leaving the resort, the team returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Brian got some great shots of women throughout the city carrying their kiddos around. This is how they carry their children who aren't swift walkers yet. I can't figure out if her other shoulder is holding him up, or if all that weight is on her boobs...?!?! I am in awe of these women either way!



Also seen throughout Freetown were women carrying tons of stuff on their heads with no hands!! Brian said that this one was one of the shorter stacks he saw. The tallest he saw was 7 stacks of baskets high, with no hands!

I'm super jealous that he got to go on this amazing adventure without me, but how cool is it that he got to do this!!?