Winter Break - Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This past weekend, Jeremiah and I celebrated our fourth anniversary by traveling to Monterey. I'd never been there before, and Jeremiah's last visit was when he was a child, so the experience was equally exciting for both of us! And of course, the most delightful part about this year's anniversary celebration was that Ellie was there with us!
We stayed at a beautiful hotel called The Monterey Plaza Resort and Spa. We're not spa people, but we enjoyed the beautiful ocean views, and the incredible hospitality. From valet parking, to a bellman who took our luggage to our room for us, we felt like we were royalty! Even Ellie got personalized treatment at the hotel's restaurant - our waiter brought her oyster crackers and a large fruit cup - on the house!
Our trip began on Sunday the 16th with our semi-annual trip to Stanford for Ellie's appointment. We stopped in San Jose and enjoyed lunch with our friends there, and then we spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening in Mountain View's Hampton Inn - Ellie had her very own play area in the room - perfect evening for all of us!
Monday's appointment went very well and Ellie's heart continues to be beating in its own rhythm for the most part. Her pacemaker has been used 8% of the time since our last visit. What we were amazed with was how well Ellie did with the appointment. She smiled at all the doctors and nurses, and kept fairly still while her pacemaker was being examined, during her vitals check, and throughout the EKG - it is not very easy for a baby to be hooked up to all those wires, not touch them, and then be completely still for 10 whole seconds for the reading! We distracted her with her rice puffs - started off by giving her one at a time - but then she put her hand into the container and grabbed handfuls at a time - and while messy, it was the perfect trick to distract her!
We enjoyed lunch in Palo Alto and cupcakes at Sprinkles, a cupcake shop founded by one of the judges on the show 'Cupcake Wars' - soooooooooooooooooooo yummy! We headed to Monterey and arrived by around 5:00PM. The hotel is located on their famous Cannery Row, so we enjoyed an evening stroll looking at all of the fun stores and shops on that street.
Our favorite part of the whole vacation was taking Ellie to the Monterey Aquarium on Tuesday. There were hardly any people there and Ellie got to crawl and walk around as much as she wanted. It was incredible watching the aquarium's displays through Ellie's eyes. It reminded me of our visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco to celebrate our 2nd year anniversary two years ago... it was there that I suddenly realized how much I wanted a baby.... how much I wanted to see the world through my baby's eyes...
Below is a video from the aquarium - Ellie was trying to catch the fish through the glass...
We also have pictures from our holiday party/Jeremiah's 30th Birthday party celebration on Saturday night...
And of course, there's just some pictures of Ellie being Ellie... :)
Special milestones this week - Ellie took two steps for the first time on Saturday night, December 15th!
And tonight (12/19) - Ellie walked from the ottoman to my arms for the first time - about 4 steps!!!! (and she had the biggest smile ever!)
Ellie adores these Christmas toys from her Mimi Cindi!
Ellie and her friend Marissa enjoyed playing the night away :) Ellie walked around and around and around this ottoman all evening, and Marissa enjoyed climbing on top of it... the difference between 1 year!
Ellie enjoyed using Marissa's back as an obstacle to get around as she made her way around and around and around the ottoman!
Portrait time! The kids are totally confused... :)
Left to right - Me & Ellie, Diana & Jaden, Yasmin & Marissa
And now onto our trip! We stopped at our usual spot - Outdoor World - so much to see! It was beautifully decorated for Christmas!
Ellie has gotten better and better, and faster and faster walking around while holding on with only one hand!
Ellie stuck her hand directly into the footprint imprinted in the store's floor!
Playtime at Hampton Inn!
When Ellie has her appointments, we always try to visit the nurses that helped out Ellie so much at Stanford's NICU after her surgery- nearly a year later (!!!!), it was truly wonderful to see Jean & Roberta again.
We got lunch at Stanford's outdoor mall - it was soooooooooooooooooooo busy - perhaps no one up there has a job to go to on Mondays??? We parked about a mile away! But Ellie was thrilled to be in her Daddy's arms in the cool Fall air...
An amazing part about this trip was the weather - it was BEAUTIFUL - a little rainy, and cool and crisp... but yet not too cold. And instead of rain on the aquarium day (as the forcast had promised), we had the sunniest and most beautifully clear day to enjoy!
Sprinkles! I had a chocolate peppermint cupcake and Jeremiah had a triple Cinnamon cupcake - Ellie had no cupcake...we have one more month before introducing that to her!!!
This was our beautiful room in Monterey - there was a wonderful patio/balcony just outside.
The lobby reminded me of the Titanic!
Our stroll on Cannery Row
Dinner!
A new milestone - Ellie now enjoys dancing when she hears music!
Delicious food! For all three of us!
We really enjoyed the hotel lobby's fireplace - Ellie enjoyed walking around and around the table.
We were so surprised to find this note in our room wishing us a Happy Anniversary - chocolate covered strawberries and $20 off at the hotel's restaurant! We will totally come back to this place! Notice that the note was personalized to us!
This was our hotel's plaza/patio - Ellie was in awe of the ocean...and perhaps a little scared of it...
I don't think that bird ever left his post during our entire stay...
Five minutes later, this was Ellie - she is definitely enjoying the special place we decided to take her!
She soon woke up... just in time to see the end of the Penguin feeding.
The best part about this aquarium was their area called Splash Zone - all for babies and toddlers! Here there was a trampoline-type pad - the idea was to put children on top of it so they could get a sense of ocean waves.... Ellie liked crawling all over it.
She also liked touching the plastic fish as they swam about in their little pool...
She walked through the entire "underground" tunnel
And she rolled about in the gigantic life-size clam shell!
And toward the end of the day, she touched the Starfish in the Touch Pool!
Definitely a fun-filled day!
Back at the hotel, Ellie continued her walk around the lobby's table in front of the warm fireplace...
And after dinner, Jeremiah put on his handsome spa robe (only $95 if we wanted to take it home!!!) - and we enjoyed room-service... our delicious 7-layer chocolate cake cost us $13.00!!! (we found this out the NEXT day...)
Ellie was so excited by the day's events that she didn't want to go to sleep that night! So instead, she rolled about on the bed, clapped her hands, squealed, and played with us - what a perfectly wonderful end to a perfectly fantastic day!
And we ended our stay in Monterey by waking up early the next morning to catch the sunrise! (Notice, the bird is STILL there!)
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