Battling the Flu :(

Avi Grace coloring at home

Well the week started out normally, but by Tuesday afternoon Avi Grace was sick. She threw up at school twice on Tuesday afternoon and since then she has been running a fever. I thought she must have some type of stomach bug, but I finally took her to the doctor this morning because she was running a 103.6 temperature. Turns out, she has the FLU. I knew the high temps weren't from a stomach bug, but I also didn't expect the flu, really. On the plus side, I guess she's probably halfway through with it now. 

Avi Grace has really been interested in using a pen or pencil these days. We decided that giving her a pen to color with wasn't the best idea ever. I've been meaning to buy her some colors, so while we were at the drug store this morning getting her tamiflu, I bought her some colors. She enjoyed coloring with the green color when we got home! Actually she REALLY wanted to go outside, even though it is raining a flood here today. Thankfully the colors distracted her. We almost had a meltdown over going outside :).

These pics from the bathtub were from 2 different bath time occasions. Here hair is getting pretty long (and wild), especially in the back, so we can now make a pretty good mohawk with the shampoo. The top picture in the tub makes me wonder what in the world we are in for when she gets older!! She's like, "mom, enough already!!"

Avi Grace is really growing. Most of her pants are getting too short, but we are trying to stretch her wardrobe through the next month or so until we have warmer weather! I can't bring myself to buy her more pants and long sleeves at this point in the winter.

As I type this, she is sleeping on the couch next to me. While she has been sick, she has refused to take a nap in her bed. It has been frustrating, but I guess she just wants her mommy. I'm just thankful she is taking a nap at this point!

Avi Grace is saying ALL kinds of words. She pretty much tries to say EVERYTHING we say. Our favorite words that she is trying to say now are helicopter (tetetopter) and belly button (belloo balloo). She rolls the ls in belly and it is hysterical. Drew gets her to say it just so he can hear it and laugh! It's pretty cute. She's communicating pretty well these days, though, I must say!

More California Pictures

Lance Armstrong (in the middle with the yellow and black Livestrong gear on) with several other cyclists in the Tour of California

We had a WONDERFUL time in California. I just can't say enough about how much fun we had and how beautiful the Pacific Ocean is. On the last full day of our trip, we went to Santa Cruz to see Stage 2 of the Tour of California. It was a lot of fun, and although it was raining when we woke up, thankfully the weather was nice before and during the race. We saw on the news later that night that Santa Cruz had a hail storm later that afternoon! Glad we missed that! And, although our glance of Lance was short-lived, it was fun to see him ride into the finish line!

This is Levi Leipheimer, the Tour of California leader and Lance Armstrong Astana team member.

A picture of the Pacific on the beautiful 17-mile drive at Pebble Beach.

Okay, I just got a kick out of this! We had driven North of San Francisco on this scenic route, and when we were trying to get back on the freeway, we came to this red light! It seriously was a 5-minute red light. Seemed like we sat there forever!

Yes, I got a little out of control with the pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is such an amazing structure. This isn't even half of the pictures I have of the bridge, but I thought I wouldn't bore you with all of them! Truly a sight to see!

For those of you looking for new pictures of Avi Grace, I promise I will post some of those soon too! She is a mess...talking up a storm!

Sunny San Francisco??

Drew and I have been in San Francisco since Thursday evening. We are having a wonderful time. Unfortunately, though, sunny San Francisco has turned out to be a fairly rainy San Francisco. On Friday we toured the Muirwoods Redwood forest (above picture). Thankfully the rain held off until we got back on the tour bus. Then we headed to Alcatrez where we met up with my friend Chris Bushby and a couple of her sweet friends.

This picture was taken outside Alcatrez. What a crazy place. It is so strange that there used to be a prison out on this island. Very strange. While we were touring Alcatrez, it started POURING DOWN RAIN. Thankfully the ferry was waiting on us when we came out!

Isn't this a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge? I have MANY others, and I'll share more later, but I was dying to post some of our pics. Yesterday we went across the bridge and headed up this fabulous mountainside road where we got these awesome views of the city and the bridge! Very cool.

These last two pictures were taken today in Carmel. We are staying the night in Carmel tonight, and I have absolutely fallen IN LOVE with this place. I LOVE CARMEL!!!! I want to move here...those of you who know my husband are laughing your heads off right now because you know that will NEVER happen! The picture just above this one is of one of the greens at the Pebble Beach Golf Course (maybe 18th??), and this one is a picture of the shoreline just down from that in Carmel. I'm in heaven (minus the horrible rain and wind we endured today!)

Tomorrow we head up to Santa Cruz (passed through there today) to HOPEFULLY catch a glimpse of Lance Armstrong in Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California. Looking forward to that and praying for a break in the rain until the race is over. According to the radar, doesn't look like that prayer is going to be answered the way I want it to!!