Christmas Vacation (Part 1)

For Christmas we went home to California! I so miss the weather and climate there! It was good to be with my mom for the holidays this year as our hearts were tender missing my dad.

Dress Up!
These first pictures are from dressing up Becca in dresses that were mine when I was little. These are all dresses that my mom and Grandma made for my sister and I.

This first one is a really cute Christmas dress I had, but it was awfully short on Becca. Her diaper bum showed in the back, so we didn't take this one with us.

I love this shot! It reminds me of The Sound of Music for some reason. This is our "ice cream" dress. If you see this one on her at church sometime, it's cause it was too cute to not bring with us!

So cute! Almost like a classic Danish Christmas dress. The embroidery on the skirt is so so pretty! She will be wearing this one too for sure!

Happy Birthday Mom!
The 21st is my Mom's birthday so we celebrated with Prime rib dinner, presents, and lemon-jello cake! Yum!

Mom and Grandpa Fred.

Wendy and Sean.

The best shot of all of us. Becca was being a grump. She was tired.

Present time. Christian and becca had to help!

Cake...the best part of any birthday.

Visiting the Gravesite
On Tuesday we went to the cemetary where both my grandma and my father are burried.
Becca on the bench with my grandparent's names on it. (Grandpa is still around, but hey...)

Hope Riccilli with her two grandchildren from her only granddaughters.

Becca at Papa's grave. (The headstone isn't there yet.)

Becca and Christian.

This was a very tender trip and a hard reminder that we were missing my dad so much this Christmas. But it was good for us to go all the same.

The Aquarium of the Pacific at Long Beach
On Wednseday we went to the aquarium in Long Beach with my friend Amy and one of her friends, Jeremy. It was fun to see her again and catch up. And Becca LOVED the fish!

This is one of the sharks! It was feeding time when we got there.

The Moray Eel!

Becca and daddy by the BIG tank when you walk in.

Mom and Becca with a tank FULL of Jellyfish.

Becca trying to gently touch a sea anemone...trying being the operative word!

These crabs were huge. They made me want some crab legs to be honest...

Becca with the hall of tropical fish.

They had some frogs there. Becca just loved them!

Becca with a green, black and white, poisonous dart frog.

A Shark egg that they've taken the layers off so you can see the shark growing inside. Pretty cool!

This fish was just cool. ;)

Mom and Becca at the diver show.

the diver is in there somewhere surrounded by the fish!

More fish feeding frenzy!

It was a really fun day. We also pet the rays (Becca was too small to reach far enough to touch one) and saw the seal and sea lion show (which I am surprised I don't have any pictures of...huh.) and Becca just LOVED them!

Up next...Christmas! (One of these days I will be caught up!)