Month 20

Dear Corbin,

You are 20 months old this month. You're getting at least two more teeth. You love music and singing and dancing. We had a very eventful month: your Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena got married, and then we spent a week seeing Kings Canyon, Sequoia National Park, and Death Valley.

On Sunday October 3rd, you left for California with G&G Lam. You drove for four days to San Diego, and by then you were very ready to stop being in your car seat all day. But you did really well on the drive--you played with stickers and you colored and played with balloons that Grandma blew up for you--and you did manage to sleep pretty well each night.

On Thursday the 7th, Dad and I flew out to San Diego to meet up with everyone. On Friday we had the wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, at which you charmed everyone like you always do. Saturday was the wedding, which went very well and was a lot of fun. You enjoyed yourself at the reception, especially after you and I sampled a bit too much of the chocolate fountain. Of course, that was exactly when the wedding party got up to give their speeches, so we had to go and have our sugar highs somewhere else for a while until that was done.

Sunday was a fun day, when Dad and I went kayaking with my Aunt Cele and Uncle Russ. We saw sea lions and tiger sharks and got to kayak into some caves. Then we had dinner with the Lam relatives and said goodbye to everyone since that was our last night in San Diego. On Monday morning, we headed north to KC/SNP. It was a much longer drive than we expected, mainly because the road into the park is so twisty and turn-y that we could only drive about 30mph. The best part was that we saw three bears driving into the park--exciting!

We spent the next two days walking around in the Giant Forest and the Grant Grove of sequoias. Those are some really big trees. Really. They're big. And old. They're about 24 thousand months older than you are right now. It's really impressive to stand next to one of those trees and contemplate the idea of life on earth. We all agreed that Dad's idea to see the big trees was a winner. Dad and I also hiked up to the top of a peak called Big Baldy, which had some pretty incredible views. And then I got really excited about seeing a crow, and your dad laughed at me a lot.

On Thursday the 14th we left KC/SNP and drove east to Death Valley. We stayed just outside of Death Valley National Park, in Beatty, Nevada. You made your first foray into a casino, because there are very few restaurants in Nevada that are not in casinos. I don't think anyone let you gamble, but if you did, you lost. Let that be a lesson to you.

Death Valley is actually a very interesting place. It seems to have something of a chip on its shoulder about being named Death Valley. Its museum is a bit strident about the fact that lots of people have lived in Death Valley, and that even though immigrants to CA named it Death Valley, only one immigrant actually died there. There were some interesting exhibits about the mineral mining there, but you really liked the giant dinosaur skull that they had. After driving to the place with the lowest elevation in the US (minus 282 feet), we turned east again and drove to Las Vegas.

We stayed the night in a very nice hotel outside of Vegas, and then on Saturday morning you got on a place with Dad and I back to Minneapolis. You did really well on the flight, which was a blessing because Dad ended up not feeling well so it was up to me to entertain you. It was really nice to get home and see our dogs and sleep in our own beds! But with the Lams driving back, you had to go to day care this week, which made for a few rocky moments but seemed to end up all right. Thankfully, we'll all be able to get back into our regular routine now. At least, until the Lams take you off to Madison again.

It was a lot of fun to see so many family members that we haven't seen in a long time. It's a good thing that there are so many fun things to do in this country, since we have family living all over the place. I hope that you don't pass up chances to visit and explore. Traveling can be hard in so many ways, and yet there are so many things that you cannot learn any other way. When I was younger and traveled alone, I learned a lot about getting along with strange people. Now that I travel with you and your father, I'm learning a lot about getting along with strange people.

Love,
Mom