A Long Day Ahead

Hello all! My parents have been here since Saturday, so it has been a long week. I can't STRESS that enough. ; ) To finish off about our California trip, we had a nice reception at Marla's parents' house after the funeral, during which Quinn impressed people with his awe-inspiring eating habits and ran across the living room over and over again. He dutifully charmed everyone. The following day, Sunday, Jamel's boss gave him another day off so we decided to spend it as a family doing something fun. We'd had enough sadness. Even though everyone didn't get moving until almost noon (not everyone has an early-bird baby in their room, I guess), we ended up going to Disneyland. I know, kind of weird after a funeral, but we all agreed that's what Louella would have wanted. She loved to see everybody spending time together and getting along, which we (mostly) did. It was so cool to see Quinn experience the Disney thing for the first time. We have such cool pictures of us on Dumbo. (I know I'm WAY behind on posting pics. Our camera hasn't been able to connect to the computer. We fixed it today and will catch up soon.) It was really great for all the cousins to spend so much time together. Quinn fell in love with Hayley, and she couldn't get enough of him.
We had a bit of trouble getting home. Jalal managed to get us seats together on the flight, but he had a hard time sleeping for the first couple hours. We got a fair number of dirty looks and rolling eyes even though he was comparitively an angel. I can't stand it when people can't be a little understanding of how hard it is for babies and toddlers to fly for four and a half hours straight without getting to walk around. Come on! Our flight from Atlanta was postponed an hour and 15 minutes, and then our luggage got left behind. So we got home at almost 2 in the morning minus our suitcases. They didn't get delivered until 4:30 the next afternoon. Whew. It's all over though for a while. We've discussed setting a rule that we don't travel again if it can't be done on a road trip, at least not for a year or so.
Then we had just a few days to unpack, recover, and sleep before my parents got here. That has been tough, as my dad isn't very mobile and won't eat enough to keep his strength up. At least they seem to be enjoying Quinn and his antics. Right now, Trish and Wade are on their way here. They should be here in another hour or so. I'm so excited. And my bridesmaid dress got here just today!! Can you believe that luck? So we'll both go get fitted tomorrow, but first is Quinn's first birthday party!! I'm so excited! My Aunt Jacquie and Uncle Marcus are coming from Tennessee, too, and they haven't even met Quinn yet. Barry, Vicky, Aundrea, and Erika are coming up for the day as well. That's so cool. So I'll be sure and post some pictures and stories about the day in the upcoming week. I better go finish cleaning up and I still have some work to do on an edit. By the way, I need a job. If anyone knows of anyone who needs freelance copyediting or proofreading that I can do from home, send them my way. Arcadia is stopping their freelance work, and my job search so far has been less than fruitful. So help me stay a WAHM if you can. Thanks! Love, Us.