Thwarted

After planning, taking, and posting Amelia's pic each month, I wanted the last of the year-long series to be special. I wanted it to say "I've arrived" or something glamorous like that.
My first plan was to take A to the beach on her actual birthday, past the hullabaloo that was her party. Take her to the coast and write "12Months" in the sand beside her. Wouldn't that be too cute? Then I was sick on her birthday. I made it through the party and literally came down with a cold that night and was sick for the rest of the week--including a nasty case of hives also from the party. bah.
So her actual birthday was kind of a non-day.
We couldn't go to the beach that weekend because of a family wedding that Saturday and post-wedding obligations that Sunday. bah.
This past weekend was our best bet.
We woke up to cloudy skies and a cool breeze! Not the best Bodega Bay weather at all an by now it's June, we are headed to the coast in a mere month. Why spend 5 hours in the car for a 1-2 hour run at the beach when we will be there next month anyway? Mind you, I would normally think that any amount of time in the car would be worth any amount of time at the beach, but with Amelia, things like *time* are a bit different than they used to be.
We decided instead to head to our other favorite spot--Tahoe--to take pics on the lake. Except that Amelia began whining about 20 minutes after we left home and was crying full-blown by 30 minutes out. We could have pushed forward and waited for her to sleep, but there were no signs of her crashing. It was her first road trip with her new, snazzy car seat and she was all sortsa distracted by being able to see everything in front of her!
Add to that my not feeling well with a splitting headache that only grew with the whining and Justin having bouts of dizziness in the car. WTF?! We decided to stop along the river and see what we could do about pics.

Let's just say it wasn't the same. At. All. We were out of the car for maybe 15 minutes before we were back on our way home. BAH!
And after all that, no great 12-month photo shoot. Can you believe that?! So disappointing.

So here is Amelia at various places at 12 months.






And for the purists out there. Here she is on the actual day!