Californ-Eye-A

Dear Tante and Oma,

Early early Thursday morning Mama and Daddy put a crying ME! and a crying Sister in the car and we drove and drove and drove.

When I woke up the first time it was still dark and we were in Dixie!

No, not that Dixie.

In Utah they call St. George "Dixie" because Brigham Young sent Mormons there to grow cotton. I thought you needed water to grow cotton, but if those people in St. George have any water they sure are doing a good job of hiding it. They only things those people are growing are golf courses and scrub.

In Dixie they have a big "D" on the mountain for the university that didn't hire Daddy. Mama says the “D” stands for “darn hot.” She says it’s a good thing we didn’t move there because she’d never leave the house in the summer time. Daddy says they should retire there and he'll play golf. Mama says Daddy can retire there when she’s dead.

When I woke up the second time we were in someplace Mama and Daddy kept calling "Vegas, baby. Vegas." We had some breakfast at a place called Jack in the Box. Mama wasn’t impressed. Mama said, "What DO you do with a Kangaroo?" Then we kept driving.

The next time I woke we were at Starbucks. It was like home.

Then we were at Uncle Big John's and Aunt Nicole's!

Everything here is tall. Uncle John is tall. Baby Jack is tall. The house is three stories and the doors are tall. I'll bet they are as tall as my ceiling at home. The ceilings are even taller than the doors. I'll bet they are as tall as Daddy-- taller even-- and he's the tallest thing I know!

Just like Sister Sabrina, this is a house that tattles on you. When you open a door to the outside a bell chimes. Mama found that one out the hard way. I don’t think she was trying to escape, but you never know.

They have a really big sandbox and a really big swimming pool! These are called "the beach." We went to this beach on Thursday, and on Friday I got to play with the sand. Then Daddy held me and put my feet in the water. My pants got plenty wet, but I liked it a lot.

That baby Jack is one month older than I am but he can crawl and stand and walk around holding on to someone's hand.

It's sad.

I guess it's because he can't do yoga poses to get toys like I do, and he doesn't have a toy delivery system like I have (its name is "Sabrina") so he had to learn to crawl.

That lucky Jack has a Grammy named Miss Marie. She lives here with him. He also has a nanny named Miss Nina who comes to help Miss Marie. She is from Finland. She is very nice. I put my head on her shoulder today to show her how nice she is. Then I fell asleep.

More later!
Love,
Little Linnie Lou