A Day in the Life

Fridays are my “day off” … day off from office work that is. I had an extremely busy yet pretty typical day on Friday and I wanted to write it down for posterity’s sake something, perhaps, to show the kids when they are parents of young children.

6 AM – Wake up and hop right on the treadmill. Hopping “right on” actually involves about 15-20 minutes of eye-rubbing, yawning, stretching, dressing and setup (fans, TV). Make it a paltry 5 of the 12K I have on the schedule.

6:45 AM – Hop off the treadmill and drag Matt out of bed, dress the kids, hand them some toast and hit the road. While on the road, I make a doctor’s appt for Ben since he STILL has the darn cough. That pretty much eliminates all possibility of going to the gym with Matt as planned.

7:30 AM – Drop Matt’s car off at the dealership for floor-mat recall and oil change.

8:10 AM – Check in at the clinic for Ben’s appointment. Children persist in touching everything in site and I imagine germs crawling all over them.

8:20 AM – Appointment begins with weigh-in. He has finally gained a teeny bit of weight (1 lb). Kids drive us nuts in the exam room. They have chosen to store the IV poles in the corner (who thought THAT was a good idea?).

8:30 AM NP arrives. I’m pretty sure she thinks our kids are out of control. Tabby won’t stop talking and Ben won’t stop climbing. After all the cursory exams, we leave about 20 min later with a script for amoxycillin and a diagnosis of sinusitis.

8:50 AM I send Ben and Matt to the car to wait while Tabby and I wait on Ben’s script at the clinic pharmacy. We pass the time by playing word and math games. “What letter does Amoxycillin start with? Which is a better deal – 100 claratin for $15 or 50 Claratin for $10?”

9:00 AM We exit the clinic with Ben’s bottle o’ pink in hand.

9:10 AM Arrive at the nearby Target and QUICKLY execute my shopping list for our weekend away.

9:50 AM Arrive home and see that Loki has dispatched the remainder of our almost new loaf of bread. Curse under my breath and then hop on the treadmill again while the kids destroy the playroom. I execute another 5K, bringing my total for the day to 10/12K. Good enough!

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Memorial Day Weekend Wrap-Up

It is super-greedy, but even when I have a nice long weekend, I always want more. Such was the case of this weekend.

I left for Vail with the girlfriends on Friday afternoon. We had a nice evening on Friday with much wine and conversation. Saturday we slept in, had breakfast and then rented bikes! We rode all over Vail, checking out houses and other sights. After a light lunch and some naps and general chilling, we went to dinner at Sweet Basil (one of our all-time favorites), where we netted an excellent off-season deal. We got to walk around town afterward and then of course there was more wine and conversation. Everyone enjoyed the break of being away from husbands and kids and (though I did not plan it this way) it was extra nice because when we went home on Sunday morning, we had the better part of two days of weekend still left.

I was very glad to see my little family when I got back. Matt and the kids had kept very busy with this and that and the house wasn’t even too wrecked. We rested and made a trip to Costco and then had a little Memorial Day BBQ on the patio with my parents, sister and GiGi.

Monday was my lost day. Matt went over to our friends’ house to work on their basement and I was at home with the kiddos. We did a whole lot of nothing … breakfast, breakfast cleanup, playtime, playtime cleanup, lunch time, lunchtime cleanup, naps. I even took a nap. When Matt got home, we ran some errands and then magically, it was time for dinner, followed by bedtime.

The house isn’t terrible, but it sure isn’t CLEAN. The menu for this week consists of whatever’s in the fridge. I haven’t exercised in three days. But I’m very very rested and that counts for quite a bit.

Weekend Away

Can you believe it’s almost memorial day? It feels like Christmas was just last week. Maybe I’m confused because we got snow recently and the kids and I still have coughs. Who could blame me.

But Memorial Day Weekend is almost here and I am heading with some of my best girls to the mountains for a much-needed long-anticipated girls’ weekend. There will be 7 of us hanging out, drinking wine and doing practically NOTHING. I don’t think the weather’s supposed to be stellar, but that is beside the point. Just doing nothing is such a treat when you wrangle kiddos all day.

I am looking forward to it and I know I’ll have fun, but a part of me is very sad to say goodbye to my family for a few days. I always miss them and I don’t get to see my kids a TON during the week, and part of me hates to give up any weekend time with them. Matt is making plans with other solo dads and my parents to keep them entertained and busy. And best of all, since it’s a long weekend, we still get plenty of time together when we come back early Sunday afternoon.

On My Mind

We are trying to plan travel for this year. It is never an easy prospect. We have to arrange loads of things like people’s work schedules, plane tickets, accommodations, and the like. And it’s getting better, but still the thought of traveling with our two kiddos and all it entails sort of makes me break out into hives. But we will do it and it will be fine. It’s a bit like getting a shot … it’s much worse in my imagination than in reality. Anyhow, we are planning to visit our Nashville family sometime in late June (when my SIL and BIL can get time off). We want to go to the Gatlinburg/Seiverville area and rent a cabin for a while. It’s gorgeous there. Then in September we want to go to NYC to do the fun NYC stuff and also to check out Maker Faire, a big ol’ nerd fest where inventors (makers) bring their projects and show them off. These clips from Martha Stewart will totally make you want to check it out.

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She’ll Be Coming Down the Mountain

 

Today marks a red-letter day in my Tabby’s history … the first day she got to ride a ski-lift. She’s been tooling around on the conveyor belt known as the magic carpet for over a year now and as of today she has graduated to the ski lift. Matt took her up for the last run of her short day and almost exploded with pride.

 

She has gotten amazingly good at stopping and turning and seems to have such good control of herself. It has been amazing to see her develop these skills right before our very eyes.

I am on vacation at the moment and will probably be posting sporadically for the next few days. Then I’m likely to have quite a lot to say.

Happy New Year to you all. Hope it’s starting off wonderfully. Cheers!

Falling for Fall

 


We packed up the car this weekend and headed off to our favorite weekend getaway, Vail. It is “mud season” there right now, between the mountain-biking, hiking summer season and the snow-crazy winter season and it is LOVELY! It is less-crowded and really pretty.

 

It was a huge treat for everyone since not only did my parents and sister join us, but also my grandma (my kids call her Gigi). It was overcast and rainy and we laid pretty low. We went out and walked the town and looked around at Betty Ford Gardens on Friday. Matt and I had a brief, fairly chilly bike ride on Saturday. And today we drove over Independence and Tennessee passes with a stop in Leadville to take in some purple mountain majesties.

In between we cooked, napped, played computer games, went to Starbucks, bought some nailers and an air compressor (don’t ask), watched movies, read books and generally vegged out. It was very nice.

Now I must hit the ground RUNNING. We have back-to-back action until the end of the month. Then I’ll have to head back to Vail to recharge again, right??

Loads more photos here.

Travel Wrap-Up

I have to confess that my slightly obsessive nature really doesn’t enjoy traveling with kids. I always enjoy the being there part, but the getting there bit unnerves me. There’s so much effort that goes into planning and packing and lugging through the airport. It’s exhausting. And it seems like I always end up with way too much stuff.

But like anything else, the more I do it, the easier it gets. I learn something new every time I do it, little tips and tricks that make it more simple. And of course I learn some things to work on for next time:

Wins:
• The church van!! We had 7 people in our initial group and 9 once our friends joined us, so we rented a 11-seater “church van.” We might have been able to make it with a mini-van, but luggage was going to be a problem and no one relished the idea of a 1.5 hour car trip (to San Diego) wedged between two carseats. It was big, but very very nice. We could even load the stroller without folding it up.
• We bought cheap ($20) luggage carts from Wa*lmart to wheel the (huge!) carseats, and occasionally the kids, around on at the airport. They easily stored on the plane and at our destination. BIG win. And as an added bonus, we could check the stroller.
• Of course just taking the carseats along is a huge pain in the rear, but it’s the third time we’ve done it and I’m always glad, especially with Ben who has NO desire to sit in one place unless it’s mandated by straps.
• We really successfully pared down our carry-on luggage. We had a (small) backpack for each kid, our camera bag and a small suitcase which held our running gear, laptop and a few other cannot-get-lost-in-baggage items plus my (very small) purse.
• Renting a house: love this since we can get up in shifts, eat breakfast and dinner at home, pack snacks, do laundry and have most of the comforts of home.
• Disneyland! I knew Tabby would enjoy the big D, but I had no idea how much Ben would. Excellent place for little kids.
• Story-teller Cafe – great food, cool characters, fun time. Would do it all over again.
• Thunder Mountain Ranch – great food, very reasonable prices, fun atmosphere and near Ben’s petting zoo.
• Sprint Navigation – we used the navigation app on our Sprint Phones to get us everywhere. It was really accurate and so easy to use. Just remember to bring a car charger – GPS eats battery!

Losses:
• World of Color: the show was cool enough, but their “preferred viewing” was a joke. No one under 5’6″ could see a thing. And you can’t call it a World of Color Picnic when you have your picnic in a completely separate space. Boo.
• Ariel’s Grotto … food was OK, but we all felt like the experience was a bit over-priced. Tabby loved meeting the princesses of course, but you can do that at The Princess Faire too.
• Food over-buying – we got a little too carried away at Costco and had too much left over at the end. I think we over-estimated how much we’d be at the house and that accounted for most of it. We did donate the excess to a local food bank, though.
• Chillaxing – I came home absolutely exhausted, something hard to avoid in any case, but I do wish I’d spent a little more time sleeping and not running all over the place. This is a lesson that we are really bad at learning.

All in all, wonderful trip.

Southern California Day 9

 


Friday was our final full day in California and our final day at Disney. We had innumerable last things to finish up and we did them all justice. Lunch was a fun highlight, the Thunder Mountain Ranch with really tasty all-you-care-to-eat BBQ and a fun musical show. Nearby there was one of Ben’s favorite attractions, a petting zoo with the most docile goats and sheep I’ve ever seen. Both kids enjoyed it a lot. We also got to check out some more of California Adventure and Ben was particularly fond of the Bugs Life sprayground, where he played for at least 30 minutes.

 

Later that evening, my parents took the kids home and Matt, Kelly, Donna and Ed and I stayed at the park to ride some “big kid” rides. Matt and Kelly raved about Screaming California and everyone enjoyed the Symphony Swings and the Mini Coaster. I was suckered into doing the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which I am not keen to ever do again (being as I am about 75% chicken). After all of that, we tried to get back to Disneyland to do Indiana Jones and Space Mountain, but we were plagued by broken rides and long lines and finally EXHAUSTION.

We loved Disney and the trip overall, but it will be a long time before I’m much interested in a theme park.

Southern California Day 8

 


We made the longish journey to San Diego on Thursday to see the Zoo. It is a pretty large zoo with some really incredible animals, including pandas and koala bears. The pandas were by far my favorite, but Tabby preferred the giraffes and flamingos.

 

After the zoo, we had dinner at Bo’s Seafood market, which was quite tasty and had a little more frozen yogurt, this time at Fuji Yogurt. The drive home was easy since we were after rush hour, save a fun little immigration checkpoint, probably about 80 miles from the border. Somewhat strange.

Southern California Day 7

 


On Wednesday, our group of 7 grew to 9 when we picked up our family friends, Donna and Eddie from the airport so they could join in on all the fun. The first day with them we drug them to Disneyland for a full day. The day was cooler again and relatively uncrowded and nice. The kids got to meet some of their faves and we rode on plenty of rides.

 

We planned to do the World of Color Picnic in the evening, so we spent some time there. Unfortunately, the World of Color Picnic was very little picnic and much more about a cattle-call style seating arrangement and we were none too pleased with this. The show itself was cool, but our “Preferred Seating” kind of sucked and we were pretty displeased with this experience to say the least.