Pullman Visit

Ok, I'm mustering up the energy to share our last few days of vacation.

Since the girls were adjusted to the west coast time zone, we wanted to take advantage and stop by Pullman to visit our friends, whom we miss dearly.

We left the beautiful Bay Area

and arrived at the rolling hills of the Palouse.

We were all exhausted by this point, so I want to say thank you to all those we saw who tolerated our glazed-over eyes and less than stellar wit.

I got to see a former voice student of mine, who placed as second runner up that week in Washington's Distinguished Young Women's competition.

Go Lindsay!

We spent as much time as we could with Owen, Maia's best friend (oh and Sage and Chelsea as well.)

We ate pancakes

and went on some walks.

These two.

 

3 years ago.

The girls had a lot of fun in Owen and Sage's backyard.

Playing in the house,

filling up the pool,

 digging in the sand,

and learning how to touch pets without getting hysterical.

Owen.

I mean, come on.

How cute is this kid?!

 And we spent some time inside too.

Coloring on the chalkboard,

and painting nails!!!!

Seriously, Chelsea has like the best house ever.

And I always feel awkward taking pictures of our grown up friends.

Do I ask if it's ok to take their picture and put it on the blog?

Do I need to bring waiver forms?

It's just too awkward for me.

Which is why there aren't any pictures of all the other people we got to see.

And it's a shame, because they are some good looking people!

But the ducks don't care if they're on a blog or not.

All 50 of them!

Or dogs.

Proof that Maia actually pet a dog!

We saw so many dear friends.

And didn't get nearly enough time with all of them.

Our hearts were so full when we left.

Here we are, a year after our move to Kansas. And Aleks and I both agree that Kansas is so much better for us in the long term.

But man oh man, how we miss the friendships we formed during our time in Pullman.

For all the people we got to visit during our trips to CA and WA, there were just as many that we didn't get to see.

I'm grateful that our lives are enriched with so many good people.

And for those of you we missed this time, get ready, you're on our list for the next one!

Beach Life

Now that we're finally home and things are settling down, I've had a chance to look through our vacation pictures!

Our CA trip ended with a stay at a beach house in Watsonville with Aleks' mom, sister, and our two nieces.

On the way there, we stopped to see my good friend Christy and her husband Zach.

Aren't they cute?!

Actually, this is the original picture; Ruby wouldn't let Christy put her down.

This long weekend was definitely a high point for me.

I loved showing my girls the ocean for the first time, staying at an adorable beach house with my family, and absorbing as much of the sand and water as I could.

This is one of Maia and Ruby's cousins, Emma. She's 4 1/2.

And here's another cousin, Lizzie, who is 12.

She was the flower girl in our wedding. Gah, I'm getting old!

I love an overcast beach day more than I love a sunny beach day.

Ruby seeing the beach for the first time.

"Oooo, ocean!"

And Maia, "Can we go home now?"

But there was lots of digging in the sand with cousin Lizzie to take her mind off of the loud waves.

And Ruby was fascinated by the sand.

At one point she was on her stomach, nose almost touching the sand, diligantly poking at sand clumps to break them up.

It lasted for a good 10 minutes.

As soon as we got back to the house, Maia took off her pants and underwear.

???

And there was lots of girly cousin things going on.

Painting nails.

Dressing up.

We also got to visit the Monterey Bay aquarium.

Here Aleks and Maia were watching a show about sea life (?). Not a bad way to put your BA in music to use.

Touching a starfish.

Aleks is almost as tall as a baby whale!

And there was lots more digging and sand castle making.

So beautiful.

What am I doing in Wichita?! This is where I need to be!

Oh yeah, I can actually afford a house in Kansas...

And on our drive back to NoCal we introduced the girls to In-n-Out.

And their first milkshakes.

Ruby loved it, but Maia was not impressed.

8/4/12

Here are the things you need to know:
1. Ruby is 23 months old
2. Maia is 3 1/4 years old
3. Ruby usually goes to bed at 5:30 and if Maia has not had a nap, she follows shortly after at 6 or 6:30
4. Yesterday Maia did not have a nap
5. We traveled with 3 suitcases and 2 carseats
6. Our flight Saturday morning departed at 6:30 am

I'm writing this in Wichita, after our marathon "vacation" of three weeks.
(Vacation is in quotes because traveling with 2 littles isn't really a vacation in the conventional sense.)
However our trip home really started yesterday.

8/3
3:36 pm: We leave for Spokane after loading up our rental car.

4:40: 20 minutes outside Spokane I realize that we need to stop at a grocery store to get dinner for our girls.

5:00: A quick trip through Safeway gets us blueberries, gold fish, peanut butter crackers, cookies, and milk. All of which will be breakfast tomorrow morning as well. Both Ruby and Maia are starting to get ornery. I push food on them in the car so as to expedite the bedtime process.

5:30: We check into our hotel room, which contains 2 double beds. It takes Aleks 3 trips to carry all our luggage up to the second floor; there is no elevator. Maia and Ruby are fascinated with the hotel phone and purposely ignore my instructions of "leave the phone alone!"

6:30: The girls are in PJs, teeth brushed (x2 since Ruby found the goldfish and dumped them out on the bed for a little pre-bedtime snack), and clearly tired. We pull the shades closed and turn on the incredibly loud fan. Aleks lays with Maia in one bed and I lay with Ruby in the other. Ruby lies quietly while Maia is up and down, talking ("I don't want to go to bed!"), and trying to touch the phone.  I hear Aleks say that he's going to start counting and Maia should just listen to the numbers.

7:00: Aleks is at 250 and Maia is asleep. He tiptoes over to me and whispers that he's going to return the rental car and then get dinner.

7:12: I get cold and pull the blanket over Ruby and myself. That seems to unleash the beast. For the next hour Ruby is constantly moving, readjusting the blanket, turning over, touching my face. I try to get out of bed a couple times, since I'm obviously contributing to her insomnia, but she starts crying and yelling at me "pillow!" while pointing at the empty spot next to her. I quickly lie down, even though I know in the long run this will make it worse, because Maia is asleep and heaven knows I don't want to be counting all night.

7:50: I text Aleks and tell him to come help and to bring water so I can take some medicine for the pounding in my head that is getting louder and louder.

7:55: Aleks comes to the room and we switch. Initially Ruby is upset that I'm no longer there, but seems to calm fairly quickly. As I sit down in the chair, she catches sight of me and starts crying. I go to the bathroom again to get out of sight. Ruby's cries have quickly turned into banshee-esque screams and Maia wakes up. Thankfully Maia doesn't seem to perturbed by the situation and just rolls over.

8:05: Ruby does not calm down. I come back in and lay down on the bed with her. She immediately stops crying and 2 minutes laters is sound asleep. Of course, she's managed to end up in the middle of the bed. Aleks and I watch the Olympics with the sound turned off. We text back and forth to figure out a game plan for the morning. I doze off some time around 9:30.

8/4

1:20 am: Maia wakes up. I hear her say "Daddy, I'm not touching the phone, I'm just looking at it." Ruby wakes up and starts her gymnastics routine again. Thankfully both girls go back to sleep after 15 minutes or so. Actually I have no idea how long it was. I just know I hissed, "Maia, shhh" several times and told Ruby to "lie down!"

4:00: Aleks wakes up. He showers and then heads over to the airport to bring back a luggage cart.

5:00: The wake up call comes. Amazingly both girls sleep through it. I drag myself out of bed, take 4 more Advil, and get dressed. We get the girls up. Maia is teary and doesn't want to go potty or wear a jacket. Ruby's excited.

5:15: We load up the cart and take it down the hall. I don't know what takes longer, getting the girls down the stairs, or the 4 trips it takes Aleks to get all the stuff down the stairs. We start the 1/2 mile walk to the airport. Once Maia's jacket is off, she's good to go. I stop to pick Ruby up 3 different times and carry her until I can't feel my arms anymore and set her down.

6:00: We walk to our gate and start the boarding process.

6:40: We're in the air. Everyone is there. We've all got our phones (and chargers!). Ruby's got a clean diaper. Maia is eating blueberries. I'm SUPER grumpy.

9:30ish: We're in Denver. I'm trying to figure out with the time change and all when I can take some more Advil.

10:10: I finally get my first sweet, sweet sips of coffee.

11:30: We're boarding our plane to Wichita. Surprisingly, the girls are much more mellow on this flight.

2:00: We touch down in Kansas.

2:30-6:00: Laundry, unpacking, shower, grocery shopping, car wash, playing, tv (Dinosaur Train), dinner, bath, bed.

As I was saying good night to Maia, she asked me "Where are we going tomorrow?"

Ha!

It's good to be home.

I've got lots of pictures to share. 

I'll share our adventures soon.