Owen was out with daddy and grandpa, so we took Katie to the beach!
This is her saying “SNOW!” She kept saying snow snow snow—and we had to keep telling her it was sand. 🙂
Waving goodbye to the birds as they flew away!
Splashing in a little pool!
Chasing the birds!
Grandpa David and Tom took Owen with them to scout out potential fishing locations…
Someone had to get their feet washed before bed…which we learned is a bit difficult since she wants to splash and sit down for a real bath. You notice she has no pants on (since she sat down in the tub) and her shirt is a little wet. 🙂
We waited until Katie went down for her nap, then we took Owen down to the beach. It was a Red Flag day which meant dangerous surf conditions, but it was too cold to even get into the water anyway…but he still had fun!
She wants to go outside so desperately…and letting her out on the balcony keeps the begging at bay for a little while.
Both kids got to bed late tonight due to the long day of travel plus a time zone change…
We got on the road at 6:08am so I wasn’t surprised that Owen got a little tired after lunch…
Well, not Tetris-full but full in the sense that we didn’t have to worry about filling it to the brim…but all floor space is gone. If we hadn’t put some stuff in the garage, we would have needed the 70′ pod.
After the floors are done, the pod will be used for storage to stage the house.
Good morning!
We ran some errands then headed to our group lunch spot:
Waiting for drinks:
It sounded (and looked) better than it tasted:
The whole group:
Then it was back to the house for visiting, games (trivia, which my team came in fifth of five!), and fun! I missed pictures of the delicious catered Cuban dinner we had!
Cigars with Sheryl—a tradition!
Tom and Elle!
We knew we’d have an early morning so we said goodbyes around 11!
Aside from my usual 4:45am potty trip, I slept in until 7:41! WOOHOO!
We went to our host’s house to carpool to a Cuban lunch:
Then we joined him on errands…which included Costco and Total Wine:
Then it was back to the house to visit and hang out before dinner.
And then Sheryl was having issues getting the iPad to take a picture so we were laughing. 🙂
On our way to meet for the “high end” dinner!
We were originally going to do the “budget” dinner…but then learned that a forum friend from California that I’ve really wanted to meet was going to be attending as a last-minute surprise so we switched. So we got to sit next to Brett and hear lots of Apple stories (super interesting to me)—he was a top engineer at Apple for many years and just recently retired. You know Siri? That was him. HDR on your phone? Him. AppleTV? His team. Just fascinating.
Our table of 17:
Recreating a photo from last year (substituting Katie for Nancy who couldn’t make it this year):
And another California peep, Darren:
After a nice dinner and dropping people off at hotels, it was back to the house to visit for just a tiny bit until we called it a night—the previous night was 12:30 and tonight was 11:30 and we were exhausted!
After we checked in to the hotel it was straight to the sushi restaurant for dinner with friends. We had seen most of the small group last year but I was SUPER EXCITED to see Katie, one of my very bestest friends whom I hadn’t seen IN SEVEN YEARS! SEVEN YEARS! (It hadn’t felt like that long since we do talk online and text/call now and again…but it’s obviously not the same as seeing each other in person.) I think she was even more excited than I was, and we hugged hello for a good two minutes!
It’s a long-running joke that the two of us share a brain because we think a lot alike, have the same views, like the same things, have finished each other’s sentences, etc…and it was proven again tonight—remember we haven’t seen each other in seven years and really only talk on forums…yet we both wore black capris, a purple shirt, and a black jacket.
We visited with friends until after midnight then headed back to the hotel to crash—we hadn’t been up that late since I don’t know when…and were exhausted from a long day on the road.
We spent just a hair over 12 hours on the road to get to Florida… It went fairly smoothly and was actually quite relaxing without the kids (i.e. worrying about snack breaks and potty stops and whining and napping).
I got caught up on my blog entries and a mini stack of parenting magazines, Alice was texting updates and pictures…and we Skyped with Owen while flying down the highway:
The only annoying thing was the toll roads in Florida. First it’s a turnpike but you have to pay along the way (not just at exits). Then you think you’re getting off the turnpike but wait there’s an exact change only booth on the other side of the traffic light….so you’re apparently off the turnpike but still on a toll road that only has exact change/sunpass lanes and we don’t carry change. Then we hit a manned toll booth and got change…but then we were on I-75. WHAT?!? It was maddening (we’ve obviously never taken that route).
But we made it to the hotel without major incident. 🙂
I hate when companies change a good product. Owen has Crocs “Dawson” boots that I LOVE but he’s outgrown them.
Of course when I go to buy a bigger pair (easy, right?), that style has been COMPLETELY redesigned and now instead of boots they are slip-ons that look just like most other Crocs. 😡
And if I decided I wanted those? Oh well, no one has them in stock or they aren’t available in Youth sizes (at this point I don’t even care—the point is they aren’t available in Owen’s size).
It took me forever to find a perfect pair that wouldn’t be super warm (since we rarely need winter boots), came up high enough in case there was snow, would work for rain, and weren’t super expensive. And now I have to do it all over. Similar ones by Keen are twice as much. No thanks.
Ugh.
This morning Tom posted from Kyrgyzstan:
Where they’re staying at an Air Force Base:
Then he got to watch the new hobbit movie…then have a few beers (well, it’s a two beer maximum) with some buddies.
These are from his trip over and the first week in Afghanistan. He didn’t have time to write info on each photo until recently (which I wanted before posting them) so that’s why they’re a little late.
At the military airport At Cherry Point. The snack bar closes at 6pm, but they have the troops show up at 7pm and wait for 4 hrs…WTF?
Lobsters in the Airport at Bangor. Yes, fresh Lobsters. You can see the tank at the back left in picture.
Giftshop area of Ramstein military annex.
Ramstein computer area where they allow unit graffiti.
Phone bank at Ramstein
Manas International Airport is the main international airport in Kyrgyzstan located 25 kilometres north-northwest of the capital Bishkek.
My (first) room! I now have a new room but don’t have pics yet!
The door to my room.
Angle 1
Angle 2 – you can see where I sleep and sit to Skype.
Extra bed and rifle.
Our in-room A/C unit.
The gym area outside my room.
Stairs to the second level of rooms.
The door to my room.
The pathetically see-through TP.
He called from the airport around 10 and then texted around 11:45 to let me know they were on the plane. So now it’s just a waiting game to see when he gets time and/or service to let me know what’s going on.
Tom just texted that they are heading out.
When I showed Owen the picture and asked him to find daddy—he giggled like a crazy person when he saw him! 🙂
This is the part I don’t like seeing because it means it’s really happening…and happening soon. 🙁
One of the bonuses of staying at the lodge was a free Shutterfly photobook to commemorate the experience! After a few trials and tribulations it turned out pretty well (long story short, I couldn’t use the Great Wolf Lodge themed pages if I wanted to do a Custom Path book (what I usually use), so I had to use their VERY limited Simple Path solution). You can flip through it here!
Click here to view this photo book larger
Both kids slept well (no random nighttime Katie screaming is always good) and our day started off with donuts from the Dunkin Donuts inside the resort.
The park didn’t open until 9, so we just lazed around and hung out.
Owen tried climbing the ladder again…but only got this far again. 🙂
Being at the park when it first opens is AMAZING. There’s no hunting for a table and chairs, there are no lines, there are no throngs of people…and it’s calm and almost quiet. Tom and I took advantage of the no-lines and tested the River Canyon Run family ride in the hopes that Owen might go down that one (it’s a huge inner tube that didn’t look that precarious). HOWEVER. The ride down was quite wild and we knew instantly Owen would NOT do well on it. As it was, it actually made Tom a little dizzy (though he blames the sinus stuff he had going on!).
So we let him enjoy his slides…
In the adults-only hot tub…we only spent about 15 minutes there. It was nice…but we were missing watching Owen have fun!
In the wave pool waiting for the waves. Owen didn’t want anything to do with this pool yesterday but today he was all about the waves!
Underwater Owen!
Pruney baby feet!
He wouldn’t even go under the water with Tom…
Watching and waiting for the dump bucket…he always appeared VERY concerned.
We kept trying to get him to come under and he never would.
I even tried to get him to come with me under the bucket…NO GO.
Owen doing the crazy robot:
Tom took Owen to the outdoor pool and frog slide one more time while us girls went up to the room to start getting ready to leave. Of course I had to get a picture!
Owen had seen all the kids running around with wands (you can buy an expensive wand and they can play games) but he was too young for that…so when we saw this light-up sword in the gift shop, we had to get it for him. It was his treat for being such an awesome kid on the trip. He LOVED it!
I highly recommend late check out—even with the additional fee—because it was great being able to go back to your room to check out instead of having to check out then haul everything to the car and take a bag to the park.
I think Katie was out by the time we left the parking lot and Owen lasted about 20 minutes…
I had been planning on heading to Great Wolf Lodge when Tom returned from Afghanistan…but he suggested we go beforehand. So he took two days off work and we headed up this morning. I had the brilliant (if I do say so myself) idea of taking our babysitter, Virginia, along for an extra pair of hands and eyes…and as it turned out, it was completely AMAZING—it was great being able to pay more attention to Owen (who will remember it) and be able to take tons of pictures (though Virginia is in most of the pics with Katie!). But seriously, Virginia was awesome with Katie the whole time—even when we weren’t actually at the water park.
So without further ado, the pictures.
Proof we were actually here, LOL—though this picture was taken as we were checking out. 🙂
We splurged and got a Kid Cabin suite—complete with log cabin bunk beds and a day bed (and their own TV which we never even used). Owen was excited about his own room/bed and testing out the bunk bed steps. He didn’t make it to the top because he was too scared. 🙂
The view of the outdoor pool area from our third-floor balcony.
Katie was (of course) intrigued by the new annoying band on her ankle.
Sneaking one of my fries. Tom ran to get us Chick-Fil-A while we got settled and into suits. We figured we’d be eating at the hotel enough (and spending enough money on overpriced food) that fast food was acceptable for our first lunch.
Waiting in her 2T suit. We had brought her 12m suit (that Grauntie Rose got her for her birthday) and I actually put it on her but it was really too tight.
Ready to go with Miss Virginia!
She SEEMS to be interested in the bubblers, but unfortunately it only lasted about seven seconds (if that). She just wanted to MOVE. This is where Virginia came in really handy.
Owen liked them quite a bit, however.
Of course, she was more entranced with the hole that had no water coming out of it…
This is how Owen watched the 1,000-gallon dump bucket—far away from the action on the sidelines…
…in the bubblers. 🙂
One of the few things Katie could reach and was semi interested in.
Miss Virginia on constant vigil—keeping Katie’s face out of the water as she tried to drink it.
FEETS!
This is where she liked to crawl.
Making sure I actually get in a photo!
She LOVED the lazy river (Owen hates it with a passion—he has some strange fear about inner tubes).
The outside frog slide that he loved!
Just hanging out. I cropped the pic so he appears closer than he really was. He was pretty far out. I love that he’s old enough we can let him do that and not worry or freak out.
It was about this time that Tom and I decided to splurge on drinks from the bar…since it was right there and all…and it was HOT outside. Yeah, we only had one drink because while they were certainly tasty, they were NOT worth the price. But, as a bonus, while we were standing there waiting for the drinks and Tom was holding Katie, she peed on him. (She had a swim diaper on, but they can only hold so much.) 🙂
I then had Virginia take a family shot—and she only took three and one of them came out really well!
This is how Katie crawled most of the time—her knees were sore (yours would be, too, if you were crawling on cement!) so she would kind of drag one leg while actually putting the other foot down (if you look closely you can see the foot prints on the right side).
Owen having fun in the pool with the water toys.
Virginia spent a lot of time walking Katie around. Again, brilliant idea.
Owen on his favorite indoor slides. It was terribly hard to get good pictures of this due to timing and the new camera that I wasn’t totally familiar with the best settings to get the best shot. So lots of the future shots might look a little off. I did the best I could. 🙂
The other area Katie liked—the waterfall station (well, it was more like a sheet of water). It was somewhat interactive because the water did crazy things when you stuck your hand in it.
Tired boy…and we had only been there 2.5 hours at that point!
Climbing in the ropes with dad. They headed to the top to attempt the waterslide…but once Owen got to the top he said NO WAY (even though the one he went on in Kalkaska was about the same).
Back at the room for dinner. This is where Katie loved to crawl.
Miss Virginia taking a break.
Owen and daddy taking a break.
Virginia stayed in the room with Katie while I took my real (i.e. non-waterproof camera) down to try and get some better pictures of Owen.
Owen liked the sheet of water, too.
This is him doing his robot through the falls.
Back up at the room on the balcony with Virginia and Katie. Katie liked to push the furniture around and stick her feet out the slats.
Completely THRILLED that she got the remote and we didn’t take it away from her!
Owen in his own bed!
Katie had only slept about an hour in the car and then didn’t get an afternoon nap at all…so we were hoping it would help her fall asleep quickly. And it did…she only screeched for about four minutes before she was out cold. I’m sure Owen wasn’t too far behind, and Virginia even put away her laptop and went to bed about 9:20. Tom and I turned our phones off about 10:30 as we were exhausted, too. However, I didn’t have a great night’s sleep…I tossed and turned and it felt like I had slept a loooong time but when I looked at the clock it was 1am. Ugh. The cycling of the A/C pretty much kept me up/woke me up—when it was running, it was COLD and you needed to be under the covers…and when it was off, it was WARM and you didn’t want the covers on. Plus my back hurt (as usual) from the car ride and what carrying of Katie I did (though Virginia did most of it). Plus it was only a Queen bed. So I knew I’d be exhausted the next morning…
Road trips are best when the kids look like this:
Thankfully it’s only a four-hour drive to Williamsburg, Virginia…and Great Wolf Lodge—our last-minute family fun overnight trip before Tom deploys!
So, when we were home on our recent vacation, we got out some old slides. I wanted to show them to Tom and Owen…but I was also hoping to find pictures of me in some of the outfits of mine that I’ve been putting on Katie. And we struck gold twice.
Green and floral shirt, circa about 1975-76.
And from October 18, 2012 (see original post here).
I’m thinking the shirt HAD to have shrunk, as I was obviously about 2 or 3 years old when I was wearing it…and Katie was 3 months old. I guess I’ll keep it around and try again when Katie is older, just for laughs. 🙂
And no, mom, I don’t think she looks like me. But I’m digging your plaid pants. 🙂
The second outfit is a blue jumper, seen here on me about early 1974 (unless I was sitting at three months by December 1973) with a doll in almost the same outfit.
And on Katie on November 11, 2012 (see original post here).
There is NO way that we look even remotely close in these pictures…in fact, I think I look a little like my older cousin Greg and Katie looks like, well, Katie. 🙂
Stay tuned for more old slides…
This month there were more pictures than normal since we took a two-week trip to Michigan and did lots of fun things.
The only good thing about driving too far the first day is that the second day is a lot shorter. BUT…the day started too early with Katie screaming good morning about 6:15. 😐 But it meant we were on the road at 7:30 again.
As usual, we stopped at our favorite park near Raleigh and Owen had a blast.
He’s getting SO much older. Now, he just takes off across the park without telling us…so we had a few chats about that. 🙂
And here’s how packed in things are—including Maggie! And it’s missing the last outside row that we had to take out at the park (the stroller, backpack, Maggie’s bag, etc.).
Look at that pathetic face. But don’t let her fool you…she’s perfectly happy. We had to literally DRAG her out when we stopped at the park.
Also, does Katie want her bottle at the park, when it’s convenient to do so? Of course not. She wants it 10 minutes later as soon as we’re back on the highway. Babies are annoying. But at least it put her to sleep so both kids thankfully napped almost the last two hours home…
Owen summed up the day nicely about 10 hours in: I am not happy. No more road trips.
Best case scenario it’s a long day but it was made even longer since we decided to push the mileage to get to our favorite hotel…and then it was full so we had to go an hour farther. 🙁
And I tried to make Katie a bottle of formula…with apple juice. Because I just wasn’t thinking and thought I had filled one of Owen’s cups with water. WRONG! So Katie was REALLY not happy the last hour, though I tried to keep the snacks coming her way.
Then I tried to check in to the wrong hotel. I just saw the Q and assumed it was La Quinta. Nope, Quality Inn. It’s a good thing Tom didn’t get anything unloaded…
Then we had horrible take-out Chinese food (Mongolian Beef and General Tso’s Chicken are hard to screw up, but they did) which just added to the day.
Owen perked up once he got to play in the pool.
But since we arrived late, dinner was late and Owen getting to and back from the pool was late…which meant a super tired Katie—who should have gone to bed early at 8—couldn’t go to bed until they were back in the room and ready for bed…about 9:15. At least she only screamed for 10 minutes before falling asleep!
This is Owen’s new response to just about everything…even when he sometimes knows the answer.
Me: Owen, do you know how to unzip Maggie’s crate?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Who gave you those Legos?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Owen, where’s your B?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: What did I just tell you?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: It says pbskids.com.
Grandma Jean: Do you know what that is?
Owen: I got no idea.
Me: Owen, if you’re a good boy tonight and don’t cry when Katie cries and you’re quiet and stay in bed, we’ll give you a Lego tomorrow. Okay?
Owen: Shakes head in agreement.
Me: What did I say?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: [Playing on the iPad.] I spelled cake!
Me: How do you spell it?
Owen: I got no idea.
Owen: What do you want for a treat tonight?
Owen: I got no idea.
Of course, after two weeks of bad (to us) movies (Hangover 3 and Fast & Furious 6) at our local theater, now that we’re headed home they are playing two shows we’d want to see (Epic and The Internship). GRRR! It would have been really cool to take Owen to his first real movie at the same theater where I saw my first movie (AND where Tom and I saw our first movie together)!
Doug and Marie added a day to their vacation to be able to stop by before we had to leave. It was great seeing them—and the kids loved each other!—but the visit wasn’t nearly long enough. 🙁
