We have been pre-occupied lately with doctor appointments and lab tests - believe it or not (knock on wood) I have been the only "healthy" one lately! But we are getting through and have had good results on the tests, so I am not going to complain! But I am finally getting around to blogging tonight and I'll make this super quick. Here's an update: Karmann is officially potty trained - this weekend she took herself to the potty, got her stool (which she calls her "stoodle") and put her seat on the potty and went, wiped, got up, moved her stool to the sink and washed her hands!!! I was so proud! Of course she demanded a reward - milkshakes! And of course, we couldn't resist!
In Max's world, he is working sooo hard to get his top two teeth. I predict they will break through this week (I hope!). Also, he is very confidently standing on his own and is a speed racer when it comes to crawling! He's also becoming a VERY picky eater - and only wants what is on our plates. He also has become quite the musician - no joke! He loves to play the tambourine! He plays it properly most of the time, but also likes to play it as a drum. He keeps a beat when you sing a song - I am not kidding. I think he may be a child musical prodigy! I will try and get a video soon.
Other than that, every night Kar and Max seem to be bonding more and more. Tonight Kar almost let him lay in her bed with her during story time. I hope we make it to that day!! They really are "getting along" for the most part, which is great. I only hope it stays that way for as long as possible!
Alright, so that wasn't super quick, but about all I can stay up for....
Monday, September 24, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Vacation 2012- Part 2
Part two - headed to Seattle! We were sad to leave GG & Gramps, but totally excited to visit Seattle and our good friends Beth & Jason and their kids, Alyssa and Brendan. The flight was uneventful, and all our luggage arrived just fine (thank goodness!). We got packed into the minivan when we arrived, and headed north to Seattle. Our plans got altered (our luck again!) when we were just 2 miles from our exit, when fire trucks and emergency vehicles passed us on the highway, and literally closed down the road about 50 cars in front of us. Needless to say, we were 3 adults and 4 children under the age of 5 (two of which had just been on an airplane for 2 hours!) and we get stuck on the highway FOR TWO HOURS! Luckily, GG had packed a huge bag of chocolate chip cookies, which held us through the delay. After all that, it was only a small oil leak from a truck - only 4 gallons - not the spill they were anticipating, I guess! Anyway, we made it to Seattle, got food and went potty (no accidents! Yeah!) and had just enough time to go up in the Space Needle, take a ton of pictures, and then Kris met up with Jason for a Mariner's game, while Beth and I took the kids for dinner and back to their home. We only made it home about 1 hour before the guys did! It was a lot of fun, but a looong day.
After some rest, we got to a slow start, but headed back to Seattle to see Pike's Place market. It was a little overwhelming with 4 kids, so after we ate lunch and took more pictures, we decided to head north to Ballard locks, where it was a little less crowded. The botanical gardens were also lush and perfect for taking pitures! Now we can say we saw salmon in Seattle!
BTW, I forgot to mention that the weather was GORGEOUS. The stewardess even said when we arrived at the airport that Seattle gets about 3 days of sunshine a year, and we just happened to get to experience it. The great weather lasted for all 5 days that we were there, and we also got to experience the hottest day of the year when it got up to 95 degrees. It was still tollerable, as the humidity was low and the best part was - no bugs!
The next few days we spent around the local area Beth and Jay live. We visited Olympia, and saw the low-tide in the bay, as well as the State Capital building. We also visited the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (on the hottest day of the year!) It was a great little zoo with lots of animals, and hills too!
The kids really enjoyed each other and got along great. Alyssa could not get enough of Baby Max, and Karmann was in heaven with all the cool toys they had. Brenden and Karmann loved playing in the kiddie pool outside - too bad we live on complete opposite corners of the country!! It would be awesome if only we were neighbors down the street! Also in that time, Max turned 9 months, and finally got a tooth! He also advanced to pulling himself up to stand at the coffee table and couch!
After 5 days of traveling in the minivan together, we all got the loading and unloading of parents and kids down to a science! We will remember to have pleanty of stuff for the kids to play with in car, as well as juice, water, food, and pull-ups - just in case - next time we vacation together! Who knows...maybe we could tackle France in a few years!!!
Many thanks to Beth and Jay for a wonderful trip and experience!
Our flight home was the red-eye, which as our luck would have it, turned into a trip from you know where. Thank goodness the kids were angels and slept the whole time. But, to make a long story short, here's how it went: 10:30 pm (west coast time) arrived at airport and checked in. Flight was scheduled to leave at 12 am, but the airplane coming in did not arrive until 1215 am. Finally at 1:30 am we take off. We were in the very back row of the plane, and about half way through the trip the guy in front of our seat got sick all over the place - which caused such a commotion. We knew already we were going to miss the connection in Houston, so we didn't rush to get off the plane. Come to find out, our connection was that same plane. Luckily we had a different row of seats - and it wasn't the row in front of us! Due to the clean-up required, that flight too was delayed. We finally arrived in Orlando at 12:30 pm (East coast time) on Monday. Yes, that made it a 13 hour trip across country. Again, the kids were great! We were beat to a pulp. Overall, the trip was so great, that we hardly remember that part, but no wonder we only do it once in a long while!
After some rest, we got to a slow start, but headed back to Seattle to see Pike's Place market. It was a little overwhelming with 4 kids, so after we ate lunch and took more pictures, we decided to head north to Ballard locks, where it was a little less crowded. The botanical gardens were also lush and perfect for taking pitures! Now we can say we saw salmon in Seattle!
BTW, I forgot to mention that the weather was GORGEOUS. The stewardess even said when we arrived at the airport that Seattle gets about 3 days of sunshine a year, and we just happened to get to experience it. The great weather lasted for all 5 days that we were there, and we also got to experience the hottest day of the year when it got up to 95 degrees. It was still tollerable, as the humidity was low and the best part was - no bugs!
The next few days we spent around the local area Beth and Jay live. We visited Olympia, and saw the low-tide in the bay, as well as the State Capital building. We also visited the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (on the hottest day of the year!) It was a great little zoo with lots of animals, and hills too!
The kids really enjoyed each other and got along great. Alyssa could not get enough of Baby Max, and Karmann was in heaven with all the cool toys they had. Brenden and Karmann loved playing in the kiddie pool outside - too bad we live on complete opposite corners of the country!! It would be awesome if only we were neighbors down the street! Also in that time, Max turned 9 months, and finally got a tooth! He also advanced to pulling himself up to stand at the coffee table and couch!
After 5 days of traveling in the minivan together, we all got the loading and unloading of parents and kids down to a science! We will remember to have pleanty of stuff for the kids to play with in car, as well as juice, water, food, and pull-ups - just in case - next time we vacation together! Who knows...maybe we could tackle France in a few years!!!
Many thanks to Beth and Jay for a wonderful trip and experience!
Our flight home was the red-eye, which as our luck would have it, turned into a trip from you know where. Thank goodness the kids were angels and slept the whole time. But, to make a long story short, here's how it went: 10:30 pm (west coast time) arrived at airport and checked in. Flight was scheduled to leave at 12 am, but the airplane coming in did not arrive until 1215 am. Finally at 1:30 am we take off. We were in the very back row of the plane, and about half way through the trip the guy in front of our seat got sick all over the place - which caused such a commotion. We knew already we were going to miss the connection in Houston, so we didn't rush to get off the plane. Come to find out, our connection was that same plane. Luckily we had a different row of seats - and it wasn't the row in front of us! Due to the clean-up required, that flight too was delayed. We finally arrived in Orlando at 12:30 pm (East coast time) on Monday. Yes, that made it a 13 hour trip across country. Again, the kids were great! We were beat to a pulp. Overall, the trip was so great, that we hardly remember that part, but no wonder we only do it once in a long while!
Vacation 2012 - Part 1
Finally, I get a moment to update this blog - well, not under normal circumstances, though. I am home with Max, who has a double ear infection and caught what ever Kar had last week. He's doing much better, but we just wanted to keep him home one more day. Kris is also home, as he's been having tests done on his eye and stomach. We have no idea what the issues are, but that's what the tests are hopefully going to figure out - or rule out. We shall see, and I am sure I'll update that situation in a future blog. In the mean time, I am going to try to start where I left off last time....
Right before Max turned 9 months, we embarked on a journey out West to visit GG and Gramps and our friends Beth & Jay and family, who we went to undergrad school with. I had been super nervous and tried to prepare for the worst - that is two kids under the age of 4, and flying clear across the country, starting at 4 am east coast time, and getting to CA around 1 pm west coast time. In a nut shell, we lost Piggy at school the night before, but luckily found him at a classmate's house at around 8 pm the night before. This was just the beginning. Surprisingly, the air plane portion of the trip went fairly smoothly on the way out. We arrived early to Vegas, but stayed on the same plane. Since we arrived so early, they let everyone off the plane. We decided to stay on, which was a good idea, as Karmann had the whole plane as a playground, for which she took full advantage! This was good, as I think she slept on the second leg to CA. However, once we got to Sacramento, everything except our main luggage bag showed up. The customer service man said that often bags don't even get on the air plane from Orlando. Interesting, because the car seat and other bag did make it. Anyway, the bag didn't show up until 3 pm at the airport, which meant it was just in time to make the delivery shuttle for them to bring it to my mom's house. It finally arrived around 7 pm that night.
After that point, our luck was much better, and I actually started to calm down and enjoy the vacation. We had a wonderful fun-filled time at my mom and Denny's house. They watched the kids overnight while Kris and I headed into the city (San Fran) so that he could run in the San Francisco Marathon. We stayed at the Hilton just south of Chinatown and met up with our friend Claudia and her fiance for dinner. We realized it had been about 7 years since we had seen her last! So we had a lot to catch up on! On our way home (ate at Pinocchio's in North Beach) the weather was cold, rainy, and very windy. Kris and I were both concerned the race was going to be horrible, but when we woke up and walked outside (at 5 am) it was warm, misty, and as calm as could be - this was huge relief!
The race was awesome! The weather turned out to be perfect, though Kris' photos of the Golden gate Bridge while he was running over it had the fog covering most of it, but other than that, it was great. I used the 4 hours alone to get Starbucks at the Embarcadero, go back to the hotel for breakfast, and then I walked up Columbus Ave. to Fisherman's wharf, then all the way back down to the Embarcadero where the finish line was located. There was a tone of free samples of goodies near there from all the organic sponsors, so I had fun going through all of that too. Kris did great even through the hills, and finished in 3:55! After the finish, we went back to the hotel, checked out walked back to the BART station, and headed back to Fairfield! It was a quick 24 hours, but so much fun.
When we arrived, we had a cookout with my mom's great friends Chuck & Kathy, and Uncle Scott came to join. Kar and Max had a great time and didn't even notice we were gone! The next day we drove to the Bay Area Children's discovery museum and Muir Woods to see the giant Redwoods. Karmann had her first "professional" hair cut, and we also went swimming and just relaxed until we headed on to part two - Seattle, Washington.
Right before Max turned 9 months, we embarked on a journey out West to visit GG and Gramps and our friends Beth & Jay and family, who we went to undergrad school with. I had been super nervous and tried to prepare for the worst - that is two kids under the age of 4, and flying clear across the country, starting at 4 am east coast time, and getting to CA around 1 pm west coast time. In a nut shell, we lost Piggy at school the night before, but luckily found him at a classmate's house at around 8 pm the night before. This was just the beginning. Surprisingly, the air plane portion of the trip went fairly smoothly on the way out. We arrived early to Vegas, but stayed on the same plane. Since we arrived so early, they let everyone off the plane. We decided to stay on, which was a good idea, as Karmann had the whole plane as a playground, for which she took full advantage! This was good, as I think she slept on the second leg to CA. However, once we got to Sacramento, everything except our main luggage bag showed up. The customer service man said that often bags don't even get on the air plane from Orlando. Interesting, because the car seat and other bag did make it. Anyway, the bag didn't show up until 3 pm at the airport, which meant it was just in time to make the delivery shuttle for them to bring it to my mom's house. It finally arrived around 7 pm that night.
After that point, our luck was much better, and I actually started to calm down and enjoy the vacation. We had a wonderful fun-filled time at my mom and Denny's house. They watched the kids overnight while Kris and I headed into the city (San Fran) so that he could run in the San Francisco Marathon. We stayed at the Hilton just south of Chinatown and met up with our friend Claudia and her fiance for dinner. We realized it had been about 7 years since we had seen her last! So we had a lot to catch up on! On our way home (ate at Pinocchio's in North Beach) the weather was cold, rainy, and very windy. Kris and I were both concerned the race was going to be horrible, but when we woke up and walked outside (at 5 am) it was warm, misty, and as calm as could be - this was huge relief!
The race was awesome! The weather turned out to be perfect, though Kris' photos of the Golden gate Bridge while he was running over it had the fog covering most of it, but other than that, it was great. I used the 4 hours alone to get Starbucks at the Embarcadero, go back to the hotel for breakfast, and then I walked up Columbus Ave. to Fisherman's wharf, then all the way back down to the Embarcadero where the finish line was located. There was a tone of free samples of goodies near there from all the organic sponsors, so I had fun going through all of that too. Kris did great even through the hills, and finished in 3:55! After the finish, we went back to the hotel, checked out walked back to the BART station, and headed back to Fairfield! It was a quick 24 hours, but so much fun.
When we arrived, we had a cookout with my mom's great friends Chuck & Kathy, and Uncle Scott came to join. Kar and Max had a great time and didn't even notice we were gone! The next day we drove to the Bay Area Children's discovery museum and Muir Woods to see the giant Redwoods. Karmann had her first "professional" hair cut, and we also went swimming and just relaxed until we headed on to part two - Seattle, Washington.
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