Again, summer is my season. I love the relaxed feel, the sunshine and of course the vacations! We went to California with my family and the boys LOVED it. The plane was really exciting (obviously), the sand tasted yummy (gross) and they were enthralled with the ocean!
I was a little worried about the flight. I knew Paul would be okay because he likes to watch movies and he is obsessed with planes. I was right. Charlie was our wildcard. My friend gave me a leftover drink ticket which I promptly used to order a bloody mary. Nothing can be that bad with vodka and tomato juice. Again, I was right.
Charlie was just fine on the plane. He bounced around from person to person and even fell asleep at the end. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves until we started driving through the mountains of Mendocino. Then Charlie got carsick. SIX times. At one point I just sat in the back seat with a clean diaper under his mouth and told Ryan to just keep going. We just had to get it over with.
However, once we were there is was a great vacation. I love that little boys are thrilled to chase birds, throw rocks, and build sand castles. The drive back was much more successful as in no one got sick and Charlie was a little more restless on the plane, but we made it out with little to no judgement from other passengers and I call that a win-win.
Thanks for my dad for taking all of these pictures.
Exploring!
He is so blonde and so cute!
The windup to play croquet. In case you wanted to know what that looked like.
Someone tries to keep up!
Life is good!
Sometimes all you need are rocks.
Eating Sand. Yum?
This is what you do to your big brother when he won't pay attention to you!
Sorry to tell you that during summer everyday is Friday. But I will try not to rub that in!
Maureen and baby Vivi were here last week! We fit 3 car seats in the back of my car and Ryan reminded us that we used to be drunk and promiscuous. Now we have babies. Thanks Ryan.
The next day we had a play date with our two friends from college. One has two boys. The other has one. Meaning we had 5 boys and one girl. Vivi is a lucky lady to choose from some nice chaps.
Most play dates revolve around eating snacks. Actually that is true whether you are 3 or 33.
We decided to take a picture of everyone together. This always sounds like a good idea and then is not. This is the best shot:
And a "behind the scenes" look. There were promises, bribery and some stern talking. If only they could just sit on the couch and smile.
Maureen and I then packed up the troops and headed to the mountains. Actually I only took Paul and left Charlie with Ryan back at home. My reasoning? Paul will watch TV. And sometimes I like to have cocktail hour with a side of Mickey Mouse. True story.
We had a great weekend full of mountain air. We celebrated Diz's birthday, Paul walked a llama and then cried he couldn't take one home and we hiked. Exciting development on the hike was that Paul decided he had to go to the bathroom. #2 bathroom. It was really a special moment watching my son poop in nature. I'll cherish it always.
Tori and Will also just added a puppy to their home, Clover. Paul loved Clover and followed her everywhere. She tolerated it for the most part.
We walked to dinner one night and Paul did fine on the way there, but after some slices of twelve dollar kid's pizza and lemonade, he was tired on the way home. Only Auntie MoMo would think of this solution.
Maureen and I arrived home Sunday afternoon. We gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. We were on the couch contemplating going to bed at 8:45 because we were exhausted. Ryan reported that our actions proved this the lamest girl's weekend EVER. We stayed up until 10:00 to try and prove we still have it. We do not.
Vivian was super cute and it was a wonderful weekend with my best gals. And no, I don't want a third baby. In case you were wondering.
