First there was Hawaii… No, It was Santa Lucia?

So there was this whole “Holiday Season” thing, which made me realize a few things:

I am incredibly blessed, and to find myself going from Honolulu’s 82 degree sandy beaches to the shores of Lake Tahoe all in a two week period? That is truly amazing. To the left is a photo of Mokolii in Kaneohe Bay. We went on a little driving tour to get Lucy to take a nap.

I love my family. I was able to see 4 out of 5 siblings, and their spouses and children. Plus all sorts of parents. We are really all over the place on many topics, but one thread that runs through each of us, no matter which side, is humor. We are a funny bunch. There isn’t a stone face among us. I have laughed and smiled so much lately, and for that I am grateful.

Life really is more relaxing when there is a mai-tai in mommy’s hand.. or daddy’s or both.

Descartes and I really like each other. We enjoyed each other’s company when we were alone and when we were with my family, and I cannot think of a single disagreement we had then entire holiday break. Now this afternoon was a whole ‘nother story. just kiddin’.

I don’t ever need to swim with dolphins ever again. They were cool and all, but after Lucy got bonked in the head (I cannot upload the video clip right now, but I will someday.) I decided that it is sort of like horse back riding for me. I could probably be convinced to do it again, but I will never seek the adventure out on my own (unless I am taking a pack mule into the Grand Canyon, and then, that’s a pack mule). That’s Lucy being cross-eyed pointing to where the dolphin bonked her, but really the dolphin bonked her on the left side of her head just below her temple. By the way that is a really *really* awful sound to hear.. you know the sound of a 500+ pound animal bashing its head into the skull of your youngest child.

Lucy loves all things dolly and girlie, but she will take. you. down. in a wrestling match. She is truly turning out to be the kind of little girl I hoped we’d help grow. As much as she makes me crazy, she is full of spunk and vigor and beauty and compassion. In Hawaii she kept up in the pool and on the beach with her cousins, all older. She glammed it up with sunglasses and sundresses, but had no trouble covering her entire body with sand, rolling about in its warmth. She was a joy to watch. She had a very hard time when all the slumber parties were over.

Jake still really loves off-roading. We went off-roading at Kualoa Ranch and were lucky enough to have an entire Pinzgauer to ourselves. Jake was so happy. Lucy loved it too. The best money we have ever spent in Hawaii. I love hearing Jake laugh. He’s been laughing and smiling so much lately. He won “best grandkid” in Hawaii, due to his complete lack of crying or tantrums, unlike the other munchkins who each had to be reminded at least once that there is “no crying in Hawaii.” He received a lot of praise from my parents and I could tell it made him happy. He was a great kid on the plane both there and back, and of course he loves our drive to Tahoe.

We need to buy a small camera. We borrowed one from Descartes’ daddy, but it busted itself up half way through the Hawaii trip. I may never get the photos off that card.

I realize the more fun we have the less photos we take… or I take at least. I had my camera in my hand the entire time on the off-roading trip so it wouldn’t fly away, that’s why we have so many from that day, but I really had a great time for two weeks, and the thought of taking out and caring for a camera seemed too much a barrier. I was actually being with my family in the present.

We came back from Hawaii, unpacked our shorts and threw in sweaters and long johns and went to Tahoe the next day? the day after?

For New Year’s Eve we somehow convinced Nonie and Bob Bob to watch all four of our children and Jaster, Demanda, Descartes and I went to downtown South Lake at State Line. I cannot remember the last time I laughed that much in a single night. We played Taboo! for a long time and I’m not sure why but it turned my husband into the most hysterically funny super competitive crazy person. I’m sure the cocktails helped. Next year we are going to send the grandparents to the hotel with the kids and stay at home with the hot tub, the kitchen and the Wii. It was a great way to begin a new year, laughing. And while I had a lovely NYE last year with Squid and Seymour, I must say it was great to wake up to room service and working plumbing.
(I spent New Year’s day 2009 cleaning out the pipes in front of my house… so not awesome.)

We drove down to Cabella’s in Reno one day with all of the family in our Adventure van… so cool to have the whole family in one car like that. I sat in “the mommy seat” which means I handed out crackers and juice to all 50 kids. Nonie sat in the last row. She gets carsick. We laughed a lot. Our children took over a 125000 square foot store with no problem. At one point I am fairly certain they gave my sister 100 tokens for the shooting arcade if she would get the three, three year olds out of the ice fishing tent displays.

The weather in Tahoe was beautiful. I love it when we are trying to get kid to take a nap and we can take a little jaunt up to Emerald Bay. That’s Fanette Island in the photo. The only island in Lake Tahoe.. and I get to see it when we are just cruising around. jeesh. I am so lucky.

My many many thanks so Grandpa PJ and Grandma Corky for the lovely trip to Hawaii and to Jaster and Demanda for hosting us in Tahoe.

We are Packed

For the first time in the history of our family we were packed nearly 24 hours before our departure time. I think other people live this way all the time. Those are probably the same people who have centerpieces, and welcome mats.

I have decided that I will make a checklist for our weekend Tahoe trips so I can experience more of the peace that comes with being all zipped up this many hours before we leave.

I am still trying to finish my work, but it is looking like I might still have some to do Monday night. The good news is that Honolulu is 3 hours earlier, so I will gain more time to finish. Just occurred to me I should stop writing here and get reading over there.

Next stop The Royal Hawaiian. Maybe I’ll post from here:

All Over but the Uniforms

Summer is almost at an end. We’ve been busy.

Summer School for Jake

was awful. I’m not sure how it could have been worse. Jake did not get along with his aide, the regular teacher was out on maternity leave, school was, at the last minute set up on a different campus, the bus driver was scared of Jake, and Jake seemed to be in a permanent state of “episode”. The last day of school I broke down in tears because the aide told me I could not take home Jake’s icon book. It was resolved, but not before I made an ass of myself emailing the director of Special Ed trying to figure out what possible reason they had to deny a kid the chance to communicate by keeping a folder filled with laminated construction paper in a box inside a locked classroom. Of course the aide somehow got it wrong and we were allowed to take it home.

Lucy’s Birthday(s)

Lucy had I think maybe 5 birthday parties. One with grandparents, one at daycare, one with her favorite babysitters and a buddy, one with her cousins and some close family friends, then finally the last one with her friends in the backyard for a barbecue. They were each special in their own way, but in the future I have decided that you may not have more parties than whatever half your age is (so she should have had 1.5 parties max!) *and* if you want more than 3 you must plan the rest yourself. That should hold her off until she’s 10 or so I think. I made cupcakes, I bought cakes. I bought decorations, I made decorations. At her last party, which had the theme “Princesses and Pirates”, I was gung-ho that I went to Michael’s and spent more on craft projects than we spent on food. I spray painted little boxes which the kids decorated with sequins, foam stickers and such. We called them treasure chests.

Travel

We didn’t go as many places as I thought we would, but we did manage to hit the Tahoe basin for every major weekend, and for a week long trip just a few weeks ago to celebrate Descartes’ 40th birthday. He refused to let me throw him an actual party, but luckily all of our friends are turning 40, so he still gets to celebrate everywhere he goes. All of our plans changed at the last minute due to major high winds at the campground, so we ended up back in South Lake, so he did get to have a FAB-you-lus dinner at the Un-Buffet. It was not ungood and it was not unbad. We had fun sampling fairly decent food and spent more on cabs than we did on dinner

Jake had another round of his favorite thing ever.. Camp. He had a fantastic 1:1 aide for the week, and we actually sent him to the 7 night 8 day camp this year. He came home dirty and snotty and happy (The picture does not indicate much happiness, but that kid was so tired he could barely stand up). His 1:1 actually said “It was a pleasure. We had a great time. He ate a lot, and he loved going on the nature hikes.” He soooo did not need to say those things. I didn’t get even an ounce of that feeling when someone is trying so very hard to come up with a nice thing to say.

Family

We got to spend time with all three sets of grandparents, and our Tahoe family of course. I think that our extended family has a good picture of what our life looks like these days, and each little branch of family, in their own way, has figured out a way to support us.

It’s also been wonderful to realize that our friends are becoming more and more like family. I think we are coming back out of our shell.. that hard coating we put on a few years back when we felt a little alone in the world, and a little (or a lot) burned.

Back-to-School

WunderSkool for Jake begins next week. We have a transition meeting and a bunch of paperwork, and I still have no idea about transportation times, but it will be a fresh start and every time we talk about it Jake gets this little squinty eye and a half smile. I have manageable expectations, but for the first time in a long time I have a bit of hope. I think Jake may actually be heard, and possibly better communicate his own needs. My mom said she hasn’t heard me this happy in a long time. I don’t know if I am “happy”, I mean I want to be, and of course I am, with many many things, but “happy” sounds like “easy” and “simple” and those things I do not know much of lately. I am however feeling more buoyant, and I think that looks like happy. My shoulders don’t hurt so much from carrying the weight of the world (cue violins). And life is changing even a bit more because we made sort of an abrupt decision to enroll Lucy in preschool. She did a little interview/trial run last week, and she loved the place, and they seemed to like her too. She will also start at the end of August and she will have French and art and coloring and running about and carpooling and backpacks and the whole deal. She is so, SO excited. I am happy for her because she is ready to go, but I am sad as well because this last year was not the same kind of year Jake had at that age. When Jake was 2-3 I went to the zoo and museums and the park and the library and out to lunch and every where. Lucy got to watch videos in the car as we drove back and forth to Jake’s school averting disaster. I didn’t get to jump in the car with her and take her to the City for a cable car ride for fear that we would be called back, and I certainly never ventured to the Aquarium. I cannot even count the number of miles I drove to Jake’s school last year. I know Lucy will be fine. She has done enough “fun” things to not hate me, but *I* will remember that the last year she was ever at home..the last year she ever had without school… she was trapped in the beige
no-so-mini Van. It will sting a little less when I see her happy face after her first day of school I’m sure.

and so tomorrow Lucy and I head over to her new school to purchase a few uniforms. Tomorrow I place the order for Jake’s back to school pants and shirts.

and we start a whole new chapter in our little life.

Fall Break Week One Update

No California Academy of Sciences today.. my great plan to entertain both of my children. Today is “Free Wednesday”, and while I think that is just fantastic for everyone else, those kind of crowds do not make navigation easy, so we will skip that.

Jake is feeling a little bit better in terms of episode…I think… He was able to lunch yesterday at a restaurant. Sage met us at the local Indian buffet and he was well behaved and was even following some directions. Jake and I “rolled” around the shopping area from 10:30-2pm waiting for our car to get new run flat tires, then new front and rear brakes… ouch to the wallet. Run fat tires are a great idea, but they cost at least twice as much as most tires and last half as long.

Anywhoo, Jake went into his wheelchair happily… he has a cold so he was a bit lethargic, which after the past however many weeks of spazzing and throwing, I’ll admit I was a little bit okay seeing. We went to a discount store where he picked out his costume.. a skeleton. He laughed when I told him it was perfect because he was skin and bones already.

I don’t think Lucy is going to be thrilled with Jake’s choice of costume. She is prety convinced that she is going to be a penguin, Jake is going to be a puppy, Daddy is going to be a pumpkin and I am going to be a bee. Just ask her. SHe’s been saying this for at least a month now. How quirky she is!

Wish us luck we are off to Lucy’s swimming lesson. Jake hates it there… lovely.

*************************

Swimming update… Jake did very well at the enclosed noisy swim school that Lucy loves so much. Half way through the lesson my dear Squid came to entertain Jake so I could help the teacher Faith, remind Lucy to use “big arms”. Jake even gave Squid a little low five in the car and smiled when she asked whether he was going to come over to her house soon. Yay for friends! Yay for Jake feeling better! Yay for giant coloring book purchased for Lucy at Costco which may keep her entertained for the next 15 minutes!

Back to School…and work

We had a great weekend post vacation-Jake camp-Lucy sleepover week. It was nice to just be us, at home. We did have Sage and her wonderful family over on Saturday night. They are such an easy crew with whom to pass the time. I love that her seemingly quiet husband has become the joking conversationalist as he has come to know us, and that their daughter is now a little chatterbox where she once looked wide-eyed and a little afraid of us. We are not a quiet family with a quiet life. Even on a sleepy day we still have Jake and his unpredictability and Lucy and her wackiness, and me with my drama and need to please and entertain, and two gigantic golden retrievers, and my dear Descartes who by sheer height can worry some people (it’s a good thing he has a baby face…).

It’s been a good thing to have people over more often. We will figure it out. Now that the backyard has usable space I don’t feel like there is nowhere to go. I know we always have enough food and drink, but I worry about trying to crowd people into too small a space…especially people with kids who need a lot of space, or distance from my special kid. If I can just get a grip on the clothing mountains and the paper foothills variously piled throughout closets and corners I’m sure the place will feel bigger. I saw a shed at Costco last night and contemplated putting it in the side yard and calling it my office. (Don’t worry mom…I’m kidding)

Driving around the state with Descartes I realize by all of his comments, how happy he would be, how happy each of us would be, if we had a little bit of fenced-in land that was not so close to neighbors. Jake was always so, so happy in Montana, and of course Descartes loves to build things. If my property in north-eastern California were closer, I’m sure we would have a small cabin by now. It would be nice to have it while the kids were little and still wanted to hang out with us, but I am hoping that within ten years we will be able to buy just a few acres…somewhere.. fence it in, make it safe for Jake and be able to relax while Jake plays in the woods (his favorite thing in the world to do). We’ve talked about buying a place near here in the Santa Cruz mountains. Something close by we could use every weekend if we wanted. I keep checking the ads… one day we will find the perfect place.

Jake went back to school this morning and Descartes went back to work. They both put on cheerful faces before they left the house, but I know that neither one of them enjoyed getting up this morning. Lucy and I have already had breakfast and played the www.pbskids.org Caillou games. I do not understand her obsession with this whiny, balding, four year old kid, but the television family seems decent enough and he gets busted when he’s mean to his sibling, so the lessons aren’t bad at all. I need to get Lucy her own computer. Something sturdy she and Jake can use. Jake has always loved computer at school, and with more help and practice it could be a very useful tool for him… and Lucy wants to “move da mouse squeak squeak” and “Click now? Click now? Now mommy?” So I am thinking she’s ready too.

Lucy meets her new day care provider this afternoon, but first she must go to her 2 year old appointment. Will there be shots? Hmm must remember to bring lollipops.

Back to School…and work

We had a great weekend post vacation-Jake camp-Lucy sleepover week. It was nice to just be us, at home. We did have Sage and her wonderful family over on Saturday night. They are such an easy crew with whom to pass the time. I love that her seemingly quiet husband has become the joking conversationalist as he has come to know us, and that their daughter is now a little chatterbox where she once looked wide-eyed and a little afraid of us. We are not a quiet family with a quiet life. Even on a sleepy day we still have Jake and his unpredictability and Lucy and her wackiness, and me with my drama and need to please and entertain, and two gigantic golden retrievers, and my dear Descartes who by sheer height can worry some people (it’s a good thing he has a baby face…).

It’s been a good thing to have people over more often. We will figure it out. Now that the backyard has usable space I don’t feel like there is nowhere to go. I know we always have enough food and drink, but I worry about trying to crowd people into too small a space…especially people with kids who need a lot of space, or distance from my special kid. If I can just get a grip on the clothing mountains and the paper foothills variously piled throughout closets and corners I’m sure the place will feel bigger. I saw a shed at Costco last night and contemplated putting it in the side yard and calling it my office. (Don’t worry mom…I’m kidding)

Driving around the state with Descartes I realize by all of his comments, how happy he would be, how happy each of us would be, if we had a little bit of fenced-in land that was not so close to neighbors. Jake was always so, so happy in Montana, and of course Descartes loves to build things. If my property in north-eastern California were closer, I’m sure we would have a small cabin by now. It would be nice to have it while the kids were little and still wanted to hang out with us, but I am hoping that within ten years we will be able to buy just a few acres…somewhere.. fence it in, make it safe for Jake and be able to relax while Jake plays in the woods (his favorite thing in the world to do). We’ve talked about buying a place near here in the Santa Cruz mountains. Something close by we could use every weekend if we wanted. I keep checking the ads… one day we will find the perfect place.

Jake went back to school this morning and Descartes went back to work. They both put on cheerful faces before they left the house, but I know that neither one of them enjoyed getting up this morning. Lucy and I have already had breakfast and played the www.pbskids.org Caillou games. I do not understand her obsession with this whiny, balding, four year old kid, but the television family seems decent enough and he gets busted when he’s mean to his sibling, so the lessons aren’t bad at all. I need to get Lucy her own computer. Something sturdy she and Jake can use. Jake has always loved computer at school, and with more help and practice it could be a very useful tool for him… and Lucy wants to “move da mouse squeak squeak” and “Click now? Click now? Now mommy?” So I am thinking she’s ready too.

Lucy meets her new day care provider this afternoon, but first she must go to her 2 year old appointment. Will there be shots? Hmm must remember to bring lollipops.

Anniversary Trip Day Four: Ferndale, Lost Coast, Fort Bragg

Ferndale–>Lost Coast Petrolia

Westermost spot in the U.S. or at least that’s what the sign says.

Petrolia–> Avenue of the Giants
Drive Through Tree
Avenue of the Giants–>Myers Flat
wine tasting…
Myers Flat–>Start of Highway 1
windiest road ever
HWY 1–> Fort Bragg
Safe and sound in a B&B Country Inn

will fill in details later

Anniversary Trip Day Two: Yosemite

Monday morning. Descartes is clearly on vacation because he cannot sleep in. He dosed me with cold medicine last night so I’m groggy as all get out which we decide is pretty funny since it appears this may be about the only way to get me to be quiet. I do not fully wake up for hours…I sleep with my eyes open through breakfast and the drive into the park.
We pack it up and head back to downtown Groveland to drop off our room key and eat the free breakfast. Back in Yosemite National Park we park our car and unload bikes. It is a beautiful day. I’m nut sure where all those people are from last night, but they aren’t here now.

Riding bikes on the valley floor is fairly easy, but we do find one small (still paved) trail to huff and puff up for a very short while. We end up at Mirror Lake, where we lock up and do a little trail walking. In spite of the wildfire smoke, it is beautiful as well. I keep saying, “Wow I feel lucky today.”

We decide we should have lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel. It is an old skool place. If you have never seen it, I put it in the same category as the Claremont in Berkeley and the Royal Hawaiian on Waikiki Beach. We sat on the patio of the Ahwahnee Bar and were pleasantly surprised by how good the food was, having heard not so many raving reviews. The cheese plate was really high-end, with pistachios, dried cherries and a very yummy goat cheese being my favorites of the selection. I drink a sidecar, because I figure we are in the perfect place to have one, and I miss my friend Squid who loves them. It was perfect. Little munchkin chikarees race around our feet as we eat and I am thinking this is possibly the best day I have had in a long time.

We call it a day for the valley floor, pack up our bikes and head out of YNP toward Tuolumne Meadows and on to Mono Lake. Mono Lake is interesting, but as far as I can tell, I actually don’t need to go there again.

Total miles driven on the trip so far 519

We make a left on 395, marvel at the crazy amount of smoke from the wildfires and drive straight through to…RENO.

Seriously? Yes. We stayed at John Asquaga’s Nugget. More for a joke than anything else. We went here a long time ago with very good friends and had a terrific time. This time we get upgraded at the desk, and stayed in a very nice redecorated room that had a freeway running right outside the window. We dined at Trader Dick’s and for nostalgia’s sake we had a Scorpion bowl.

Between the two of us lost a total of $39.00 and managed to play video poker and some roulette for hours.. so I am thinking we got our money’s worth.

In the morning, the smoke outside from the wildfires is so think it seems that Reno is on fire. Poor Nevada..bad enough to live in Reno, but they have all of this horrible smoke from California and no ocean breeze to knock it away any time soon. It’s just sitting there hanging. A satellite image from MODIS. We learn on the news that there are over 800 wildfires buring in California. We decide that we will head west. It is 81 degrees at 8:30am. Ugh.

Anniversary Trip Day Two: Yosemite

Monday morning. Descartes is clearly on vacation because he cannot sleep in. He dosed me with cold medicine last night so I’m groggy as all get out which we decide is pretty funny since it appears this may be about the only way to get me to be quiet. I do not fully wake up for hours…I sleep with my eyes open through breakfast and the drive into the park.
We pack it up and head back to downtown Groveland to drop off our room key and eat the free breakfast. Back in Yosemite National Park we park our car and unload bikes. It is a beautiful day. I’m nut sure where all those people are from last night, but they aren’t here now.

Riding bikes on the valley floor is fairly easy, but we do find one small (still paved) trail to huff and puff up for a very short while. We end up at Mirror Lake, where we lock up and do a little trail walking. In spite of the wildfire smoke, it is beautiful as well. I keep saying, “Wow I feel lucky today.”

We decide we should have lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel. It is an old skool place. If you have never seen it, I put it in the same category as the Claremont in Berkeley and the Royal Hawaiian on Waikiki Beach. We sat on the patio of the Ahwahnee Bar and were pleasantly surprised by how good the food was, having heard not so many raving reviews. The cheese plate was really high-end, with pistachios, dried cherries and a very yummy goat cheese being my favorites of the selection. I drink a sidecar, because I figure we are in the perfect place to have one, and I miss my friend Squid who loves them. It was perfect. Little munchkin chikarees race around our feet as we eat and I am thinking this is possibly the best day I have had in a long time.

We call it a day for the valley floor, pack up our bikes and head out of YNP toward Tuolumne Meadows and on to Mono Lake. Mono Lake is interesting, but as far as I can tell, I actually don’t need to go there again.

Total miles driven on the trip so far 519

We make a left on 395, marvel at the crazy amount of smoke from the wildfires and drive straight through to…RENO.

Seriously? Yes. We stayed at John Asquaga’s Nugget. More for a joke than anything else. We went here a long time ago with very good friends and had a terrific time. This time we get upgraded at the desk, and stayed in a very nice redecorated room that had a freeway running right outside the window. We dined at Trader Dick’s and for nostalgia’s sake we had a Scorpion bowl.

Between the two of us lost a total of $39.00 and managed to play video poker and some roulette for hours.. so I am thinking we got our money’s worth.

In the morning, the smoke outside from the wildfires is so think it seems that Reno is on fire. Poor Nevada..bad enough to live in Reno, but they have all of this horrible smoke from California and no ocean breeze to knock it away any time soon. It’s just sitting there hanging. A satellite image from MODIS. We learn on the news that there are over 800 wildfires buring in California. We decide that we will head west. It is 81 degrees at 8:30am. Ugh.

The Stein is Sometimes Half Full.

It was Oktober Fest in Tahoe this weekend. Each year we go with my sister and her husband and now there are four children who tag along. It is very hard to push strollers and wheelchairs over pine needles, but the sausages are good, we all love sauerkraut and the beer selection is just lovely.

So last year, and the year before we just bought the giant mugs. .It is one of those deals where if you pay a little bit more you get the souvenir mug and all of your refills are more beer for much less money. It is the way to go if you are going to have more than one beer. Which we may or may not have done in the past. I am guessing we had more than one in years past.

This is the first year that I actually stood in line and thought about my purchase. I wanted to buy four mugs. I wanted to think that we were going to stay and hear the ooompa band and the yodeling competition and have several beers each and relax in the crisp air, soaking up September sun. I wanted to be optimistic. I want to be those people.

The reality is that the chances of any one of the adults finishing even one beer without needing to deal with a kid-related crisis is pretty slim. Jaster and Demanda have “twins” (the boys are 7 weeks apart from two different wombs) and we have our independent sprite Lucy and our unpredictable elf Jake. We are not the kind of crew that gets to sit still, be patient or relax.

So I compromised. We bought two mugs and two cups. I feel like this every day. In nearly every decision I make. I want to think that I can take my two children to the park, a park with no gates…uhm no. I want to think that the kids and I can stop in and get some milk at the grocery store and have it take only ten minutes. I want to go to the movies, go on vacations and go out to dinner with my children.

I struggle to find the balance; sometimes the optimist wins and I buy four souvenir mugs…sometimes we drink out of paper cups.