Huntington Beach

Today was our beach day.  We made a short and uneventful drive to Huntington Beach, found relatively cheap parking and pushed our toes into the sand.  My SIL had a wonderful idea of taking these beach cruisers for a spin, so we spread out among three of them and slowly made our way down the beach.  It was pretty fun!

Then we dropped them off and played in the surf.  Colin got wet to his toes, and that was enough for him.  This was his first visit to the ocean that he would remember.  The last time he was 7 mo. old.  He loved running back and forth and digging in the sand.

It was a little chilly, but the sounds and smells were the perfect thing for these winter-weary souls.

Hollywood and the horrors of driving in L.A.

Today we visited Hollywood.  I got behind the wheel to drive us there, while Dean helped me navigate by watching the right side of the car, while I watched the left.  L.A. traffic is the most freakish driving experience ever.  Nobody signals, nobody cares, everybody speeds and everybody shoots into view out of nowhere at the last possible second, making lane changes a terrifying act.  Let me take a moment to extol on the virtues of the Waze driving app.  This app made driving in Los Angeles tolerable.  Maybe even survivable.

We managed to make the harrowing drive to Hollywood, and parked in a large parking garage at Hollywood Blvd and Highland.  I joked that we were taking a risk doing that in case there was an earthquake.  Not funny.  We made our way out onto the boulevard, and met up with the rest of the family, as they parked in a different area.  Hollywood boulevard is just a scary as I remember.  That is why I don't have any pictures.  I kept my phone in my purse, and my purse clamped to my side, and a small child clutched in my arms on the side of said purse.  I was wary of anyone who came within my personal space.  And that meant everyone.  It was so, so crowded.  I hate crowds.  I hate crowds where half of them are in costume, wanting you to take their picture and give them money.  I hate crowds where women aren't wearing very much.  At all.  I hate crowds where people jostle you, step in front of you, and then stop to take pictures.  Tourists..

The stars on the walk are neat to see, as are the footprints and handprints and signatures.  I've seen them before, but Dean and the kids had not, so I followed along as they wondered at what they could see.  It was neat to see the spot where the cast of Harry Potter all sealed their fame in footprints and signatures.  It was sad to see the star of Robin Williams, gone too soon.

It was drizzly and cool, and we were hungry, so we walked a couple blocks to an In-and-Out burger.  So did half of Los Angeles, apparently, because there was no place to sit.  We finally secured a table.  A single table for 12 people.  Then another two-top cleared, so that helped.  The burgers were good, so I can see why it is popular.  As we left, a fight broke out over a parking spot between the drivers of to two very fancy SUVs.  I'm glad we were on foot.  We made our way back to our car, and left for the long drive home.  It was only 13 miles, but it took nearly two hours.  It was raining, the freeways were choked with traffic, so we took a different route through downtown.  As we left Hollywood, we took a turn and wound up alongside the Paramount Pictures Lot, which was cool to see.  As we drove on, we also ended up alongside this, my only picture of the day:

The Walt Disney Concert Hall, which I thought looked especially cool in the rain.  About this time Jordan needed to go, Owen needed to go, and Colin needed to go.  So we pulled over on a not-so-busy side street and made use of the pee bottle.  Jordan didn't understand that getting out of the car was not an option.  Dean said, "Do you see all of the graffiti?  The amount of graffiti is equal to the amount of you DON'T want to get out of the car".  We continued snaking our way south and east, all the while wary of how close we were to Compton.  Definitely a place we did not want to accidently venture into.

We finally made it back to the hotel, and the kids headed for the pool and then got right back to building with their Legos.  We ended the day with a drive to a restaurant a few miles away and had a very nice meal.

Legoland

Today is the day the kids have been talking about for the last three months.  Each morning, when Colin wakes up, the question is the same: "Is today the day we go to Legoland?"

It is a very warm and sunny day today, and we are a little too hot in our long sleeves, but we are happy to finally be here.  There was a lot of excitement as we drove the 30+ minutes it took to cover the last half mile to the entrance.  At least there were a lot of Lego figures to look at.  The parking was convenient, a shortish walk to the entrance, and then long lines to purchase the tickets.  We split up, Dean in one line and I in another, with two coupons that will get a kid in free with a paying adult.  As I wait, a lady walks by, offering an extra coupon she had on hand from her PTO.  That was amazing - it saved us $80 bucks, right there.  The ticket prices are staggering!

We first check out the area that has Lego reproductions of NYC, Las Vegas, New Orleans and so forth...  Just amazing!

 
We were most impressed with the Star Wars section, that included many different scenes from all six movies.  The scenes from Endor were there best.

Then it was time for some rides.  Colin was ready to ride his first roller coaster!  Owen freaked out in line and refused to ride, so Dean left the line with him and walked around while Jordan, Rylan, Colin and I went on the ride.  Colin LOVED it!

This was more Owen's speed...

Then it was time for lunch.  A long wait in line, followed by a staggering checkout price of $92 - and the food was only so-so... :(  At least the kids had a great time while waiting in line.

We rode a couple more rides after lunch (long, long lines...), and then the kids met Wyld Style outside the Lego Movie building that houses one of the sets used in the movie.  Best part of the day!

It started to get chilly as the sun went down, so we hunkered down in an indoors building area, while Dean went back to the van to get jackets.  Jordan spent the time building a giant chicken army.

We ended the day with a nighttime boat ride and dragon roller coaster that everyone rode.   Owen didn't like it, at all.  At the very end, we finally made the trek into the giant store at the entrance to purchase Lego sets.  The kids all received Christmas money in anticipation of visiting Legoland - with the intent of purchasing Legos there.  It was craziness in that store.  I had put them off on buying stuff all day so that we wouldn't have to carry it around, and I think everybody else had the same idea.

So some thoughts about Legoland... expensive.  Too expensive for the limited amount of stuff to do, and for the quality of food.  The nighttime lighting is horrible.  It is so dark - it is too easy to lose a child.  We didn't, luckily, but I found it difficult to let my guard down and enjoy myself.  It is also geared towards younger kids.  Jordan did have fun, but it was a little bit boring for him after the first hour, and I can see why.

After we left, it was a very long drive to our hotel in Downey, near downtown L.A.  My SIL booked an Embassy Suites for all of us, and it was a fabulous hotel!  It was the kind of layout where the floors circle around the main floor, where the breakfast area is, so you can see all of the rooms on each floor.  Several of the room doors in the hotel have tape across them.  We learned that there is a highschool marching band from Texas staying in the hotel too.  The kids are four to a room, and after a certain hour, they are taped into their room.  A security guard and several parent volunteers patrol the floors, and check the tape seals on the hour, all through the night.  That is actually a pretty good system!  Never heard a peep out of the kids.  We made it to our room and collapsed.  The kids wanted so badly to open their Legos, but we made them wait until the next morning.   Tomorrow it is supposed to be overcast and rainy, so we will be sightseeing in Hollywood.

Zion National Park

Today we drove the rest of the way to CA, but first we visited Zion National Park, which was less than an hour from Cedar City.  Here is Owen, my nephew Drew, Rylan and my nephew Connor.  My nephew Alex, the one who will be marching, is traveling with the band.  Everybody else is either behind their own camera, NOT listening that we are taking a picture, or in the bathroom.  sigh.

Zion is absolutely beautiful.  It was a little chilly in the shade, but otherwise a gorgeous day to be outdoors.  We picked up Junior Ranger books at the Visitor Center, watched a short presentation and then the kids HAD to have these from the gift shop:

Many thanks to Aunt Joyce for the Christmas money for each kiddo, and a thank you to the kind Park Service employee with a sharpie to lend me so that I could initial each tag, thus avoiding endless fighting about whose raccoon was whose.

We went on a short hike up the Weeping Rock trail.  In the spring, summer and fall there is water that seeps out of the rock and trickles down the wall.  Now, in wintertime, the water is frozen, so the giant rock wall is covered with thousands of icicles.  There is the constant sounds of ice cracking and icicles falling and crashing on the rocks below.  It was quite the show..

The trail was steep, and icy in sections, so it was a bit dicey for me in places, but thankfully there was always some small child nearby that I could hang on to, to keep my balance.  We stood and watched and listened for at least a half an hour, but alas, California is calling and we have hours of driving ahead of us.  First though, our stomachs are growling and lunchtime is near.

Las Vegas is also near, so we hatch a plan to hit a buffet on the outskirts of Vegas for lunch.  We drive just over an hour and arrive for the last 25 minutes the buffet will be open.  Kids pile their plates and we eat.  The food was less than fabulous and the casino was smokey.  We are so accustomed to living in a non-smoking environment here in Colorado, that it is a shock to the system to walk into a smoky establishment. It was also a challenge to steer small children through the casino to even get to the buffet.  So many flashing lights!  So many sounds!

Back in the car, we drive, drive, drive.  We break out the Star Wars trilogy (4,5 and 6) that Santa brought for Christmas, and the kids have a mini-movie marathon, while Dean and I crack up at their commentary.  The desert is endless.  So is the stretch from Vegas to Barstow, that moves at about 15 miles per hour.  HOW CAN THAT MANY PEOPLE BE DRIVING TO CALIFORNIA!!??  It takes forever, but we finally reach our hotel in San Bernardino.  Tomorrow is Lego Land, so to bed we go!

A family leaves for California

We left for our trip to California today.  A year ago, my SIL shared with us that our nephew, Alex, would be marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena with his high school marching band.  We missed out on seeing our other nephew, Connor, march with the same marching band in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade the year prior because the trip was very expensive and it wasn't feasible to take so many young children on a trip to the mean streets of NYC.  So for this trip, the stars were aligned.  We had a year to save up, the kids would be the perfect age to visit Disneyland, and it had been 8 long years since our last visit to CA.  We had a portion of each paycheck diverted to a special savings account, and at year's end, we were mostly set.  Theme parks are expensive!!

We left bright and early this morning, but still almost a whopping two hours behind schedule.  Despite the mother of all packing lists, it is the actual doing of the packing that we never seem to manage...  We are traveling in our van, and my brother, SIL, two nephews, my dad and stepmom are traveling in their van.  They live an hour away, so they hit the road long before us.  Our destination is Cedar City, Utah.

We've had some snow, but thankfully almost a full day of weak sunshine for the crews to work on the roads.  As we traveled along we fought a little bit of traffic along I-70, and decided in Frisco that it would be nice to be able to actually SEE out the windshield, so we stopped for a new pair of wiper blades.  After that, the travel was much better.  As we passed Vail, I remembered that Dean and I resolved to listen to Serial, the podcast that everyone is raving about.  So I queued up as many episodes as I could while we had cell service, we popped in a movie and made all the kids wear headphones, and then Dean and I settled in to enjoy the show.

As we neared Glenwood Springs, the canyons looked absolutely magnificent.  The snow-covered strata was so beautiful...

Funny, though, when I look at this, I associate it now with the beginning episode of Serial, as the case is being discussed for the first time.  The way people associate different memories with smells - I'm the same way with sounds.  I look at my bedroom walls, and remember painting them as I was listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

We drove through the late afternoon and evening.  I'm sad we missed seeing the beautiful landscapes of Utah, since it was so dark.  We arrived in Cedar City a dead-tired and crabby bunch, and immediately went to bed after saying a quick hello in the hotel hallway to my brother.  Tomorrow we drive to CA!

The Nutcracker

Last weekend was our Nutcracker performance.  We had a five hour dress rehearsal the night before, and then on Saturday we performed two shows.  Rylan had two parts; a dancing gingerbread and a butterfly in the Waltz of the Flowers.  Dean and I were party parents again.  Since this was our second year, we were much more relaxed and it was a lot more fun.  There was definitely a different dynamic amongst the party scene people this year, because it felt much better.  The kids were more fun, there were actual 'parents' rather than teenage girls playing the role of a man to help fill in the scene, and there was more acting involved this year.  We had to chase around our naughty kids, Dean and another dad fought over who got to bring out the toy soldier and hold his toy gun, and my stage 'daughter' took a liking to us and interacted with us quite a bit.  Last year our two stage daughters treated us like we had a disease or something.

I thought it would be much more interesting to take our pictures in front of the set rather than the hallway like last year, but the stage lighting made it next to impossible to get something decent.  I never did get a good shot of my dress, but here it is.  I added a whole bunch of fabric bits and baubles to make it more colorful and sparkly for the stage.  I was going for an Edwardian look, but you can't really tell in the pictures.  I'm not satisfied with it, yet.  I will be making changes before next year.  Hopefully losing the 20 pounds (again) I gained back since last year will be included in those changes.  It will fit much better, I'm sure.

Rylan had a lot of fun performing this year.  This girl loves the stage - absolutely no butterflies.  There was a hitch this year - there was only once dance between her gingerbread and the butterfly.  She and four other little girls were all in the same quick-change boat, so I was backstage with the other moms to help our girls strip completely out of one outfit and into another - and then back again since she was a ginger in the finale.  It was stressful, yet comical.  Rylan learned quickly that there was no time for modesty, and nobody really cares...

I have been really, really lame about posting stuff on the blog.  I never posted about our Nutcracker experience (Rylan's second, and our first) last year, so I am including some pictures here.  Rylan performed as a snow flurry.  She and her class performed alongside the older girls that were the snowflakes.  She looked beautiful.

Here we are, feeling much more relaxed as we had the matinee under our belts and were a lot less nervous.  I am actually wearing my wedding dress.  I was about 8 weeks post BR surgery here, so I was still very sore and swollen, and the dancing bothered me just a bit.  After seeing the video of us dancing on stage, I felt like I looked very washed out and pale, so I thought I needed to add color to the dress this year.  We did have a lot of fun, which played a big part in our decision to do it again this year - and probably be roped into this part for a few years to come.  (if they'll have us)  It is definitely a unique couple experience, and we really enjoyed playing off of each other on stage.  Dean is a ham.  This year we cracked ourselves up, pretending to take selfies in front of the Christmas tree during the party scene - during rehearsal of course.

Many, many thanks to my mom for putting in the long hours of babysitting so that we could take part in this!

All I want for Christmas is to be able to breathe. Normally.

In the past week our family has gone through:

4 cans of chicken soup

2 cans tomato soup

2 gallons of juice

2 liters of 7-up

1 jar of honey

1 box of tea

1 box of saltines

2 bottles of Children's Tylenol

3 boxes of Kleenex

1 box of extra-strength Mucinex

It is difficult when a family member is sick.  It is even harder when four are sick simultaneously.  You have to compete for couch space.  Feverish kids want to lay on you, as well as the cat.  There aren't enough Kleenex boxes to go around.  Somebody is going to have to let the dog out.  And it won't be me, since I can't lift my head off the pillow without it splitting into two.

My hero this week is my 8 year old daughter (the only one well at the time) who managed to make the rest of us tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  She let the dog out.  Multiple times.  She fetched blankets, charger cords, Kleenex and made tea.  My husband, also my hero, who was just a bit less dizzy than I, was the one who made the heroic trip to the grocery store to replenish our stores, and monitor everyone's temperature.

We managed.  We survived.  We even got the tree decorated.  I kept half-lidded eyes on the breakables, as each child hung up their ornaments.  I didn't give a whit where they ended up on the tree.  We had Christmas movie marathons.  I've watched every episode of every season of Shawn the Sheep.  I think I'm good now, thanks.  Even though being sick absolutely sucks, everybody being in the same boat draws a family closer together.  United in snot.  And phlegm.  The one with the highest temperature of the hour wins....a popsicle!

And now, our little Florence Nightingale is taking her turn.  She is the lucky one.  She has four family members to wait on her.

Jordan is so, so lucky that he is in OKC at the moment...  

and now, in that post-cold energy rush, it is sinking in that I've only got 5 days to get my Christmas shit together....

So I guess the holidays are here...

I am beginning to really resent our slave-like Calvert school schedule.  It is ridiculous that I constantly have my eyeballs glued to a planner, yet it never dawns on me what day it really is.  To me, it's just Lesson Day 62, and Jordan is currently slogging though Day 32, Rylan Day 46, and Owen Day 53.  I live and breathe the mantra, How much can we get done today in the never-ending effort to get caught up, instead of noticing that fall has happened, Halloween has happened, Thanksgiving has happened, and HELLO? Christmas is just around the corner??  This curriculum is robbing us of quite a lot.  :(

Fall has happened.

We did enjoy the fall - in a very limited way.  A few leaf walks, a visit to an apple orchard, a hike, the pumpkin patch, Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, leaf raking...  It was all crammed in and between everything else that makes the fall crazy - scout popcorn, scouting for food, Fall Camporee, (all compounded by adding Owen to the family scouting roster), Nutcracker practices, Lego...  I don't like leaving seasonal and family rituals out of the schedule and then fitting them in where we can.  There is no downtime, no spontaneity, and by Thanksgiving we are exhausted.

Thanksgiving has happened.

Thanksgiving was supposed to be spent at home in CO this year, but a schedule switch had to be made in order to accommodate a family trip to CA over New Years, so we went to OKC for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas, so that we wouldn't have two big trips just days apart.  It actually worked out really well.  We had a very good week in OKC, beginning with a family get-together the evening we arrived, which was great since that gave us a chance to see everyone - including our newest grandniece, now 9 months old.  Since this year is the 'off year', in which all the families would be spending the holiday with their inlaws, we knew that our Thanksgiving would be just our family and Dean's folks.  Eight of us.  Can I just say how wonderful that was?  Don't get me wrong - I love the whole family get-togethers and all, but for this wallflower, a small, intimate dinner with 'just us', was wonderful.  In addition, this was not Jordan's scheduled holiday visitation with his mom, so he got to spend the week with us  - and more importantly his grandparents, although we did agree that he could spend the night on Thanksgiving and most of Friday with his mom.  He flies out to OKC in just a few more days, and will spend two weeks with her during Christmas.

Back to the actual event - there was no stress in cooking, no stress in traveling anywhere, no stress of a houseful of people, no stress in clean up.. there was just no stress at all!  I didn't know what to do with myself in a nonstressed state.  So I knitted.  That stressed me out, so I felt better.  My MIL handled the turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes, and I made the rolls, sweet potatoes and gravy.  This was the first time - EVER - that Jordan had the quintessential childhood experience of waking up to the smell of roasting turkey.  For 14 years that child has had to wait for that... a shame!  I have only roasted a turkey once, (last Christmas??) and that was during the day, and I can't remember if he was here or not - he may have been with his mom, who doesn't cook.  Every other holiday in which turkey is involved, the roasting happened at a house he was traveling to, so he never experience that wonderful smell that weaves its way into your dreams and wakes you up at 5:30 a.m. with a growling stomach!  So glad he was with us.

Christmas is happening.

It is now the 10th, and all we have managed to do is drag the tree up from the basement last night, and untangle the lights.  That's it.  Oh, and I put up the advent calendar.  And purchased a poinsettia and a wreath for the door.  I love, love to decorate, yet there is just no time! :(  I am in the process of clearing out about 500 curriculum books (no joke!) from the office shelves to put up my Santa and Nativity displays.  That is the safest spot for them, so every year the books have to be moved temporarily - which, as you can imagine, is a huge chore.  Especially when you have a bum knee.

I haven't even thought about Christmas presents.  At all.

We are leaving for CA in about two weeks.  I haven't thought about that either.  Other than to think about temporary pet placement.

All that is on my mind (apart from stupid schoolwork) is the Nutcracker.  After this weekend, it will be over.  This is Rylan's third year performing in her dance academy's production, and it is the fourth year they have been putting it on.  It is a 'smaller' performance overall when compared to others - the music has been edited for length, the set is more scaled back and it is performed in a high school auditorium, but it does seem to get bigger in scope every year.  This year Rylan is dancing as a Gingerbread and as a butterfly during the Waltz of the Flowers.  Dean and I are once again performing in the party scene.  We are the 'parents' of four, including two very naughty boys, so we get to do a lot of 'scolding' during the party.  Good times.  No different from our daily life.  I spent a very stressful week last week altering my dress so that it looked more 'festive' and period-appropriate.  I will post pictures eventually.  I'm not happy with it, but it will have to do.  We performed last Friday at a different high school for some elementary kiddos, and then we perform twice this coming Saturday.  It will be a long nine hours at the theater.  Last year I was freaked out by it all.  This year I am surprisingly calm.