Southern California Trip

Our annual trip to visit my snow-bird parents started out kind of rough this year.  Hubby was in town but working, so we couldn't leave until he got home.  And the snowstorm that started just got worse and worse, until when we finally left at about 7:30 pm on the 16th of February it was whipping up to be a blizzard.
It's a 12 hour drive, or so, and we lost nearly two hours the first night by slowing down because we COULDN'T SEE A DARNED THING on the road.  It was pretty harrowing, one of the scariest driving experiences I've had.
We had arranged to go the same time as my brother's family this year.  They left an hour ahead of us, and ran just ahead of the storm, where we were right in the middle of it.  They made it to Vegas for the night.  We made it to Cedar City (175 miles behind them) the same time they did (1:30 am.).
The next day Hubby was beat from the stress of driving the night before, so I drove.  I was so relieved to not be driving into a blinding snowstorm, I didn't pay attention to the car and I RAN OUT OF GAS about 20 miles north of Vegas.  It took AAA about an hour to get to us.
So my brother's family left an hour before us, but got to the beach about four hours ahead of us, long enough to play on the beach for the afternoon before we even got there.  Dagnabbit!


We went to Disneyland on Friday, and had one of the best times we've ever had.  My brother's youngest daughter and Thing 2 braved each other into going on the Tower of Terror.  Thing 2 talked her cousin into the California Screamer roller coaster and Thunder Mountain.  Thing 1 is more tentative about the Tower of Terror and the Screamer, and she sat back with my brother's 2nd oldest who is also not as into the rides.  So it worked out for everyone!


All in all it was a great day, until we got rained out.  Thing 1 was drenched from the bottom of her raincoat to her socks, and so we bugged out around 9:00 pm.  My brother and his die-hard family stayed until nearly 11:30 or so.


The next day we spent at the beach, with the little girls boogie boarding and burying each other in the sand.  My brother's older daughters boogie boarded and body surfed, while the parents lined up their beach chairs and read their books.
There was also some shopping going on, who can bypass the Carlsbad Outlet mall?


My brother's family had to get back, so they left Monday morning.  We moved out of the condo we had rented and into the spare room of my parent's condo for the rest of our trip.  We mostly spent our days on the beach after the left, but did take the girls to Legoland, and had a great time there.

It was a wonderful trip!  AND one of the bonuses was we drove back Friday to avoid a storm, and we did!  And we didn't run out of gas, either!
And since it's a pain to manipulate them into the appropriate place in the story, the photos are all just dumped at the end.

My brother's oldest, 3rd, and 2nd daughters...

 

My sister-in-law (who I rarely get pictures of because she's camera shy) and Thing 2.

 In California Adventure Thing 2 was picked to participate with the Super Dudes.  She exhibited great strength by lifting this huge weight over her head using the controversial "thumbs behind" grip.

Here you see the backs of Hubby, Thing 1's head, then Nieces 1 and 2, my brother, his wife, and Niece 4 all heading to the exit in the rain.

Back at the beach the "adults" and my oldest niece didn't get in the water as much, everyone had a book to read while we monitored the younger kids.

Thing 1 and my youngest niece did a lot of boogie boarding.

At one point my two and my brother's youngest were all out boogie boarding.

 My brother's middle daughters were very good sports and helped bury my two and their younger sister.  Left to right they are my brother's youngest, 2nd oldest, and 3rd oldest, Thing 1, and Thing 2's head attached to the sand... octopus or whatever it is.

At Legoland Hubby and Thing 1 spent some quality time at the building table in Legoland.  Thing 2 and I joined them after we were done playing video games in the other room.

 We waited in line for this ride for the LONGEST time... even though the park wasn't that crowded and the line wasn't that long... it was just SO SLOW.  Legoland hasn't quite figured out the quick line system like Disneyland has.

Back at the beach Hubby and Thing 2 did some boogie boarding.

 Mostly when Hubby or I go out with the girls, we stand in the water and then rocket them ahead of the wave so they have a good ride.

 Thing 2 had had enough of the beach, she wanted to spend the last day at the pool.

Grandma and I had to go out to see the sandcastle that Hubby and Thing 1 had built before the sun set and the water washed it away.

Yet another marvelous trip, made even more marvelous by playing with the cousins for a couple of days!

Hawaii report

Hawaii!  Yes!  Particularly Maui!  I highly recommend it!
I would specifically recommend:
1) Going when the humpback whales are calving (Dec-Feb) and
  1a) Taking a boat cruise out to watch
  1b) The dinner sunset cruise is nice, but you might still be hungry after.
2)  Renting a house instead of a hotel room
3)  Getting a rental car - everything is a 20-50 minute drive away
4)  Renting Snorkel gear and a boogie board from a dive shop ($) and not from the hotel related shop ($$$)
  4a)  Each member of your party should have their own snorkel and fins
   4b)  The boogie board is fun but optional
5)  Bringing or buying a big beach towel
  5a) Then you don't have to steal a bath towel from the hotel
  5b)  You don't need one for each member of the party, just for the whiny members 
  5c)  They double as blankets, seat covers, shade umbrellas, and anything else you need
6)  Plan lots of time - everything takes longer than you think
7)  Either take an iPad with you to plan what you're going to do each day, or do more planning ahead than we did.  
8)  Shave Ice.  Not to be confused with shaved ice.
9)  Texting updates to your home email if you forget a travel diary, so you can remember what you did each day.
10) Aloe Vera gel

I would NOT recommend

1) Leaving all your underwear at home by accident (Specifically, packing everyone else's but your own.)
2) Taking all the wrong clothes (No one in Hawaii is wearing capris.  They're all wearing Daisy Duke shorts if they're women, and board shorts if they're men.  And Kmart in Maui doesn't sell shorts in January in the women's department.  They're all selling LONG PANTS.  To people wearing SHORTS.)
3)  Trying to change hotels from the one you were in to a rental house once you're there.  The hotel will charge you whether you stay or not.
4)  Buying breakfast coupons as part of the hotel deal.  (Turns out you can't double up, you can only use 2 coupons per room per day.   So all that money you're saving by buying the breakfast coupons will be wasted when you get tired of the same food every morning and want to go somewhere else for breakfast.   We came home with forty dollars worth of unused breakfast coupons, which outweighed the amount we saved by buying the coupons instead of just paying for breakfast when we wanted it.)
5)  Forgetting to sunscreen yourself after you've sunscreened the kids.
6)  Don't expect your experience on an excursion to be as magical and amazing as the person who wrote up the review on TripAdvisor.com.  You'll probably have a good time, but don't go expecting magic.


I do advise taking lots of pictures, from the time you get there until you go.  So  you can post them on your blog!.

Here we go!
This was taken while we were waiting for Hubby to return with the rental car (a red mustang convertible, the car of choice for Hawaii tourists).  It was 10:30 at night Hawaii time, which makes it 1:30 am for the girls.  They're a little punchy, but surprisingly good natured.

 

The first day we drove to Mile Marker 16 on the road to Hana, a twisty gorgeous drive along the North East coast of Maui.  Hana is dead-ended at Mile Marker 35.  We never made it that far.   There are too many beautiful things to stop and see or hike to on the way.

The convertible was a big hit with the girls.

The next day (Friday) we rented snorkel equipment and while trying it out right by our hotel we saw a sea turtle! It was a beautiful lovely day. 

On New Year's Day (Saturday) we took the sunset whale watching cruise and saw a whole lot of spoutings, partial breachings, flukes, tails, and humps. Of course I got absolutely no good pictures of whales. These are some of the pictures I did get.

The whales were pretty close, one was a baby!  Of course you'll have to take my word for it as they disappeared the minute I brought up my camera.

On Sunday we drove to the top of the volcano, Haleakala (say Hal-E-ah-call-ah).  The tricky thing was it was 80 degrees at the bottom, and about 40 degrees on top, with a gale force wind blowing on you taking it down to closer to 30 degrees.  The girls huddled in the visitor center with Hubby, I was on my own for pictures.

They worked on their Junior Ranger badge qualifications while sporting their souvenir towel skirts.  It was bitter cold up there!

 Can you see how hard the wind is blowing?  Probably not. VERY HARD!!!

On Monday we set out to find a less popular rock formation known as the Dragon's Teeth.  It's not marked, we had to ask when we got lost a the Ritz Carlton, and  hike across a golf course to find it, but it was an interesting place.  Very windy too.

Later that night we went to a Luau. We were on the front row, and had a great time! This was a special luau which also served hot dogs and chicken nuggets, so Everyone was happy!  Unfortunately my camera battery had died that afternoon and so I didn't get many pictures.


 On Tuesday we had arranged for a raft boat snorkel/tour excursion. We had to get the girls up at 5:00 am in order to be at the dock by 6:30. Yikes! We had a lot of fun, though Thing 1 got splashed which put her in a bad mood, and she wasn't as hyped about the snorkeling as Thing 2. Thing 2 exhibited her fishy side and really took to the snorkeling.

We saw more turtles and whales. Thing 1 and I sat in the middle of the boat, so I didn't get any good pictures of her, as she was practically on my lap. Oh, well there is one of her rockin' out to the tunes that the captain blasted over the speakers.

We didn't feel like we'd gotten enough snorkeling, so after the raft trip we stopped at a nearby beach to let the kids play and do a little more water activities. I think it was one of the kid's most favorite days, which only goes to show that they probably would have just been thrilled to play on the beach the whole week.  The water was incredibly warm and the sand was like silk, and the waves didn't assault them like they're used to from the ocean.  It was blissful!

Our last day was Wednesday.  We were checking out and missed the hotel breakfast (grumble grumble) and so we went into Lahaina for lunch.  Then since Hubby really wanted to see the tropical side of the island, we decided to try and make it farther down the road to Hana.  This time we made it to Mile Marker 22 before we had to turn around and head back.

We had a very nice dinner back in Paia (say pie-EE-ah) before we headed to the airport for our 11:20 pm flight. Thing 2 was asleep about 20 seconds after I fastened her seatbelt and she barely stirred until she woke up in L.A.  Thing 1 tossed and turned, and hardly slept at all. I'm still trying to recover from my sleepless night!  Hubby didn't even try to sleep.  I don't know how he does it. We got back home about 11:00 a.m.
It was an absolutely lovely trip, and we didn't want it to end.  We learned a lot about how to do it even better next time! Because we all expect there definitely needs to be a next time!

Care for a game of.....?

My girls are 23 months apart in age.  I don't know if it's their nearness in age, but they usually get along swimmingly and are usually very happy playing with each other.  I've seen some rather interesting activities come about as part of their play, a couple of them have reoccurred lately and I wanted to write them down.

There is one where one girl grabs the dog's pull rope, then waggles it in the air until the dog grabs it.  Then the other daughter grabs the dog's tail, and they trot off to make laps around the house with one daughter pulling the dog, the other being pulled by the dog.  They sing a weird little chant that sounds kind of like a limbo chant, they say "Congo, congo, Puuh-PEE! Congo, congo Puuh-PEE!"  The dog loves this, by the way.  They can do this until they're both panting. They call it, naturally, "Congo Puppy."

My girls have a problem in that though they usually play extremely well together, their likes are different enough that sometimes it's hard for them to figure out WHAT to play.  For example, one wants to play pokemon, the other wants to play Littlest Petshops.  They've found a work around activity that sometimes works, where they each play their own thing, but the two communities (for example, pet shops and pokemon) discover each other and have to learn to get along.  This is called "Meetings."

Another one which usually happens when they're getting dressed in the morning; they'll pull their arms into the torso of their shirts or pajama tops, letting the sleeves dangle empty.  Then they begin wildly thrashing their upper bodies back and forth like washing machine agitators on acid.  Their flailing causes the empty sleeves to whip around a little, and if you can hit someone with your sleeve you have scored.  I don't think this is that unusual, I seem to remember doing it as a kid. What I like about their version is what the girls call it:  "Sleeve Ninjas." 
_____


I was going to be landing in Germany today,  had our plans not changed.  Hubby skyped and said he's tired of being on the road and feeling overwhelmed and wants to come home a day early, not even staying to do a day of sightseeing.  If he can get a flight, he will.  My initial reaction wasn't the normal "Oh honey, that would be great!  We'll be so happy to see you!"  Instead I guess I looked at him a little stunned...  I just couldn't imagine going to the effort and expense to come home early, avoiding the fun of looking around Nuremberg for a day.  He said "Don't you want me to come home?"  Well, of course, but don't you want to stay?   No.


We're taking the kids to Hawaii after Christmas in exchange for the Germany trip.  Maui, actually.  I've never been to Hawaii and am kind of excited.  We haven't had a vacation that DIDN'T involve a conference or my extended family in a long time.   And all in all I think at the age my children are they'll enjoy the beaches and fun of Hawaii more than the cultural interest of Germany...
But I definitely would have stayed in Germany for an extra day.

Scheduling is hell

Scheduling anything with Hubby is usually fraught with danger.  The danger of cancellation or of having to call everyone else involved to change the date.  Birthday parties, group photos, get togethers...  nearly anything involving anyone beyond me, Hubby, and the girls gives me a headache and requires multiple phone calls and emails.  If it's just the four of us our options are always open anyway and I know things will change dramatically at any moment.  We just don't plan much of anything and as much as possible we're a seat-of-the-pants kind of bunch. That's fine.  Sometimes annoying, but fine.  It's when other factors, like extended family, or Delta, become involved, that I go crazy.

A couple months back Hubby got a four day contract in Nuremberg.  Then there was a two day class for him to teach in Hamburg the next week. If we wanted, we could schedule them as far apart as possible, and the girls and I  could  come to Germany and play with him in between.  If I had my top choices of where it would be cool to take the family, Bavaria would be right up there.  I've been there twice, I know some fun things to do there, it's a beautiful area.  Hubby's never been to Germany, I could show him around a little too.  We weighed all the options.  Briefly.  For a couple of days.  Seriously enough for me to see that if we DID decide to go, we had to renew the girls' passports. Yeah, how freaky is that?  I got my first passport at 18 or something.  My girls are 7 and 9 and they need theirs RENEWED, and they've actually needed them TWICE.  The times they are a changin'.  I digress.
We decided to go to Germany.
Then we talked about it some more for another couple weeks or so. Of course when I say "talk" I really mean "brought it up while squeezing everything of relevance into a late night phone call, or an intercontinental skype session in which one of us was trying to have dinner while the other was trying to have breakfast."  That's what I meant.
After briefly discussing it a couple times, for many reasons we decided not to go.
Then Hubby talked to his contacts in Hamburg to see if he could schedule his thing there the 2nd week at the beginning of the week instead of the end, and only be gone for 7 or 8 days or so all together, instead of the full 2 weeks.  They said it's too late to move the dates, so he'll be stuck alone in Germany for the full two weeks, just working at the beginning and the end.
So we decided the girls and I should go meet him.  We're going.  We're taking the girls to Germany! 
We looked into airfare. It seemed relatively inexpensive, and we got these sweet direct to Paris flights...  so we bought tickets.  That's always a scary moment... the "YES DANGIT GO AHEAD AND DO IT!!!  LET'S GO TO GERMANY!!!" moment.  Everything is rolling toward going.
I told the girls' teachers at parent teacher conferences that we'd be leaving on November 10th after school, coming back the weekend of the 20th.  We'll come get any homework assignments for them to take with us and do on the plane. It's getting closer and closer!
Then on Saturday Oct 30th I get an email from Hubby telling me his thing in Hamburg at the end of the 2nd week in Germany was canceled.  Suddenly we have no real reason to have a big family vacation, with the girls missing 7 days of school, in the middle of November, right before the Thanksgiving break.  
We talk.  We decide to cancel, eat the change fees on the tickets and use the remaining credit to go somewhere else another time.


Hubby calls the airline to make sure it really is a $250 fee per ticket to cancel an international ticket.  Yes, it is. He is shocked that it really will cost us $1000 to NOT go, in changing his ticket and cashing the girls and my tickets in for credit.  He gets off the phone and doesn't cancel.  We start talking about what we'd do in Germany.  I start getting excited, and telling him all about Bavaria and the castles and the nutcrackers and the shopping and on and on...
We decide maybe we should go.  By now it's Sunday evening.
We talk some more.  We weigh our options.
By Monday we'd changed our minds again.  This one is looking final.  The reasons to go?  The experience, the cancellation fees on the tickets.  The reasons NOT to go?  For me, the thousands of dollars of the expenses of this trip (in addition to the price of the tickets we have sitting on this cycle of the credit card) and the fact we'd be pulling the girls out of 7 days of school.  There are quite a number of other, lesser reasons.


So we're not going.  Hubby leaves Saturday for Nuremberg, and will have to change his ticket anyway to come back the following Saturday.  And will enjoy having a week at home, for a change.  We've told the girls to tell their teachers we will be here after all.


There.  The decision is made.  Final.

This is not the first time a European trip was cancelled for me... the last time I found out TWO DAYS before we were leaving that our trip to Sheffield England was off.  But knowing in the back of my mind it always could fall through isn't much comfort.  I'm still sort of sad... I did really want to go.

Three days at Grandma's

We got home late last night from my folk's.  The dog had a ball, the girls had a ball, and I actually got a couple things accomplished.

I wrote in my last post how we picked apples.  We also trimmed the trees a little.

Trimmed branches make dramatic (if somewhat unwieldy) swords.

The dog and his cousins romped and ran and growled and played.  We drove them out to a field and let them all play, trying to wear them out.  My father doesn't want all these hairy beasts in his house, so the dogs all go to my sister's.  This time she had her own two boxers, our collie, my brother's short hair/border collie mix, and her stepson's lab/pointer puppy. She doesn't usually have all these dogs and was worried they were going to keep her and her husband up all night, so she wanted to give them a good run to wear them out.

On the way back from that walk we saw three deer in someone's front yard. Just driving along in the middle of the neighborhood, and there are three deer.

The next day the girls and I went on a horseback ride with my sister.  (This was the highlight of the trip for them.)  A friend of my sister's came to help, so there were three grown-ups to herd the two little girls, who both did very well at steering their own horses and obeying the orders called to them.  

"Pull his head up!"  
"Don't let him eat the grass!"  
"Don't let her get ahead of the leader or she'll run home with you!"  
"Pull his head up!"
"Remember you're in control!"
"Don't let her stop and talk to those strange horses on the other side of the fence or we'll be here all day!"  
"Pull his head up!"

It helps that the horses they're riding are very well behaved.  They do what they're told, if they're told firm enough to notice, and are not too prone to misbehave. It's also nice they're not the "stick your nose in the tail of the horse in front of you and never remove it" kind of horses.  My sister owns the horses she and Thing 1 rode, her friend owns the horse she rode, and Thing 2 and I borrowed horses from a family friend, who used to keep my sister's horses.  

Thing 1, me, and Thing 2

The horse we borrowed for Thing 2 is "half draft" which means she's a little stockier than the others, which are mostly Tennessee Walkers.   She also had to trot to keep up with the long Walkers, which explains why Thing 2 spent so much of the ride giggling hysterically.  Apparently when you're 7 years old having your bones bounced out of their sockets while trotting is fabulous entertainment.
Seeing the little Thing 2 on the back of that big half draft reminded my sister of a cartoon she'd seen once, so she had to take a picture, which turned out better than she'd expected.

"Does this kid make butt look big?"

We also picked out pumpkins from a neighbor of my sister's who sells them much cheaper than the grocery stores.
We were driving back to my parents' house for dinner when I saw some kids out on a corner wearing bee keeper suits, waving at cars and selling their honey. The house looked familiar and so I stopped and bought some Raw, Local Honey, and sure enough the kids in the bee suits belonged to a good friend of my sister's (whose big brother I used to date) who has become something of a farmer.  She came out and talked to us, then took us to her garage and showed my girls her hives and gave us a brief lesson on how they get honey from the hives. 

We had really gone to the garage to see giant pumpkins they raised.  The bee hives were actually a bonus.

We had a great time, and got back very late last night. I still haven't unloaded all the pumpkins from the car.