our trip to monterey **WARNING: Longest post EVER**

I thought about breaking this up into a few shorter posts, but...well...I didn't. So this might honestly be the longest post ever.  I'm sorry.  Sort of.

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We took a little family mini-vacation last weekend. Our first real family vacation with both kids (building a house doesn't really lend itself to vacationing). Ryan's generous parents offered to take us, and Ryan's brother's family, to Monterey for the weekend, and you can't say "No" to that.

I think I read somewhere that family vacations are for making memories. Well, I'm pretty sure Mia will not have any recollection of our trip, and Laci will probably have foggy, distant memories some day, but I, for one, will remember.

I will remember it started as a horrible trip and I nearly made Ryan turn around and go home within 25 minutes of leaving the house. But, it ended with a mostly pleasant trip home, a camera full of pictures, and the good feeling of knowing we spent three whole, quality days together, our little family of four.

Mia isn't the best traveler, so I concocted a genius master plan of leaving the house late Friday evening so that she would sleep most of the way there. We weren't meeting Ryan's family until Saturday, but my Aunty Jenny lives in the Bay Area, so we would stop off at her house for the night and then leave for Monterey (only a 1.5 hour drive from her house) the next day. I had everything ready to go when Ryan got home from work.  We packed the car, fed the girls dinner, baths, pj's, and we were ready to roll by 5:30. A little earlier than planned, but I was tired of waiting around. At 5:34, I texted my aunt that we were pulling out of the driveway. Not even thirty minutes after that, we were pulled over on the side of the highway.  I was doing my best to clean puke off Mia and her carseat, in the dark, with a bottle of water and some towels (I'm so glad I had some in the car). This was after I threw a bit of a hissy fit about kids and bodily fluids (this being my second puke cleanup in the car in a 48 hour period). It was not one of my finest parenting moments.

A new set of pajamas and a grocery sack full of stinky towels and blankets later, we were back on the road. And other than an owl narrowly missing our windshield, the rest of our trip was uneventful. Mia did, in fact, sleep the rest of the way there, and in true Laci fashion, she stayed awake until we were twenty minutes from our destination.

I would hate to think that the worst part of our trip is the most memorable, but isn't that just how things are sometimes. The rest of the trip can be summed up in one simple word: Great.  Fantastic.  Fun.  OK, that's three words.  The weather was chilly, but sunny and beautiful, and somewhere along the way, I relaxed. I stopped stressing about packing two kids and all their stuff around and really enjoyed being away from home and not having to clean the kitchen or do laundry.

We walked Fisherman's Wharf and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Laci loved being with her cousins and Mia was more interested in seeing all the fish than I thought she would be. We took them to a fun not-so-little park where I think Ryan and I had to run more than the girls. They both learned to behave themselves in restaurants (mostly), and we made the drive home with only a couple short pit stops.

So now, the pictures. I do realize I could have narrowed these down greatly, but again...well...I did not.  So, there are quite a few, really A LOT, of pictures.

 See...GORGEOUS weather, right?

I just love all the boats.  It's like a crowded little city.

"So much to see!"

We walked out to one of the ends of the wharf to see the sea lions and seals and this poor pelican was cornered by a bunch of tourists.  They were trying to take his picture and he just wanted to get out of there.  No, I wasn't one of those tourists,

although the fact that I have a picture of him does little to support my innocence.

 And who can say "No" to a little girl who says, "May I have a lollipop please?"

 Why does she look so grown up here?

A terrible picture to record yet another memorable part of vacation.  The part where I flushed the toilet for the first time and it broke.  A plastic piece on the flusher broke, don't think terrible things about my bathroom habits.  But Mia was very interested in the repair process and wanted to help.

All the kiddos at the aquarium.  Mia has decided to start posing and that is her "smile."

Daddy and his baby.

 

Sydney's favorite: the penguins!

 I ended up with about twenty pictures of the back of these two heads.  This is the one I kept.

Thank goodness for the baby corral.  Twenty minutes later, she was soaked to her armpits, but oh, so happy!

 The leafy sea dragon.  One of my favorites.

And two of my favorite people.

 Puffin.

I think maybe being a seal is pretty good if you get to lie on warm rocks in the sun in the middle of the ocean all day.

 Best buddies.

Being silly with Nani and Papa E.

 How cute is she?

Yes, she fell off about two minutes after this picture.  No injuries.  And she climbed back up again.

And at long last, she crashed for good.

But, we woke her up shortly so we could eat lunch.  Doesn't she look awesome with all that hair in her face?

Oh look, there we all are.  Just a vision of togetherness, aren't we?  I don't know what I like better, the hair in the eyes on Mia or the giant tongue from Laci.  But, that's the real us for sure.

 She isn't aware that she's only one.  Being little didn't stop her one bit though.  And she was much braver on the slides than her big sister.  Do you know how hard it is to take pictures of your kids while they are running the whole time?  So hard, that I only got pictures of the back of her head.  Oh well, at least it is cute.

 The last morning of being lazy.

After a long weekend of not falling off the bed, she fell between the bed and the wall about five minutes after this picture.  I don't even know what happened, just heard the thump.  She cried for a few minutes and then resumed her rolling around the bed.  She recovers quickly.

The long ride home.  She didn't want her picture taken and was throwing a fit, so I snuck one in the mirror.

She wanted to know why her sister was throwing a fit.

See, I was there too.

And now, I can get back to blogging about our normal, quiet life,

which I have done a terrible job of so far this month,

but I can always hope I'll do better.

baby shower and motherhood

Kristina's baby shower was a success, and dare I say, even perfect. I never expected perfection, which I suppose is why it was. Perfection has a way of showing up when your expectations are attainable.

 

I love how new babies bring families together and we can eat and be loud and smile until our cheeks hurt. And I'm so, super excited about getting a new niece in a couple of months. A new niece named Harper (someone guessed!).

And never have I been more happy to have a kid playroom in my house than I was during the shower. It looked like a tornado plowed through the room by the end of the day (too bad I didn't get a picture of that), but there wasn't an unhappy kid or baby in the house. And next year, baby Harper can join in on the fun.

 

I tried to think of some advice to give my younger sister about becoming a mom, but I'll be honest, I don't think I have any clue what I'm doing. I don't think anyone really knows what they're doing as a parent all of the time, or even most of the time. And maybe that's the wisdom I can share with her. Parenting is as much a game of guessing and trusting your instincts as it is a science of child behavior (the science part I know nothing about). You just love your kids, do your best for them, and learn to forgive yourself when you screw up. Because you will, and you will feel terrible. But that baby doesn't stop needing you or loving you because you broke down, and you have to pull yourself back together for her.

And if you ever do think you've got something figured out in the ways of motherhood, I can assure you that your baby will instantly grow into a new stage and you will be as lost as you were the day she was born.

Of course, I don't want to make it sound like motherhood is just one failure after another. Because it's not. There are always a few bright, shining moments each day when you feel like a great mother. Things will just click and you'll know how to make the baby stop crying or you'll understand what your toddler is trying to say clearly, and you'll feel like, "Yah, I got this." And it does feel pretty awesome. Awesome enough that you should stop and truly enjoy that moment, because it might not happen again for a while. And because the rest of mothering can be so darn tough, it makes those easy moments that much sweeter.

So, congratulations and good luck dear sister. Your life is about to change like you never expected. And all your expectations and judgments about motherhood are about to be challenged. As with all things in life, you never really know until you've walked in those shoes. So, slip into those motherhood shoes and make your feet comfortable, because they're gonna be there for a long, long time.

spaghetti joy

 

It doesn't matter how many times she eats spaghetti, I never get tired of seeing how much she enjoys rubbing it all over her body. And, apparently, I can't get enough pictures of it either. This was an exceptionally good time, with sauce rubbed completely around each arm, in her ears, and on her legs. She always goes straight to the tub after these sessions. And, although it looks like most of it ends up outside of her body, I can assure you that a good amount of it ends up in her tummy. The proof is in how big and round her belly is by the time dinner is over. I call this spaghetti joy.

trick or treat

Halloween was windy, rainy, and cold, but there were far fewer tears than last year, so it was, I believe, a success.  We met up with cousins, visited Great Grandma June, visited Nanny E at work, and stopped by a friend's house to help hand out candy (we don't exactly live in trick or treat territory).  It was a little too wet to show Laci real trick or treating, but I know she had a fantastic time handing out candy with her Aunty Kristina.  Mia was exhausted before we even left the house, but she was a trooper and didn't complain much.  She even left her hat on her head just long enough to snap a few pictures.

But, just a few.  For the rest, she ran around like a crazy, laughing, maniac cow.

I think that after four years of this, I'm finally getting the hang of putting costumes together and pretending to be excited.  Okay, I might have been a bit excited for real this year.  On the way to grandma's house, Laci asked, "So...where is trick or treat?"  (I love that she starts her questions with "So...").  It was fun to see her start understanding how all this holiday stuff works and to hear her practice saying, "Happy Halloween!" and "Trick or Treat!"  I imagine this is just a preview of how Christmas will be different this year.

 

 

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2009