California Highlights

Lee and Alan on the Carousel with Lily and Anna

Our Family with Grandma Ringen

Anna with Debbie and Alan

Anna and Lily playing carefully by the doors to the yard

Lily barging in on Anna's bed

Anna with Alan and Debbie getting her feet buried by the waves

Making Lemonade

Look at the size of that Lemon !!!

Lee and his Mom..

Anna's alter ego...Princess Anna... this is the outfit (tiara and boa) that was her "I cute" outfit

Ribbit Ribbit

I frogged the sock.... yes the entire sock... maybe I shouldn't have done that since it was looking really good but I got really frustrated while I was frogging one of the rounds and wound up with fewer stitches than should have been on the needles and I SUCK at finding and fixing that type of stuff... so i started ripping and before I knew it the whole thing was gone... and then I started to roll the yarn up and even that didn't go very well... so I put my sock yarn (that skein only) into a ziplock bag and put it into timeout in my bedroom closet and then pulled out a really pretty sock yarn skein that I bought some time ago and hadn't used yet, waited a day and then restarted on the lace sock...

I was able to get help on the sock on Thursday last week but I then figured out that the help I got wasn't correct... I should have gone to the Patons website sooner and found out that the pattern had a few mistakes in it... I printed the correct info out but too late for my sock at that point. Plus I still needed to take a round or two out at that point... At least I know have the correct information for when I get back to that point in the pattern again.

Top Ten Reasons....

I saw this on my Twin Mommy Board today and just had to share it...

Top Ten Reasons Why Halloween is Better Than Sex

10. You are guaranteed to get at least a little something in the sack.

9. If you get tired, you can wait 10 minutes and go at it again.

8. The uglier you look, the easier it is to get some.

7. You don't have to compliment the person who gives you some.

6. It's OK when the person you're with fantasizes you're someone else, because you are.

5. Forty years from now you'll still enjoy candy.

4. If you don't like what you get, you can always go next door.

3. It doesn't matter if the kids hear you moaning and groaning.

2. Less guilt the morning after.

1. You can do the whole neighborhood.

Back to Reality

Yep we are HOME... and back to all the things that are home... and that includes my knitting projects..

I got an email this past week that a friend of mine will be at knitting group on the 27th to pick up the 9" squares that we have made for some charity knitting.. That was an "Oh Sugar" moment because I have been working on one (1) but with all my sock knitting I haven't been working on it... so after knitting group tonight I made the time and finished it. I even worked in all the ends too like she asked.. and then I contemplated my sock and it's pattern... which lately is throwing me for a loop lately.

I did really great on the first pattern part... 6 rounds/rows make the pattern and after 8 times of the pattern repeat I was finally at the 5.5" mark that I needed to be at so that I could start the second pattern part... this one has 12 rounds/rows that need to be repeated somehow.. here's what is getting me confused... the 1st round has a decrease in it as does the 7th round.. Do I go back to round 8 and do the repeats from there?? I looked ahead to the next section of the pattern and according to what I can figure out, I'm supposed to have 72 stitches (36 + 36 = 72 ) total and I already have that number of stitches on my needles.. and my work to this point needs to equal 10" or 25.5 cm . I'm only at 7" after doing the 12 rounds in the pattern. I'm thinking that there will be a trip to my local knitting shop in the morning to help me figure this out.

I can't wait to start trying to figure out the heel while doing Magic Loop... where did I put my white flag of surrender???

Little pieces of things I forgot

There were the big memories of the trip away (see the other 2 posts below) and then there were the smaller moments and memories...

Like how on our first night there or was it the second.. Anna was pushing on the glass doors and saying "I Cute" and getting to the door that was actually open and how she slowly fell to the ground and out the door.. her very first pratfall..

Or how we were watching our SteveSongs DVD and Alan sat down to watch and within minutes his feet and hands were tapping along to the songs... and when we got to the If you want to Fly song that Debbie draped the girls with the boas for their wings...

How much the girls loved playing with the Brio trains from their cousins.

The fabulous meals that Debbie cooked for us...I got the recipe for the Rice Pilaf...

The amount of relaxation that occurred for all of us..

How I couldn't find the door to the bathroom for my first shower till after the shower was over..

How well behaved the girls were on this trip.. especially on the planes..

The yarn..... I'm getting a whole bunch of yarn being sent to me that used to be my MIL's... I am so stoked... and a sweater that she started but had not finished yet.. If I can figure it out then I might be able to finish it.. If not maybe I can restart it...

I know that there is more... maybe I'll remember later... but these are the little moments that I want to remember for a while.

More tripping in California

Friday brought a day that we were mostly on our own... Debbie had to go to work and Alan had Jury Duty for the day. So after the girls were up and fed, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.. It was a nice walk... we saw Eucalyptus trees and lemon trees. We also saw quite a few rose bushes on our walk. The walk took us approximately an hour to complete. We had some lunch (Alan came home and ate with us) and then headed over to the Venturan to see Grandma Ringen. The girls had a nice visit with her. Lily got rather attached to a statue in the foyer of a puppy dog holding a shoe and of a tricycle with two children on it (a boy and a girl). She also rather enjoyed watching the digital picture frame in Grandma's room. Thankfully I knew who a majority of the people on it are so I was able to help her name them. While Daddy and Anna visited with Grandma outside, Lily had fun walking the halls of the Venturan. She really liked getting a chance to play Balloon Toss with some of the residents and batting at a very large balloon with a pool noodle. At the end of the game she was even given the balloon to play with on her own. Anna also enjoyed walking the halls but liked listening to the music that was being played and eventually she convinced Daddy, Lily and Grandma to join us in listening for a while.

Saturday brought a trip to a Farmer's Market ,while Alan went on a 60 mile bike ride, with Aunt Debbie. We had a great time looking over the fresh produce and getting all sorts of fruits and veggies for dinner. Debbie bought a whole bunch of peaches for a pie that she made for our dessert. Later in the day while Daddy and Alan went to visit Shirley and then to the storage unit to go through some boxes from their parents, Debbie and I brought the girls to Ventura Harbor to have some Beach time and to ride the Carousel. Once again Anna was all over the water and had no problem being in it... Lily was not happy about the sand and trying to walk on it and didn't want anything to do with the water and was happiest in Mommy's arms while we walked. Both girls though were really happy with the Carousel and wanted more than one ride but we had to get back to the house for dinner. We promised them another ride for the next day if possible.

Sunday brought church and it turned out to be quite the adventure since one of the gentlemen in the Choir got hurt during rehearsal before the service began. The girls were great about going into and staying in the Nursery room without Mommy or Daddy being with them. After service we went back to the house and had some lunch before Lee and I went to go visit Shirley without the girls in tow. It was an emotional visit for Lee since his mom talked to us quite a few times and when we left she gave him a hug that made him cry. Meanwhile Debbie and Alan took care of Anna and Lily for us and got them to nap. Dinner was Italian out at Ventura Harbor and the girls got their promised ride on the Carousel with Daddy and Uncle Alan. We also finally got some shopping time in for souvenirs of our trip (t-shirts and a magnet).

Monday brought a last trip to see Shirley till whomever knows when.. so we made sure to take lots of pictures of the girls with Grandma Ringen and of Daddy and his girls with Grandma. We also made time to go to a park and played at 2 play areas before heading home for dinner and a quick nap for the girls. Later that evening we made our way back to the airport and eventually home to Boston.

I'm so glad that we are home and back to our lives here but there is a part of me that wishes that we lived closer so that we could be closer to Shirley and to Al and Debbie especially at the moment. Hopefully should anything happen to Shirley it won't be for a long time so that the girls and I can go also but I totally understand if the girls and I get left behind for that trip.

California Tripping

So I've already told you all about how the traveling went... but what did we actually DO on this trip and who did we see??? Well wonder no more... I'm about to tell you....

So we traveled on a Wednesday into the evening so that day was a total travel day.. I learned quite quickly how to install the carseats using seatbelts as opposed to the LATCH system that I usually use and am pretty good at.. Turns out that I am good at that installation method too.. Once at their Uncle's house we quickly got the girls to bed... they were beyond exhausted even though they had gotten a little bit of sleep on the plane and in the car. Auntie had put two twin beds together for them and we laid them down and prayed for the best since they had not slept in twin size big girl beds yet (Toddler beds -yes but true big girl beds not so much). We also left the bathroom light on since we knew that they needed a nightlight for security in case they woke up while we were asleep. The next morning they woke up around 6am-ish which would be 9am in Boston.. I woke around 3am and then again around 5:30am.. I took a really great shower (HOT water rocks) and then got the girls up and going along with Lee so we could go downstairs for breakfast... Debbie was already up, dressed and cooking everyone some pancakes.. Yummy.. Debbie showed us where to find glasses, plates, milk, tea bags and the coffee so we could help ourselves while we were there. Once Alan came back from his workout and ate with us we made plans to go see Lee and Alan's mom at the Venturan before lunch. What I didn't know was that once we got the girls into the car that I would be driving and not Alan.. umm dude did my loveable hubby tell you about how I drive??? I'm a Boston driver for goodness sake. So with plenty of coaching and instruction from Alan, I made my way to the Venturan and really really made Alan nervous. But not too nervous since he made me drive back to his house.. that took a ton of faith in my driving abilities. Anyway.. we got to the Venturan and visited with Shirley.. we got out the bubbles and blew them for my girls' and Shirley's enjoyment. I had brought the video camera along with the regular camera and took quite a few pictures and some video. Once I finally sat down and said a proper 'Hello' to Shirley she seemed to recognize me and know that I was there. We stayed for a small bit and then headed back to the hosue for lunch and a nap for the girls.. after nap we decided that we all needed a trip to the beach.. Once again I drove but with Lee as my copilot.. We wound up at Ventura State Beach and Anna had a fabulous time standing in the surf and letting her feet get buried in the sand. Lily wasn't a big fan of the waves that came crashing in and opted for her Mommy's arms till we strolled down the beach a bit and found 3 dogs and she wanted down to pet them. We headed back to the house after a while and had our dinner and then put the girls to bed. While the girls napped earlier in the day, Lee and I discovered that there is a Lemon Tree in Al and Debbie's yard. Lee felt the need to make some fresh lemonade. So we picked quite a few lemons, washed them, cut them and then squeezed them in the juicer. We wound up with just over 5 cups of lemon juice.. so we made 2 pitchers of lemonade and still had some left over for other endeavors such as Sangria (which we never got around to making).. I also learned how to get to the supermarket since we needed to purchase some Pull Ups as I was quickly running out of them. That evening I got introduced to a wonderful show that I quickly learned to like quite a bit (Bones). By 10pm I was toast and went up to bed since I wasn't sure how the girls would sleep nor how early they might be up the next day.

We Did It !!!

We successfully traveled with twin toddlers in tow... We learned quite a bit about traveling with small people as we did it. We also learned all about how important it is to have an up to date Passport or Photo ID.. We had a great time.. Let's back up... We left from Logan.. the taxi ride was great... so easy.. Once there we grabbed a cart to help us move the carseats around the terminal.. grabbed some food from Burger King and headed to Security.. Mistake #1.. Carts aren't allowed through Security. Ok so we went to the JetBlue counter for help. The lovely lady there was awesome and helped us with the carseats till we all realized that you can't bring liquids through security either.. Mistake #2... So we found a table and ate and drank and then got our new friend from JetBlue for another try. Third time was the charm ... Get to the Gate and Lily had tons of fun running around the gate area and away from us... Argh... Finally get to the plane with help from the crew to our seats.. Girls were great on takeoff and eventually dozed off but in between Lily screamed so much (I want Juice... I want Milk... I want UP... I want Mommy I want Daddy...) that eventually one of the flight attendants told me that I could come to the Galley with Lily and let her walk up and down the aisle with me. While in the Galley she got extra cookies and a pair of Junior Flight Crew wings. Once at LAX things got tons better since Lee's brother was there to pick us up and help with our bags and the carseats.



On the way home we used our new knowledge for navigating the airport after Alan dropped us off and helped us with the luggage cart and getting everything to balance. We successfully checked our bags in and then put the carseats on our backs and strolled the girls to Security. Lee's passport is no longer valid and we now know that we need to get it renewed ASAP. Got to the gate and found out that our flight was delayed due to the weather in Boston.. so we hung out at the airport for an extra hour and made all sorts of new friends. The gate crew was small but I think when they saw how many kids that would need assistance to and from the plane, they all jumped into action and helped all the parents on our flight. Thankfully both Lily and Anna fell asleep just as we got into the air and stayed that way for part of the flight.. they might have slept longer had the 7m old in front of us hadn't decided that 5am would be a great time to have a screamfest that woke most of the plane. In all the hubbub of getting our stuff once we landed, we somehow lost a sippy cup... Not a big deal but I REALLY liked that particular one since it was a cool color and I liked how much it didn't leak unless you put the top on incorrectly (which is easy to do). Hopefully I can find a replacement since it worked out great for the trip to and from and I like it quite a bit.

The flight crew on this leg wasn't as nice when I needed to get Lily changed and had to wait in the Galley. Maybe they were as tired as we were but to tell me that I shouldn't be sitting on the floor with my child went a little too far in my book. Also they didn't have any milk for my Dunkin Donuts Tea so it was like drinking tea flavored and sugary water. Also it made my stomach feel icky as we landed and I've never ever felt airsick on a plane before. Thankfully I didn't hurl. Once on firm ground the wonderful crew got all the kids and parents deplaned successfully and we headed to Baggage Claim. I was able to get all our bags quickly and easily and then we rented another cart to get our stuff to the taxi stand. From Logan we headed back to my mom's house to get our car and have Breakfast at my mom's and then finally back to our apartment.

I'll post again soon about our California adventures... but for now we know that we can fly successfully with twin toddlers and can do it again if needed.