Memorial Day Retreat 2015

On Friday, I drove the kids from Phoenix to Ramona, the site of my San Diego church’s Memorial Day Retreat. It took the same amount of time as flying and it was waaaaaaaaay easier than flying with them.  I loved seeing the changing desert scenery. I was listening to podcasts and the kids were happy in their seats. A win-win! I may just be a fan of road trips after all.

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The retreat was just so wonderful for me. I saw lots of dear friends that I hadn’t seen since our wedding eight years ago.

Adele (clearly inspired by our gardening adventures at home) decided to make a garden in the middle of the sand volleyball court. She transplanted some desert plants from the nearby landscaping. I hope they were rescued before they died.

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Adele with her friend A.

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And, Eleanor was reunited with S, her roommate from the Living Education Retreat in Minnesota last August.

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I was pretty busy taking care of the kids so I guess that’s why I didn’t take any pics. =( But it was really the most wonderful, nourishing time for me. I can’t wait to go again next year!

Arizona ~ May 2015

Prepare yourself for an onslought of pictorial evidence from our recent travels. Feel free to skip if you aren’t related to me. =) I promise I won’t be offended.

Kent had his final Medical Acupuncture class in Phoenix, so we tagged along and turned it into a family vacation.

We were completely packed the night before, all we had to do was load up the luggage and the kids in the morning and go. The airport is less than an hour from our house, we didn’t hit any traffic, as soon as we parked in long-term parking and unloaded everything, the bus showed up. It seemed like things were going perfectly. But when we arrived at the ticketing area, with about an hour and a half before boarding, the line was really long. And the line at security was really long too. We arrived at our gate with just a few minutes until the boarding time and they had already given our seats away. Kent got on the next flight (he had to be at his class), but the kids and I we unable to get on the next two flights (it’s hard to get three standby seats on the same flight!). After that, I was pretty much wrecked. The kids had been screaming for a while, I had run out of food for Everett, and I was ready to give up on the whole trip and head home. But then I realized that my carseats were in Phoenix- with my husband and the rest of our luggage. The baggage claim department wouldn’t give me loaner seats because that wasn’t my “final destination” and they couldn’t get my carseats sent back until 11pm that night or maybe even the next morning. So we tried for the 10:45 pm flight into Denver with a two hour layover then another flight into Phoenix. We made it! I had to wear both Ergo baby carriers to get my two non-walkers on and off the plane by myself. Like so:

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I texted that pic to Kent and he says (while relaxing and drinking wine in Phoenix): “nice face”

 

Here’s Everett asleep in my arms while at a restaurant in the Denver airport. This boy only rarely falls asleep when not in his bed. You can tell he was desperately tired!

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I texted Kent the following: “There is no part of me that is even remotely interested in flying with any children ever again. Seriously. Italy is out.”

Well, the journey out to Phoenix was certainly rough, but we actually had a wonderful trip and I am so glad we went. Parts of it were hard, but the other parts were totally worth it.

 

Since Kent read American Pie by Peter Reinhart, we had to check out the wood-fired pizza at Pizzeria Bianco while we were in Phoenix. We took Adele out on a date with us (she was our photographer) while Gary and Nancy watched the littles (who were sleeping).

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Kent’s sister had a Hawaiian luau at her house in Phoenix and Kent’s parents were there too. And, our friends the B family drove down from Prescott. We had such fun! Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures! =(

Eleanor is one!

IMG_0222     IMG_0220Eleanor seemed reluctant to dive in to her smash cake. But, once she got going, she really smeared every inch of her highchair and face and arms!

 IMG_0236Everett was so happy to see Carmel again!   IMG_0245IMG_0235 P1060560Grammy and Grandy came down from Connecticut.

About a week before the party we had 62 people RSVP’d for the party and we got a little nervous that we wouldn’t be able to feed that many people! Kent decided we should make two three-layer cakes – strawberry with strawberry buttercream frosting and carrot cake with sour cream frosting. Yum! We decided making homemade ice cream for that many people would be too much for us, so we bought that from Trader Joe’s. Kent made 15 pizzas in the wood-fired pizza oven. And we bought a few finger food veggies to make the pizza stretch a bit farther.P1060564 P1060557I can’t get enough of these curls! P1060569 P1060575   How about a couple more pictures of my little birthday girl (from a few weeks ago) just for funsies P1060545P1060508IMG_2467

Eleanor’s quilt update

So, I finished sewing together the hexagons for Eleanor’s quilt – but now I think it needs to be larger than crib size, since she’s already mobile (i.e. not content to stay within the confines of a blanket). I am thinking it needs to be a twin size, which means I now have a bit more piecing to do. Here’s what I have so far:

P1060455It’s a mix of linen and quilting cotton. And compared to the loud colors of Adele’s quilt, this is very low-volume. I think the girls will end up sharing a room at some point, though, so I hope that the quilts will look good together, since Eleanor’s colors are just muted versions of the same colors as Adele’s quilt. Here’s Adele’s quilt for comparison:

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Chalkboard art – around here lately

FYI,I realize my blog is probably pretty boring these days because I just post pics of my kids. But, I do have a project to show you in a few days. Kent built a free-standing table/bar so that we can eat at our island in the kitchen. It’s AWESOME!

In the meantime, can I just tell you how much I like having an enormous chalkboard in my living room? This is a 3′ x 5′ piece of MDF that Kent bought me for my DIY Aquaboard project – which was a giant fail. But, then I had the idea to paint over it with chalkboard paint! It’s large enough to anchor (ba-dum-bum) the living room, balancing our awkwardly-deep fireplace, and it hides our router. This is perhaps my fourth or fifth verse art piece on the chalkboard. I leave it up until I get sick of it and want some fresh inspiration. I use regular chalk and also “Wet Chalk” pens. It’s not super-easy to find the hour it usually takes to climb up there and draw a new verse (usually the kids are run amok as a result), but I’m always happy I did it once it’s done.

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Here are a few others that I could find pics of real quick:

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Remember how sad the mantle looked without art up there?

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I took this picture because it’s pretty unusual. It’s NOT unusual to have to shovel snow, again – but it is unusual to shovel in short-sleeves!

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I love this face!

 

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and this one!

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I’m pretty partial to this one too! (even if it is blurry)

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But this one’s my favorite. Mwah! Love you, honey!

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