Trip Diary, Day 2

California is a funny place. I've never seen more S-Class Mercedes on the road, or Denny's on the side of the road (what's that rule about pluralizing words that end in 's' ?).

On our way up to Santa Barbara to visit my grandparents, we drove up through LA and saw the Hollywood sign, and the Capitol Records building and some street where Ali says the Kardashians live (no, I'm not pretending I don't watch the Kardashians show, but at least I didn't know what street they lived on). We had a nice visit with my grandparents, although they might have been a little overwhelmed by the cacophony that a 1 and a 2 year old bring. Here's our group photo, which I got with just one shot, by the way:


Afterwards, we drove to downtown Santa Barbara which is basically an outdoor Tysons Galleria (for those of you from the DC area). Plus, it's right near the beach so we strolled onto the pier watched the boats go by. Here's my favorite shot of the kids from today:

Does Jake look 2, 18, or 75? Thanks to Deni & Patrick for the super-cool hat, by the way. Jake loves it, and we do too.

The kids were noticeably more rebellious today. There were fits and tantrums from both, but of course they were mostly good. I think it's mainly because their days usually have at least some time where they get to make their own decisions about how to spend their time. But today, at least, was pretty scripted, and I think they unconsciously rebelled. Don't get me wrong-- I like their spirit. But, I did briefly contemplate booking them on the Tonight Show as amazingly human-like shrieking monkeys as we drove through Universal City.

Trip Diary, Day 1

It's fair to say I'm (we're) pretty exhausted tonight. We left this morning for a four day tour of Anaheim and Santa Barbara California. The kids did great. I was so proud of both of them on the long five-hour flight, and for being patient with all of the waiting (rental car lines, delayed flights, hotel room not ready, etc). They both get gold stars. And Ali gets a platinum star. Or whatever's worth more than gold these days.

We're staying at a cute hotel across the street from the Disneyland complex. It's Spanish villa-style, which the kids really appreciate, and it has a pool, which we've already checked out. In fact, Jake (after literally demanding) jumped into the pool without me catching him. He was pretty proud of himself.

For dinner, Jake said he wanted hot dogs and coconuts, so we obliged at the hotel restaurant with their finest hot dog and coconut shrimp. His favorite part was the bread. And lemons. Sadie ate the hot dog.

Here we are on the plane, shortly before takeoff. We had the row to ourselves, and no one was in front of Jake so Ali didn't get any heartburn about him kicking the seat.


Here we are about 4 hours into the flight. Yes, it looks like Jake is screaming, but we had everything under control. Who's that extra kid? Oh, that's Helen. She and her family were sitting in the row direcly across from us and we became good friends with them. Helen's favorite food is blueberries. Her favorite yogurt flavor is strawberry banana. Her favorite dinner is mashed potatoes. She has lots of favorites.

Electricity is our friend

We lost power Wednesday afternoon as that storm rolled through DC, and just got it restored this morning around 3:00am. The first night was fun. We got out all the candles and flashlights, fired up the grill for dinner and read stories instead of watching TV. It was warm in the house, but evening showers kept it relatively cool. But by Thursday afternoon, the novelty began to quickly wear off. Neither kid could take a nap, presumably because it was a pretty hot day, and so by the time I got home from work, Jake was in that state of mind where literally any combination of words could start a tantrum.

"Monkey banana pie"

"BUT I DON'T LIKE MONKEY BANANA PIE - HI - HI - HUH - HUH.........[crying].......[convulsing]......[wailing]".

And by that time, the house was uncomfortably warm, the refrigerator was losing its cool, there was no hot water, and the battery on the PowerBook had run out so instead of iTunes, all we had to listen to was the sound of our neighbors' generators.

We decided to do what they did in the old days, so we piled up the kids and went for a drive in the air-conditioned car. That's what they did, right? It wasn't even 8:00 yet, but Jake passed out in about 5 minutes and Sadie didn't last much longer.

They both slept through the night, and apparently didn't notice when their little white noise machines kicked back to life around 3:00 am. Jake was back in a good mood this morning and said "I had a good night, Mommy!".

Electricity, we missed you. We're sorry we took you for granted.

In the News

Quite an exciting news day today!

1. Happy Birthday Mom/Mimi!
2. Looks like we finally passed 10,000 visits to Tripdub!
3. Barack Obama finally clinched the nomination!
4. And some sad news. Bo Diddley passed away on Monday. If you don't have any Bo Diddley records, shame on you. Here's a good one to start with.

First Catch of the Season

Here's Jake catching his first fish. He had a great time at the lake and says "Thanks Gram and Poppy!"

Spotlight on Sadie

Jake stayed down at the lake with Poppy and Gram for the rest of the week, so it's pretty low-key at the house this week. I think Sadie is really enjoying the extra attention she's getting. She's getting pretty talkative, although we still don't have any official words yet. Lately, she's been saying something like "pay" and pointing when she recognizes someone or something. Here she is saying "pay" and pointing to the neighbor's cat.

And here's another shot of my little princess. Isn't she adorable with those little pigtails and that dress? Yes, yes she is. More glamour shots here.


Meanwhile, it sounds like Jake and Gram and Poppy are having lots of fun at the lake. We heard that Jake caught his first fish - a sunny! Here he is at Amazement Square, a kids museum in Lynchburg.
We miss you Jake!

Memorial Day at the Lake

We had a nice Memorial Day weekend down at Smith Mountain Lake. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather - sunny and warm, and no humidity. The lake was a little too cool for swimming, so we went to the pool and both kids had a great time there. Sadie went right in, in her little floaty device, and calmly hung out most of the time. Jake was a little tentative at first "It's too wet!" but as soon as he got in he had a great time, swimming from one end to the other, and playing with his toy submarine.

At the beginning of the weekend, Jake had sort of a condensed terrible two episode that lasted about a day. I guess we're a little spoiled with Jake - he's normally pretty well behaved and a good listener (for a two-year-old). But out of nowhere, he took on some kind of angry teenager attitude: "Jake, please don't throw that" "I KNOW daddy!" It was.....exhausting. But luckily, he got over it and was pretty much back to normal by the time we all went to the Strawberry Festival.

Here are Jake and Sadie after eating a big pile of freshly picked strawberries (I should probably add that they were piled on top of funnel cake and then topped with whipped cream):


And here's Jake on a pony ride. I walked alongside and I think I was supposed to make sure he didn't fall off, but my attention was focussed on not stepping in all the horse poo.

They had a little petting zoo, too. As long as you had a little handful of feed, they wouldn't try to eat your fingers.

Sadie looking cute in her sun hat:


Here's blurry shot of a fast-spinning giant strawberry ride that Jake loved. Even though it's blurry, you can see how much fun he's having:


And here's a cute shot of Sadie (if I do say so myself) in back of DD and Pop's backyard, aka the 13th green. Note Jake and Poppy playing tag in the background.


See all the pictures here.