It’s been absolutely, gloriously sunny this week. I almost feel like I haven’t left CA yet…yesterday the kids & I went hiking and discovered that our favorite climbing tree at our favorite hiking spot has been flooded by beavers. More specifically, a beaver dam. Kind of a bummer, but the Park Service did put up a cool new bridge to span the beaver dam so now we drop sticks off the side for fun instead. Hours and hours and hourrrrrrs of fun.
Today, I just kicked the kids out back to play all afternoon. We put up a playset last summer so the kids have been climbing and playing pirates and heckling people trying to take a walk by our house (“Avast, ye mateys! Into the brig wi’ ye!” and so on…) The kids seem eager to be outside almost as much as I want to get them out…I discovered this afternoon that when Alexis is playing out here and has to go to the bathroom, she doesn’t bother coming inside. She uses one of my flowerpots. Oy.
And now, I return to my wine and my relaxing on the deck. This Friday there are threats of snow but for now…carpe diem!

We’re Back! Sort of.

We returned from our two-week vacation on Tuesday and it’s Saturday night and I still haven’t finished unpacking. For those of you who are my Facebook friends and know I still have my Christmas tree up, this does not come as a shock. Part of the problem is that we came back with a bunch of Christmas presents — toys and clothes — and while unpacking them, I’m going through and getting rid of the old toys and clothes. I’m realizing in the process that a house with three different ages and two different sexes of children accumulates a lot of stuff. Yeesh.
Our trip was great — we spent a week in San Jose with my parents (sans Chris, who had to work) and a week in LA with Chris’s family and our friends where I sat in the sun like a lizard as often as possible. I used to think my family from NY was insane when they’d visit in Jan and insist on wearing shorts but I totally went there. I ate too much chocolate with my family and drank too much with Chris’s family (not that they’re alcoholics. Or that they drive me to drink. Or even that I got drunk, for that matter. I just meant that I had more drinks in LA than San Jose and they have lots of calories and…ahhhh! I shall now be silent) and I’m in serious need of some green veggies and a few 3-mile hikes up the sledding hill here.
I find that on the drive home from CA, the kids do great until about two hours from home. Then they, and I, get cranky and I spend my time trying not to encourage Chris to drive faster through the mountains and get us home already. But I like road trips because they inspire me. I find that if I stay home, eventually I become convinced that actually going anywhere is a lot harder than it really is. So then I keep staying home and then I really never go anywhere. A road trip reminds me that it is actually possible to get out and go far places with the kids. Now I have all kinds of big plans — this summer I want to go to NY and then pit stop in Kentucky and if we have time in the middle, maybe we should go to Washington, D.C. We’ll probably only get as far as the state line, but I enjoy the dream.