My Halloween Butterfly!

This year I hit two birds with one stone with Abby's Halloween costume. I was walking around Costco one day (because, seriously, who goes to Costco to get just what's on their list) and saw the Halloween rack with these festive looking tutus. As Abby has been very into dressing up lately, and loves wearing her cousin Haylee's long ballerina tutu, I thought that getting her her own tutu would be a big hit. Since it was a part of the costume I could spend $20 and got multiple uses out of her Halloween outfit. (And since this post is going up almost three weeks after Halloween I can state that her tutu has been worn almost every day. She's even started twirling in it!).

Since we're blessed to have lots of family in town Halloween was one of those days where we spent lots of time getting in and out of the car going to trick-or-treat with various family members. Our first stop was to the Uptown Center's Trick-or-Treating walk with some of Nate's family members. Have you ever been to one of these walking trick-or-treating locations? This was my first and I'll honestly say that I don't think I'll be going again. People were literally walking in a slow moving line around the outside of the buildings, and the ring of people went almost all the way around the block. People would walk towards a business door where they were passing out candy, hold out their bucket, maybe say "trick or treat" maybe not, and without stopping would continue on to the next door. Literally, no stopping. I'm sorry but candy must be earned! Where's the strategy for finding the neighborhood who gives out the best candy, figuring out how to hit a house twice because they give out King Size candy bars, and running as fast as you can from one house to the next as you don't want to waste precious candy gathering time by meandering. Hmpf. Kids these days.

When we first got to the Uptown Center Abby was a little overwhelmed by all the people there. (You can see a bit of the line behind us.)

Starting our trick-or-treating adventure. Abby felt VERY proud holding her pumpkin.

Then we jumped in line and got a few pieces of candy. Suddenly Abby was very interested in what all those people were doing. She didn't quite get the routine of trick-or-treating, though. As soon as a piece of candy went into her pumpkin she would stop walking and try to get the candy to eat. I kept putting the candy back in her bucket and coaxing her to keep moving. 

However, when she was given a sucker (and since we had six pieces of candy already) I figured she'd earned her first candy of the night. This girl loves her suckers so I knew I wouldn't get too much walking out of her while she knew a sucker was so close at hand.

When we found a quiet spot she immediately snacked up the sucker and started to suck, wrapper and all.

She waited so patiently for me to unwrap the magical sucker of yumminess.

As soon as it was unwrapped she wanted nothing to do with it. :-) Kids!

After a bit she decided that her sucker was acceptable again.

Then another mob of trick-or-treaters descended upon our area and she got a little shy again. Again, notice the line in the back. It was like this (huge group, then a break, then another huge group) around the entire two or three block radius of buildings. 

After leaving Paul, Sharon, and Melany I decided that this would be a good time to visit Nate at work since he was needing to work late that night, plus I wanted him to see her in her costume. It's still weird being able to just walk into Nate's office whenever I feel like it. While Mom worked a few years at Kadlec with an open door policy she and Dad spent the majority of their careers behind locked doors. So unless it was a special "Take Your Kid to Work Day" only those with appropriate badges were allowed to enter the building. So being able to get into Nate's domain whenever I want is still something I'm getting used to.

Once I said we were going to go see Daddy Abby was my happy girl, again.

When we got to Nate's office he grabbed her in one big hug then got a surprise as he discovered how sticky she was from the sucker! In an attempt to keep himself as clean as possible he fed her some M&Ms and got her on an even bigger sugar high.

Abby demonstrates her ability to shove as many M&Ms into her mouth as she can. She's got some "chubby bunny" cheeks.

After we left Nate's office, we joined Grandpa and Grandma Akers for dinner, then started to get in the car to go to Aunt Katie and Uncle Bo's house when Nate surprised us by arriving home early! (I give Nate props for understanding how important even the little family events are, especially when he's got a lot of work that he could be doing.) We got to Katie and Bo's and were joined by Bo's parents, sister, and two nieces. It quickly became apparent that this will be the last Halloween Abby and Haylee do together for a while. :-) Haylee is four years older than Abby (and only a year or so younger than Brooke's daughter Karcyn) so Abby was just too little to keep up with the fast girls. But we enjoyed the little bit of time we had together to trick-or-treat this time. 

Abby as a butterfly and Haylee as a southern belle.

The first house the girls trick-or-treated at had a box of candy on the stoop for them to grab from. Abby kept trying to pick up the box and take handfuls of the candy, but was a very good girl when I told her she could only take two (per the sign).

Then we said our good-byes and headed back home where I took Abby across the street to visit our neighbor friends. She was so cute in that every time we walked up to the door and I told her to say "trick or treat" and hold her pumpkin out so she could get some candy she'd sit down on the ground and pull her candy out of her pumpkin as if to say "I've already got some, Mom!". Finally, we called it a night and went home to simply answer the door for our trick-or-treaters. Abby had a blast with this! Almost more-so than actually trick-or-treating. Every time the door would ring she'd start yelling "treat, treat" and race towards the door. She'd stop by the candy bowl until I'd picked it up and then continued on to the door so that she could pull it open. As soon as the door swung wide she'd yell "Hi" then wait quietly while I passed out the candy. Once the trick-or-treaters had started to walk back down our walkway she'd yell "Bye" and shut the door. Over and over she did this as each trick-or-treating group rung the doorbell. She was so cute to watch!!!

I think next year we'll most likely stay in our neighborhood and trick-or-treat a street or two then call it good. Our neighborhood really participates so even in visiting only a couple street's of houses she'll still get a decent stash of candy, and all the running around we did this year (while fun to visit everyone) was a little exhausting for me. :-) 

A (final) view of our porch Halloween night. I love our little door friend! Pinterest had a link to a door monster but I didn't want to scare the little kids that live on our street so I made sure to make him smile so he looked friendly. :-) Hence, our door friend.

Abby being so sweet in sharing her Jolly Rancher with me. Oh, she's to fantastically awesome I could just eat her up!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Visiting the Gassend Family: Day 4/5

Our 4th day with the Gassends was a day of rest and relaxation. After two big outings back to back both families were looking forward to a bit more down time (and I'm sure the kids were looking forward to less car traveling time). We decided that our big 'to do' for the day would be to visit the local YMCA to get in a swim. As it's close to $90 PER MONTH for the family to join (my goodness California prices are high!) Blaise and Valerie just pay per visit so we expected to pay about $30 for Nate, Abby, and I to swim for the hour or so that we planned to be there. Fortunately for us the YMCA has a "first visit free" policy so we got a cheap swim out of the deal. :-) It was fun watching Abby blow bubbles, float on the pool floaties, and swish through the water. Nate even threw her into the air and caught her just below she went under a few times which she found to be hilarious. It wasn't too long, though, before we were forcing her to stay in the water when she just wanted to hang out with the toys on the side, so Abby and I got out to get dressed and find another area to play in while Nate stayed behind to chat with Blaise.

My Abby was so funny in the locker room. She's been interested in "going potty" lately, which for her means that she sits fully clothed on the big or little kid's toilet, waits a few seconds, wipes, then declares herself all done while we praise her. Well, while we were in the locker room I got her out of her swimsuit and then, when she danced out of my reach, figured I'd give her some naked time while I got dressed. A few seconds later I hear "potty, potty" and look over to see Abby standing there peeing. In a split second I decided to just mop up the puddle instead of running with her in outstretched arms while she peed trying to find a toilet. After she was finished she walked towards the toilets herself and asked to get on where she then sat and waited a bit, then wiped and declared herself all done. :-) She's a little out of order, but I think our potty training time is fast approaching!

After cleaning the floor up and finishing getting the two of us dressed I had myself a good scare. I was trying to pack up and get my hair in some semblance of order and figured that Abby could walk towards the door of the locker room without me since I knew she'd just turn back around to me. Well, after about 30 seconds had gone by and she still hadn't returned I decided to peek around the corner and make sure she wasn't standing where the door could hit her if it suddenly opened  Imagine my surprise when I didn't see a door but an open exit into the main area of the building!!! I totally forgot that the locker room didn't have a door on it! I made a mad dash out into the hallway and was very happy to see Abby enjoying a climb onto one of the exercise bikes. Whew. Okay, two mom fails in a row. Time to leave!

Just as we were heading out to play Nate found us and we decided to instead go for lunch. Abby was a sweetheart and fell asleep in the five minute or so ride, so Nate and I grabbed lunch at In-n-Out Burgers (Nate had never been!) and found a nearby park where we sat and ate while Abby napped. When we were finished we drove home and then I hung out in the car while Abby continued sleeping and Nate went inside to take a nap himself. Turns out that Valerie and Sophie (who had decided not to join us for swimming) also were napping, so it was an all round very relaxing afternoon. Once the naps were over and the kids were up it was off to a local playground to get out the wiggles.

Their playground equipment had a rock theme to everything. I thought it was a pretty cool way to do stairs that were more than just stairs.

Abby waiting for Sophie to come down the slide.

Took a bit to get the hang of the rock climbing 'wall' but she was pretty proud of herself when she got to the top.

Going down the slide together facing one way...

..and then facing another way.

Interesting twist on the child's swing. They had 'normal' ones that had holes for baby's legs to go through and then this contraption where the bar come down and locked into place. Abby was not a fan. :-)

After the park we basically hung out, ate dinner, put the kids to bed, and then had some adult conversation and game time before it became apparent through the many yawns that it was time to go to bed. This night ended up being a little different than we were used to as when we walked into the bedroom Abby promptly woke up and ended up falling back to sleep in bed with us. (I think we'd gotten the room a little too cold for her.) I don't remember the last time she slept with us, maybe June when we were all in the same room at Nate's parent's house? It was a little sad thinking back to that might because I remember holding her in my arms while she breathed that deep baby breathing and desperately trying to remember the last time we'd fallen asleep like that. It really is true that you need to cherish your memories because you really don't know when THAT moment is the last moment. :-) However, all mushiness aside...I remember now why we put her in her own room when we did. It's hard sleeping with a baby in the bed! I couldn't move when I wanted to and she had me twisted in a semi-uncomfortable position all night long. Ahh, the joys of motherhood. 

Day 5 with the Gassend family was all too soon as that alarm clock went off way earlier than I wanted. Blaise was kind enough to drive us to the airport again and this time the drive was much better with fewer cars and no traffic jams. We soon discovered that flying with a baby has its perks. The security line lady saw us and motioned for us to join her up front. So our intended 20+ minute wait was closer to 2. Yeah, Abby! Within the hour we were on board the plane, Abby was asleep in my arms, Nate was asleep across the aisle (barely half-full plane!), and we were on our way home. 

It was a lovely visit with all the Gassends. It was neat hearing all the college stories (some new, some just as funny on the retelling), fun seeing how Jonathan had changed and meeting Sophie, and a great little family vacation thrown in. Hopefully it won't be two years before we see them again!!!

Visiting the Gassend Family: Day 3

Our third day of vacation started out a little ominous. Our plan was to head to the beach for some playing in the sand but when we left the house that morning it was to overcast skies. As we drove along Highway 1 (I believe) it started to rain and then we hit traffic. What should have been an easy 20 minute drive turned into over an hour. The area that we were going to also happens to have pumpkin patches on either side of the two-lane highway, and since it was close to Halloween these pumpkin patches were having festivals and people were crossing back and forth pretty frequently. A cop was directly traffic but it ended up being that he'd stop every few cars to let a couple people cross the street, allow a few more cars, then stop them again. I kept thinking "this is so not the best way to do this". Let cars pass until there's a good bunch of people waiting, then stop traffic. It would mean waiting a few extra minutes for the people but would significantly improve traffic flow. Oh, well, I wasn't asked. :-)

Anyhoo, upon coming into the valley we decided that we'd stop for lunch, let the kids (and adults!) stretch their legs, and see if the weather would change to sunny by the time we were finished. Thankfully we made this decision instead of heading home or trying the beach first. After a long lunch we came outside to sunny skies and warm temperatures. Yeah! Now it was time to find the right stopping spot to enjoy our beach day. Our first stop had a decent walk to the beach and there were a lot of people around so we decided to try our luck further ahead. The kids, with the help of Nate, made our second stop our final one. The little ones were getting restless being cooped up in the car and Nate, upon walking down a bit of the path, thought the trail would have a small slightly difficult spot, but otherwise be just fine to get down to the beach.

Starting out we seemed to be doing ok. Little ones were carried or kept a firm hand on, but for the most part it wasn't too steep and we were doing pretty well.

Then we got to the ropes section. 

Yes, ropes were needed for the second half of the STEEP trail. Nate laughed as he said he checked out to just a few feet above where the ropes started and had no idea that the climb down took such a quick turn to an incline instead of the decent switchback that he'd been on.

Poor Valerie eventually had to go down on her bottom. Sophie saw her big brother navigating the rope by himself (Jonathan did a great job tackling this part of the climb) and wanted to imitate him. So Valerie had a very wiggly child in her one hand while trying to hold onto the rope with her other and not tumble head over heels as she traversed the path.

Looking back at our hiking trail. The big dirt path in the middle of the picture is what we came down (and would eventually have to go up!). Here's a link to the Google satelite view: Tunitas Creek Beach, Half-Moon Bay.

Once we'd gotten all of us, the kids, and our gear on the beach it was time to let the kids just run and run. We were literally the only people within seeing distance. There was a pair of flip-flops and a pair of shoes perfectly aligned right near a high-tide marker so we knew we'd eventually have company, but not when. Valerie was smart to bring a bunch of beach toys as her kids dived right into building sand castles and digging tunnels. Abby, however, took one look at the water and we were moving to keep up with her.

Abby saw the ocean and took off running towards it.

She saw the tide coming in but didn't hesitate to get her feet wet.

Brr! The water was pretty cold when you first got in but you quickly got used to it. 

Abby loved watching the water whoosh over her feet.

My happy little girl!

After a bit of water play Abby, who is my land lover (seriously, the girl is cool being in the water for like five minutes then she'd rather get out and play on the side (of the pool) or on the beach itself), got intrigued by all the interesting things that were on the beach just waiting to be picked up. Nate found a few cool seashells that were able to be used for digging, so Abby had fun running around and playing with those.

After lathering up on sunscreen we thought she'd be warmer without the soaking wet cotton sun-dress so it was an almost naked baby day! 

Nate took off down the beach for a run so Abby and I slowly followed behind. Here she is loving the sand.

And just like my parent's old horses the girl loves to roll around in the dirt.

Abby saw a flock of seagulls in the distance and had fun trying to run up to catch them. You may also be able to see Nate in the (very) far off distance running back to us.  

I thought this was a really sweet picture. My Abby's little feet walking beside my mommy-sized feet.

Our beach crowd sans Blaise who was taking the picture.

Abby building sand castles.

My handsome husband and delightful daughter.

All too soon we realized that the weather was starting to turn towards windy and cold. We decided we had a few more minutes to enjoy one last must-have beach activity: kite flying!

Blaise drives the kite while Jonathan and Nathan watch.

Abby was really into watching the kite fly around. I suppose from her point of view it was this enormous bird that crashed into the ground every once in awhile.

I LOVE watching these two together. The love Nate has for Abby is just so evident in their interactions together. I could not have asked for a better father for my children. (He's pretty awesome in the husband department, too!)

Finally, the time had come to pack up our gear (I think the sand we took home doubled the weight and number of bags we had to carry) and begin the fun and adventurous trek back up the mountain. Funnily enough as we were playing in the sand earlier in our day a woman, who had come down the path with her husband and three year old son, asked if we had found the stairs down to the beach so that she could go up those instead. Sadly, we had to inform her that the way she came in was the only way out. Her sigh could have been heard two counties away!

One last group picture...and again Blaise is our camera man. I'm going to have to remember to get him in front of the camera next vacation we take together.

And the view going up!

Our beach day was a blast!!! Abby had a great time running around, playing in the sand, watching the waves and the kite flying, and just getting as dirty as she possibly could. The only sore point of this trip was that on the very windy, dark, and fast drive home both Abby and I got car sick. Not the point of throwing up but to the point that we had to stop the car and get out to get some fresh air. Seven people packed into a seven passenger van (including three car seats) makes for a tight fit and unfortunately we felt it on the ride home. But that was our only dark spot of the day so I'm again calling this excursion a success!

Coming up on Day 4 of our trip...nothing! :-) Well, not exactly the case but with two big days behind us (the zoo and the beach) a lower-key day was much appreciated.

Visiting the Gassend Family: Day 2

Our second day visiting with the Gassend Family was an all-day adventure at the Oakland Zoo. Our morning started out pretty early for some (Miss Abby and Sophie) while the others kept on snoozing until a decent hour of the day arrived.

Abbe and Sophie playing well together in their 'zones'. The girls played so well together when they weren't playing together. :-) You can also see the toy that Abby fell in love with, which Sophie is currently playing with in the picture. You push balls down into the holes at the top and then they go through a series of Rube Goldberg like motions before popping out at the bottom. 

The day for the zoo turned out to be perfect. It was slightly overcast with cooler temperatures. Since we'd come from 50* weather into 70+* weather the cooler turn was very welcome. It did lend itself to some interesting clothing choices as you can see Abby in a sundress with pants. :-) It's been years since I've been to a zoo and I still had just as much fun watching the animals in their various environments. I think my favorites for the day were the elephants and the monkeys. I did find out an interesting difference between the kids. Abby would run up to see an animal, check it out for a minute or two, then want to run off to see the next exciting thing (which could have been another animal, a leaf on the ground, a bench, etc) while Sophie would run up to see an animal and then hang out happily viewing said animal for ten minutes before wanting a different view. This made for some interesting kid wrangling. :-) I'd run up with Abby and then run her back to the group, then run to a different spot and then back to the group. I thought for sure that all this running would eventually wear her out to where she'd be more content staying with everyone but I think the running just gave her extra energy!

Sophie and Abby watching the tigers. It was definitely a "monkey see, monkey do" type of day with Abby and Sophie/Jonathan.

Abby did enjoy watching the giraffes for a period of time as once came pretty close to us to eat from a nearby tree. I could see that Abby was intrigued by the giraffe's long tongue and the fact that he was eating leaves (which Abby has previously discovered don't taste very good).

The Mamas and their kiddos.

The two girls being ever so sweet. I thought their matching pig tails were a hit!

   

Blaise and Nate don't seem too impressed with the elephants.

But Jonathan is enjoying them.

What a ham! I thought this picture of him was too good to pass up.

As we were making our way towards the entrance to grab a bite to eat (my goodness I forgot how expensive 'park' food could be) we took a side trail down to see the meerkats. In their viewing area there was a little tunnel that was perfect kid height. Jonathan went right in to explore and Abby soon followed. There was another kid in the tunnel with his Dad patiently waiting outside for just the right moment to nap his son. The kid had discovered that Dad was too big to fit into the tunnel to pull the kid out, and the kid wasn't ready to leave yet. It was an amusing few minutes as the kid would come to the front of the tunnel, but just out of reach, then run back to the glass. Eventually Dad won out but it was touch and go there for a while.

Jonathan having fun running back and forth into and out of the tunnel.

Abby was cute as she navigated the tunnel. She started out walking in while standing straight up but once she saw Jonathan having to bend over to walk without hitting his head she started to hunch down herself. By the time she was at the entrance she was scooting on her bottom.

I was very impressed with the kiddos and their behavior at lunch. We'd taken a long time to get to the food court and it was well past everyone's lunch time, but the kids patiently waited without a fuss for us to order and then pick up the food. They also sat calmly in their chairs or played nicely at the foot of the table. They all three earned gold stars for their attitude! After lunch was finished Abby joined up with some neighboring table girls as they ran around the eating area (there were only four tables eating so this wasn't a big disturbance) playing tag. Then it was off to view a little more of the park before naptime called us home.

Jonathan thought of this very creative way to have his Dad push all the kids in the two strollers. 

Jonathan held on to Abby's stroller very nicely while Blaise duck walked around it.

As you can see Abby was very content to travel this way for a good while.

After lunch we visited the monkey enclosure. Abby was mesmerized! I think she recognized that we have similar traits to the chimpanzees but was also amazed at our differences. She kept looking at the monkey as it was pulling grass to feed itself and then back at me like she remembered me pulling weeds. This was honestly her longest stop for animal viewing the entire time we were at the park. 

Miss Sophie was the first to let us know that naptime was approaching. And now that I see this picture I'm amazed that Valerie was able to carry her for so long with the bottom of the Ergo not being attached to her correctly. Sorry Valerie! Next time I'll make sure to notice if it's on right or not, it's a much easier carrier when Sophie is sitting in it properly, I promise!!!

At this point I'd given up on trying to keep Abby with the rest of the group. Everyone was still hanging out with the monkeys or in the big grassy field next to them while Abby had run down the path to the children's part of the zoo. There she got to see a turtle and play on, and with, some sculptures.

She loved the eyes on the frog as she kept point to them and then back to her own eyes over and over.

I was amazed at how big these turtles were.This picture doesn't do them justice.

Crawling through the turtle shell. And oh my baby is so tired! Just look at those bags under her eyes.

Isn't it just like a kid to find entertainment in something not designed to be entertaining. She had such fun pushing the sides further and further apart as she would crawl through the opening.

The last zoo stop was letting the kids play with the sculptures at the beginning of the entrance to the children's part of the zoo. The white rocks are actually supposed to represent snake eggs. The curved, brown, and long rock that Abby is sitting on is a part of the 'snake' statue. In the back right corner you can just barely see another hump of the snake and then the two green sticks are representing grass. Kind of hokey but the kids had fun climbing on everything.

All in all the day was a huge success! All the kids behaved extremely well for being as hungry and as tired as we let them get. (Abby who normally goes down for a nap between 12 and 1pm didn't get to fall asleep in the car until almost 3pm.) We saw animals we'd never seen before, and probably won't for a long time as we are a minimum of 3.5 hours away from the nearest zoo. And the kids played great together! The rest of the day was spent napping, eating dinner at a yummy Pakistani restaurant, and then putting the kids to bed so we adults could enjoy some adult-only time. We even had some amusement when Sophie woke up a little bit after being put down, got a Mom and Dad hug, and then promptly fell back asleep face down on the floor. :-) Our zoo trip wore her out!

Sophie giving us some evening entertainment.

 Day 2 was a busy, but successful day. Next up...Day 3 and the beach!