Road Trip

A few weeks back the kids and I piled into the Subaru and drove to my parents' house in California for our summer visit. Yes, I am just now uploading the pics off my camera after a week of recovery. Airline tickets were silly expensive and I took home a plastic tub to load up the rest of my childhood memorabilia to bring back with us. My parents' house is on the market, which is cause for many conflicting emotions on my part. I'm excited that the plan is for them to move closer to us, but sad that our beautiful home will belong to someone else and that I'll never feel that rush of "homeness" as I see the house come into view at the end of the culdesac and as I walk in the backdoor to the fresh, cool, clean smell of home. sigh.

We stopped in Bend for the night and had dinner with one of my oldest friends. It was wonderful. She is one of those friends that years can go by, but once we're on the phone or together, the time is gone. We had the great joy of finally seeing our kids together in her backyard, just as we had planned decades ago.

Once home (after slogging through the dreaded Sacramento Valley in 107 degrees), we relaxed, cleaned out, and went on some of our usual fun excursions to Fairy Tale Town, the Jelly Belly Factory, the Train Museum... But my favorite day was the one we spent at home all day in the backyard. I read, the kids played and "helped" Grampa Jim in the yard and we had a bbq feast for a late lunch. I kept telling myself to take good mental pictures of that day to keep tucked away for those cold, February grey days when it feels like it will never be warm again.

We also got to overlap our visit a few days with my sis and her boys, so that was crazy fun. I say crazy fun because there were four very excited cousins wanting to play with all of our old toys in one house on the market that was shown every day we were there but one, at least once a day. phew! We are master repackers and quick vacuumers, I tell ya. But, there isn't a much happier sound than four happy cousins playing at Gramma's house!

One of the last nights we were there, Elias took a late nap and then would not go to bed. He finally ended up in bed with my dad, telling him about the coyotes and how they were washing their hands in the fountain outside. I woke up in the morning to find him still asleep with my mom.

We learned an important thing on this trip: if you travel by car for more than one day, a pool must be available at your stoppong points. There is nothing better than the cool feeling of weightlessness at the end of a long, hot day in the car listening to Adele over and over and over again..

the best sick week(s) ever

Maybe you are familiar with the Richard Scary book about Huckle going to the store for his mom for things like oranges and milk and Lowly talks him into buying orange soda and ice cream, so they end up throwing a party? For some reason that story comes to mind when I think of the past few weeks around here.

To recap: Elias had roseola with a 105.5 fever that had his mama hyperventilating; Sydney and I got a nasty bug that has us both on antibiotics and Sydney fighting off a double ear infection. I still can't quite kick whatever I have and I've been laying low for almost two weeks now.

This wasn't exactly how I was picturing our June, but it's oddly turned out to be a good thing for us. Lots of snuggle time. Lots of wandering about the yard in our pjs or bathing suits deep in imaginary play. I'm on my 3rd epic novel and we've become big fans of essential oils and natural remedies over here. We've all hugged and kissed a lot more, despite our germs, and generally seemed to cherish each other with a little more fervor. I wish I would have tallied how many times Elias has turned to me in the middle of something to say, "Mama, I wuf you."