The Wedding: Day One

We traveled to the wilds of Central Jersey for Sister Margaret's wedding a couple of weeks ago.  It was a whirlwind trip without the kids.  We arrived on Friday morning just in time to catch a ride with the family over to New Egypt.  Friday night was the rehearsal and associated dinner.

Margaret is pretty in pink.


A nice shot of the parents of the bride.


It was freezing at the rehearsal!  I was the only one in a parka.


The Rev was kind of kooky.  He made the whole thing fun with a lot of laughs.


Rich can barely keep a straight face.


Best man Garrett (Rich's brother) and his girlfriend Kira.  Did I mention it was cold?


The happy couple...

Cousin Love

I've been meaning to post these photos from our week in Florida.  Cousin Hilary and Inga drove down to Naples to spend some time with us, and the kids had a great time playing together.  Ada and Inga were like two peas in a pod, trying on each other's shoes, swimming together, and sharing snacks.


I love this photo of the two girls on the raft in the pool.


Jude and Inga bonded over their love of iPhone games.  Jude taught Marie and Inga how to play Cookie Maker.


The Dollar Store water shooters were also popular.  Inga borrowed Jude's blue floaty suit since Jude didn't need it anymore.


We got a few shots with all three kids.  One in the pool...


... and one on the lounge chairs.


Here's Ada enjoying some ice cream poolside at the club.


And Jude lounging with Mama, pointing out an airplane in the sky.

Clear Lake

We decided to head for the hills this weekend.  We reserved two "rustic cabins" and found some partners in crime.  Tommy and Julia are several years older than Jude, but the three kids bonded over a love of fishing.  They spent countless hours casting from this picnic table into the road, trees, and anyone unlucky enough to walk in their path...  It was a little challenging to share two fishing poles among three kids, but they worked it out.


Meanwhile, the dads and Ada worked on their ringers at the horseshoe pit, conveniently located right between our cabin and the lake.


Our "two bedroom cabin" consisted of one room with an open loft and a hospital curtain partitioning off a small area of the main floor.  Surprisingly, we all slept really well.  Jude LOVED sleeping in the loft by himself, and especially loved climbing up and down the ladder and throwing things at us from his perch ten feet up in the air.  We only had a few heart attacks when he got careless too close to the edge.


I managed to get a few good close-ups of the kids this weekend.


Ada is loving her George these days.


Jude and Tommy disappeared for a while this morning, and when we found them they were playing in the greenery between our cabins.


Clear Lake itself is gorgeous, with blue and aquamarine water so clear and cold that you can see ancient preserved trees haunting the bottom of the lake.  We were sorry not to have any real fishing gear, as the lake is stocked and the fish seemed to be biting.  One afternoon during nap time, the dads took Tommy up to the Great Spring to see the source of the lake.  Getting there is a bit tricky, as you have to paddle the canoe up a short set of rapids (they were too much of a barrier for us when we tried it again the next day).  We also went on a hike around the lake while the kids slept on our backs.  The trail was beautifully maintained and we were passed by several mountain bikers.

Another highlight was roasting marshmallows over the campfire.  Curious George roasts marshmallows when he goes camping, so Jude knew what to expect.  He was the talk of the camp with his forked stick and contagious excitement.  Luckily for us, Jude vastly prefers roasting marshmallows to eating them.  In the end, I think he ate one and roasted about twenty.  A perfect ratio.

Naples in May

Right after Jude was born, my doctor visited us in our hospital room and we asked her for any parenting advice she'd like to share with us.  "Between the ages of one and three, it's much harder to travel with your kids.  Try to do your travelling before or after that age range."  As we were getting ready to take this trip to Naples last week, I remembered these words of wisdom as I suddenly realized that we were attempting a long airplane trip with not one but TWO of these monsters.  As it turned out, I was right to be concerned.  The travel was much, much harder than we expected, but the beach vacation itself was wonderful!

We went to Naples, Florida to visit my grandmother, Ninette.  We usually make the trip every spring, but couldn't go last year because I was pregnant and then caring for a newborn.  So this was her first time meeting Ada, and the last time she saw Jude he was just a baby and couldn't even sit up on his own.  What a change!  We stayed at my aunt and uncle's condo a short distance from Ninette's house, and this made a big difference in the success of our visit.  It was great to spend a few hours each morning and evening at Ninette's house, but then retreat to the condo for naps and bedtime.  We managed to shield Ninette from the majority of Jude's tantrums and she was able to spend time with the kids at their best.

We went to the beach a few times, and Jude and Ada loved playing in the sand and swimming in the "salty water".  Jude wore his floaty suit in the ocean and was able to be fairly independent in the water.  Ada loved eating sand and sitting in the waves.  Jude insisted on wearing pants for almost our entire trip, even though it was about 90 degrees and humid.  Here he is at the beach wearing his polar bear jammie pants.


Ada made a lot of progress learning to walk on this trip.  At the beginning of the week, she was still pretty tentative on her feet, but by the end she was walking everywhere.  She is still pretty careful, and will take just a few steps before dropping to a crawl to really move across a room (or towards the pool at top speed).  Ninette loved watching her toddling around her house and patio.


We spent a lot of time swimming in Ninette's pool.  Both kids loved being in the water, and by the end of the week Jude taught himself to hold his breath and jump in from the side of the pool.  His head would go completely underwater, he would pop back up to the surface, and then swim over to the steps and do it all over again.  I spent a lot of time in the pool with the kids.  We all loved the white raft.  Here's a cute photo of the kids on the raft together.


One of the highlights of the trip for E Ben was a 45-minute sailing lesson on the catamaran at the beach.  He was out for a long time and Jude kept asking if Daddy was sailing on a pirate ship.  Or maybe the Man with the Lellow Hat was on the catamaran with Daddy?  You can see that we've been watching a lot of Curious George lately.


We're really happy that we made the trip across the country to visit Ninette and spend some time in the sand and water.  We can't wait for our next trip to sunny Florida!

More Manzanita

Miles took some great photos at the beach.  Jude and Dad running down the dunes.


Jude climbing back up, trying not to get his hands in the sand.


Playing in the dune grasses.


Boy bath.  Jude didn't want his photo taken.


Live crab race.


Group shot of the three cooperative children.


In other news, Jude solved his first math problem tonight.  He had four "pasta swords", and I asked him how many he would have if he gave one of them to me.  He thought about it for a few seconds, then looked at his four fingers, folded one of the fingers down, and said "this many!", then counted the three remaining fingers.  I was pretty blown away by that one.

Manzanita Beach Boy

We spent a long weekend at the beach last month.  We lucked out with a fantastic rental house, right on the beach, and unseasonably sunny weather.  Jude had a blast playing in the dunes and on the beach.  I love this series of photos from one sunny morning.

Set Whips

I took a solo vacation to New York last weekend to visit family and take some trapeze classes.

Our first class was Friday night, just a few hours after I landed at JFK and took the subway to my sister's apartment.  The class wasn't full, so we were able to take a lot more swings than usual, which was fun but perhaps not the best timing considering that we hadn't been up on the rig in almost eight months.  After getting our bearings, we both learned a new trick called the Set Straddle Whip.  Margaret did really well with it, but I had some trouble.  Here's a video of how it's supposed to be done.



After falling out of this trick a few too many times and feeling like I just didn't have the strength to complete it, I moved on to a different trick called the Set Whip.  You'll notice that my feet are between my arms, whereas Margaret's feet were outside her arms.  I was able to catch the whip that night, which was a great feeling for me.



We left the trapeze tent feeling exhilarated and very tired.  I was also covered with bruises on my feet, knees, elbows, wrist, and chin from a few unfortunate landings in the net.  I looked like I had been in a fight, and the next day was even worse since every muscle in my body was sore.  But we couldn't wait to get back to our next class two days later.  Stay tuned!

Tyee Lodge 2011

Last weekend, we took Jude up to Tyee Lodge (owned by the Trails Club of Oregon) on Mount Hood to play in the snow and spend some time with friends.

I spent a lot of time swinging Jude around in the dining room of the Lodge.


Several pint-sized friends also made the trip up to the mountain.


One highlight of the weekend was making popcorn for "kid-table dessert".  Jude is not impressed with how long it is taking to get the popping started.


We made forts and had snowball fights the next morning.


You'd think this popcorn was covered in chocolate!

Daddy Vacation

E Ben took a much-needed Daddy Vacation to San Francisco this weekend (actually he was gone for 75 hours, but who's counting?), which means that I was on duty while he was away. This is the longest stretch of time that I've been in charge of childcare, um, ever (I never had Jude for this long). I think I did well. I had a lot of help from Terry, who stayed over at our house on Thursday night and took Ada for a sleepover on Saturday night. And I sent Jude to school on Friday morning, so I didn't even have him the whole time. Also, the weather was beautiful here in Portland this weekend, clear and cold, which made it easier. Still, it was a challenge for me. Taking care of the kids 24 hours a day is a lot of work.

Here are some highlights from the weekend (no photos since Daddy had the camera):

• Long walk outside with both kids after picking Jude up from school on Friday afternoon. We hit two parks, and Jude got to practice his "May I Pet Your Dog" script (from his current favorite book).
• Movie Night (with popcorn) on Friday night. We watched Little Bear Movie, which Jude had never seen before and loved.
• Cornett Baking Day on Saturday morning (hosted by Cornett and Company 2). Jude played with his cousins, decorated cookies, and ate quite a few treats as well. Then he came home and took a nice long nap.
• ZooLights on Saturday evening. We met some friends from Jude's school, and walked around in the dark and cold for about two hours. Jude loved the lights and he also loved looking at the elephants. The baby elephant Samudra (born the same weekend as Jude) was sleeping when we got there and it was SO cute.
• Saturday Night Sleep. Everyone slept well Saturday night! Ada slept almost all night long at Nini's house, Jude had his usual good night's sleep, and I slept for almost nine hours uninterrupted! It was my best night's sleep since before Ada was born.
• Sunday Productivity. After a full night's sleep and a pot of strong tea, I was really energized on Sunday. After playing with Jude for a few hours in the morning, I put on a movie for him to watch and cleaned the whole house! Well, as much as I could do in an hour, which turned out to be quite a lot. It felt good to do some of the work around the house that I've been too tired to tackle until now.
• Bonding with Jude. These days, I'm Jude's third favorite person (after Daddy and Nini, not necessarily in that order) and it is hard to spend quality time with him when others are around. We had a great 24 hours together, just the two of us. We played games, read books, had an adventure at the Zoo, and in general had a fun time. I loved spending some time alone with my boy!

The weekend went as well as I could have hoped (actually much better than I expected), and I have to say that, after this, the thought of having the kids for a few hours doesn't seem as daunting. Still, I'm looking forward to my first real Mommy Vacation! I don't know when that will happen (it will be sometime after Ada is weaned, for sure). Maybe in the spring?

Jones Hawaii photos

Andrea posted a bunch of great photos from our Hawaii trip. Go check them out!

Tyee Lodge

We spent a night up at Tyee Lodge over Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was perfect for us, with a few feet of snow on the ground, very little wind, and a few inches of gentle snowfall each day. A few of Jude's friends from preschool joined us up at the lodge to play in the snow and eat popcorn.

We'll break with tradition and start this post with a video. Jude got quite a bit of practice playing ping-pong this weekend. He sometimes hits a ball headed towards him, and his serve goes in a lot more often.

Jude in the parking area just off of Timberline Road.

Jude took this photo of us in the Lodge last night.

Family shot during the trip down the mountain this afternoon. Jude rode down in the sled with the garbage. Ada's asleep in the Ergo, but you can see her feet sticking out the bottom of my jacket.

Ada, laughing as usual.


Sleeping in the Lodge was a challenge for everyone. Jude got the best night's sleep in his new red sleeping bag (it was the first time he slept in it). The rest of us spent most of the night trying to keep the crying kids quiet. It was fun to get the kids in the snow and spend some time with friends this weekend.

Swimming in Maui

We spent a lot of time swimming while on vacation.

Ada got to go swimming for the first time this month. She wore this cute little bathing suit borrowed from Liana. She loved dipping in the pool, sitting in the shallow area, and sitting on the little stream that emptied into the pool. The pool water was a bit cold, so she only went in a few times, but it was definitely a fun activity for her!

The most exciting swimming-related event was that Lucia learned to swim on her own! She was still wearing her life jacket, of course, but after watching Jude paddling all over the pool by himself for a few minutes on the first day, she quickly decided that she could do it too. After that, there was no stopping her! She went swimming every day in the pool, and was always trying to get Jude to join her. Jude grew less interested as the week progressed, and by the end of the week he didn't want to swim in the pool at all for some reason. He still liked the ocean and the hot tub, though. Perhaps the pool was too cold for him in the early evening, which is when we usually went swimming there.

The kids spent a lot of time jumping into the pool from this grassy area.

We also did some swimming in the ocean almost every day. Jude loved the waves and also standing on the sand in the shallow area and having fish swim around his feet. Lucia and Magdalena also liked the ocean, although Lucia preferred the pool. And even Ada got to dip her feet in the water a few times and jump some waves.

I don't have any pictures of it, but there was also a great hot tub at our condo. It was large, deep, and very hot. There were also pebbles on the bottom and very strong jets. Even after Jude lost interest in the pool, he still liked to sit at the edge of the hot tub and dangle his feet in the water (it was too hot for him to submerge). Jude and Lucia both spent some time hanging out there and chatting with the other people on vacation.