2019.

Pedal to the metal again for us.

We started the year with the kids in Illinois with family, and Rich and I in London finishing up moving logistics. We spent a couple kid-free weeks in London.

During that time, we also spent the weekend in Paris. Ah, le sigh.

And then, we travelled to Thailand for a week!

I wrote about these things separately here:

Then is was time to move into our new place in Hinsdale, just outside Chicago. We had originally lined up a temporary house in the city, but then this rental house came up in Hinsdale. The plan was to stay in the city for a few months and make decisions about a more permanent house from there. But, we had always heard good things about Hinsdale, so we decided to give it a try. With the original plan, the kids were going to have to be out of school for an undetermined amount of time. Taking the rental meant we could get them started and back in a routine sooner rather than later.

We shipped 15 boxes of random items and clothes from London to our family in the US. We packed several suitcases full of clothes on our plane trips. I sent bags of toys back with family who visited London before the move. Then Rich and I flew in from London, after our Thailand trip (during the polar vortex, I might add). When we landed, we rented a car and went straight to the Honda dealership to pick up our van at 9:00pm. From there, we went downstate. We rented a moving truck and collected the boxes and bags we shipped/sent. Plus, we collected all of the boxes of items that we had been storing at our parent’s homes (my entire kitchen basics, games, toys). We took all of that and moved it into this house.

Then…. we just needed to furnish the entire thing from scratch. We sold everything when we moved to London. We re-furnished in London. Then, we sold everything again. So… we were back at the start with furniture…. again.

The house didn’t come with laundry machines, which meant that I got to pick my own. After years of dealing with our Teeny Tiny combo unit in London, this was VERY EXCITING for me.

Hello lovelies!

We were able to rush physicals at a near-by Walgreens, and the boys were permitted to start school just a few days after we moved in. Sooner than I expected!

Getting the boys into school meant that it was just the babies and me during the day. We worked everyday on getting the house in working order – aka lots of trips to Target.

It took us a few weeks to get Internet and cable, because the cable company kept making mistakes. Our device reliant children naturally complained. Harry even made a poster of his lament, and posted it on the fridge. I went to Starbucks to use their Wifi to download shows for the kids on their ipads. And, we survived.

We made family trips to Costco and Ikea…. lots of trips.

We sat at the car dealership so daddy could buy a truck.

I spent night after night out shopping for things for the house. One room at a time. Measuring. Comparing. Trying to find the best price.

Then Rich and I would work late into the night putting things together. Family came and helped. It was exhausting. And sometimes I felt overwhelmed or resigned. One day, I just decided that we could get by with a card-table as a dining room table and there is nothing wrong with sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

But slowly… things came together. And the house became comfortable and functional.

Harry would come home from school and tell me about his day. He also needed a few more shots.

Rich found a Life Time fitness nearby, and we joined. We started swim lessons for everyone. Harry had to get a private instructor because he was too big and old for the regular lessons. I got into a nice routine, working out and taking the kids to the Kids Club. It was the perfect way to break up our days, and I started to regain my sanity.

In March, we celebrate Rich and Theo.

Viv started a little ballet class at the Kids Club in Lifetime.

We ordered two giant Love Sacs for the living room. They are a big hit.

Viv followed me around with her jewelry box while I sorted.

Often on Saturdays, I needed the house to myself for a while, so Rich took the kids back to all of our old favorite spots. And now we have memberships again at Brookfield Zoo, Shedd Aquarium, and the Field Museum. All of these are close to us, from our location in Hinsdale.

Viv didn’t have a closet in our London house, and now she has this cute little one where she likes to hang out.

All the kids went to the dentist.

And then, suddenly – it was Easter.

And we went downstate to be with family.

Back home… big score for Viv at a garage sale!

Harry had a project at school, and had to be Charles Darwin for the day.

Then, it was time to celebrate Harry’s birthday. He wanted to take Henry and spend the day at the trampoline park.

Then everyone went into skating lessons. We got a private instructor (again) for Harry. Because he was too big and old for the “Learn to Skate” and “Learn to Play” sessions. But the little boys went right in, and did very well.

Viv, winking at me, during her last class of ballet.

Then, ALREADY, the last day of school! We did it!

Rich found a place to fish.

We ventured to Centennial Beach in Naperville, where we had a great day and managed to ruin two swimsuits and a pair of goggles.

Then Finn, who is more socially inclined, decided he would like to have a birthday party with friends. I looked around for something he might like. I found a couple nature preserves nearby that provide kid’s birthday parties. How perfect for him! We spent an entire day shopping three different nature preserves. It was a fun day. And Theo lost his cute little hat.

The longer we stayed in our house, a few issues came up. The house itself is quite old, but was recently completely remodeled and updated. Because of this, the house had been vacant for over a year. When we moved in, a few little things were off… like we had an electrical switch that controlled the garbage disposal. But it was wired wrong. And the switch also controlled the dishwasher. So, if I wanted to run the dishwasher I would need to run the garbage disposal the entire time. The house couldn’t keep up with the extreme cold. Which was understandable. But, it really couldn’t keep up. So they sent a HVAC guy over – turns out the heater is undersized for the house, and all the vents are on the interior of the house, and the house is on a slab. And oh ya – the fireplace that we were excited to use is incorrectly installed. We spent a few nights trying to use it and just smoked ourselves out. So, they sent a fireplace guy over – turns out using the fireplace SOMEHOW actually makes the house colder.

We made it through the cold though.

But then, water backed up in the drain in the laundry area downstairs. They sent a man over to snake the drain, and we had no problems for several weeks. Then one night, Finn oddly requested a bubble bath and I obliged. His bubble bath was in the tub upstairs. And after his bath, I drained the tub, and bubbles came up out of a toilet DOWNSTAIRS.

This wasn’t a good sign and we knew it.

Sure enough, a few days later, we were flooded again in the laundry area. All over the rugs I put down, everything wet. But we cleaned it up again and they sent another plumber to snake again.

And then a few days later, it backed up for a third time. But this time it wasn’t just water. It was a nasty sewage mess. On this day Rich was out of town and I was packing up our bags to go home for the weekend.

And – I just left it. I couldn’t clean that mess up again.

I just took the bags and got the kids from school and just left that nasty mess in there.

I was BEYOND over it.

Rich called the property management company, and while I was gone they sent a clean up crew for the sewage, and plumbers to evaluate the line again.

So, here we are, downstate enjoying the Martinsville County Fair.

Forget about that mess back at home – time to have some fun.

When we returned home, the laundry room was perfectly clean and smelling of disinfectant. And I approved. But it took several weeks to fix the problem. Because if you hadn’t guessed by now – the problem was pretty major. Tree roots blocking the entire line. They had to dig out a trench and replace the entire pipe to the street. During this time we were on MAJOR water limit. We showered at the gym. No laundry what-so-ever. No dishwasher. Every time the kids flushed at home – I hoped and prayed that it wouldn’t show up in the laundry room.

It was so frustrating.

While the plumbers were at the house – we celebrated Finn’s birthday with friends at his nature preserve of choice, the Hidden Oaks Conservation Center.

Finn’s party went great!

And in the days following, the plumbing was finally fixed. Water was free flowing, flushing, and draining.

We were good to go.

We went out for dinner for my birthday and when we got home the house felt a little hot.

A week after our plumbing was fixed, our air conditioner quit.

Again, the problem was fixed. And again – since we are renting – thank goodness all of these fixes weren’t on our dime. But it’s still frustrating to have to deal with it.

Our landlord shopped around for services, which is fair enough, but we had to go without air-conditioning in the middle of summer for two and a half weeks. Sometimes, when we would wake up at 8:00am, the house was already at 85 degrees. So, the kids and I spent every day at LifeTime. I would take them and max out their allotted 2.5 hours at the air-conditioned Kids Club. Then we’d come home for a no-heat lunch, pack up snacks, and head back to LifeTime to spend the afternoon at the pool. And if the weather was decent, sometimes we’d go to the park for dinnertime. They didn’t seem to mind.

Next up, Independence Day.

On July 7th, our air conditioning was fixed and the house hasn’t had any issues since!

In the summer we also celebrated my brother and his fiance with a fun full-family pool party with her whole family.

We finished up the summer sessions of hockey and swim.

Then, we were off on our epic all-American road trip.

IT WAS EVERYTHING.

And it has it’s own dedicated post.

Upon our return from our road trip we celebrated Vivian’s birthday downstate with family.

Then it was back to life as usual for two weeks until school started.

It was during this time that we decided our kids were no longer going to have access to YouTube. All of our kids have iPads and those iPads have saved us for years during travel and doctor appointments and everything else. Rich is in the tech industry, he’s a self-confessed computer nerd. Our kids are always going to have access to several devices and lots of technology. That’s just the way it is. And they need that knowledge for the world that we live in. But, specifically YouTube was (we believed) ruining them. There is lots of AMAZING content on YouTube for children. They had the YouTube Kids apps on their iPads. It started out as an app they would watch sometimes mixed in with other games they were playing. But then it got to a point where they were only watching YouTube instead of doing anything else. It was just too much. Even with the parent controls on YouTube kids, I would catch them watching weird stuff and there was no way for me to know what they watched or what they were going to have access to. If they spend the entire day watching TV, they may have watched a screen all day – but at least I know what they watched. And since we have basic cable and Netflix, I know exactly what they have access to.

Any chance they got, they’d grab their ipad and turned on YouTube. They were watching too many weird junk videos. They were grumpy and short with each other. Their attitudes as a general baseline were going downhill. So, one day we just told them we were taking it completely away.

AND THERE WERE TEARS.

Lots of tears.

And we knew it was going to be harder on us than it was on them. Because I’m not going to lie and say that all that time they spent being QUIET watching YouTube wasn’t nice for us. Because it was. But our children were turning into something ugly.

We just couldn’t allow it anymore. We took it away and it was the best thing we have ever done. If they have a video they want to watch, for whatever reason, they can watch it in the kitchen, with adult supervision. And that’s just what we do now. We’re not perfect and they still have screen time, but it’s so much better.

THEY are so much better.

Viv is weirdly obsessed with the mannequins at the store. She insisted that I put her on this shelf and take her picture with this one.

Then it was time for school.

With the start of school we did our best to institute Friday Family Fun night. We are busy throughout the week with activities, but on Friday we try to plan something fun to do as a family. Sometimes it’s just a game at home, or making shadow puppets, but sometimes it’s dinner out or bowling. Either way, if we haven’t eaten dinner as a family all week – we at least get this in.

Then there was CME night at Six Flags. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange rents out Six Flags for the evening and invites all the employees of all the companies who trade on it to come. Basically lines are short and you can ride as many times as you can stomach. It’s so fun.

Finn kept at it with hockey.

Harry kept at it with swim.

And the babies played Tball.

This my Wednesday night bag line up…. after school hockey, then dinner in the car, and straight to tball.

The big boys go to school for a full day. And Theo goes to Kindergarten for half days in the afternoon. It worked out with drops and picks to send Vivian to the nearby Adventist Preschool – which is full day. She goes three full days and it works great. But this means, that of all the children Theo is home with me the most during the week.

On Viv’s off days, they get quite a bit of quality little-kid time in.

Viv and Theo fall asleep in the car all the time. I don’t know why, but I think it’s funny almost every time.

The kids have been campaigning HARD for a pet. Since we are in a rental, our options are limited. But even if we weren’t in a rental our options would be limited because I’m super cautious. I know the game. SURE, the kids get a hamster. But after a month, that hamster is now my hamster because they’ve lost interest. I know them. And, I’m not looking to take on any extra bodies. Rich said to me, “I wish there was an in-between step before getting a pet.” And I was like “How about we get them plants? We’ll tell them if they can take care of a plant for six months, then we will get them a small pet.”

So, here are some of their plants. We got them quite a few.

They have – all on their own – named these plants, and measured them, and continued to consistently take care of them. So… all signs point to small pet for us in the spring.

In the fall came Halloween, with the costume parade at school and surprise snow just in time for Trick-or-Treat.

It was so cold and snowy. It made me really grumpy and I didn’t feel like going out. I normally have them trade in most of their trick-or-treat candy for a small gift from the “Switch Witch” (me). She accepts their candy as payment for their gift. So, they don’t get to keep a lot of candy regardless of how much they trick-or-treat. And they know this. And the switch witch brings pretty good stuff, so they are happy with the arrangement. I told the kids – if they didn’t want to go out – they could just have their switch witch gifts for free and we can have the bag of candy we were planning on handing out. They were disappointed, but happy enough with this trade. Rich made a pot of chili and we watched a movie. Halloween done.

Shortly after Halloween, the Christmas stuff came out and we started slowly decorating the house. Since we were traveling downstate for Christmas this year, that meant that our “Christmas” at home was going to actually happen on the 14th, which meant that everything was kind of moved-up for us. Cue the decorations on November 1st.

On Fridays, in addition to Friday Family Fun, while we wait for Rich to get home – they have a standing playdate with their friends and a special Friday treat. It’s become a fun little thing. We really load up the Friday. But it gives me lots of leverage during the week. I need good attitudes and happy children for all of the activities that we are attempting plus all of the shuffling that goes with it. Not to mention the completion of reading logs, Spanish log, baritone log, regular homework, and everything else the week entails.

So, Friday is our celebration. None of it – treat, friends, family fun – is a given. We work for it. They work for it. And there has been weeks when I’ve taken parts of it away, for whatever reason. But for the most part it’s a very happy day.

Thanksgiving – downstate with family.

Harry’s gingerbread of daddy….

A few good drawing examples. They have literally hundreds of theses… we go through a lot of paper. But, I’m not going to stop them.

These are Harry and Finn’s desks, where they do all of their work.

One is always more orderly than the other….

Then is was time for our Christmas at home. They got lots of great things and a few good games. But we started with a fresh new “Game of Life”

Then it was time to go downstate for time with family for two rounds of church and lots of good happy meals.

Look at Grandma’s fabulous grandchild-themed gingerbread shops!

btw… photo cred on most of these good Christmas pics – my mom.

I decided we’d go plaid this year for Christmas Eve.

Why not?

How cute is Viv?

And that pretty much wraps up the year.

Pictures, words.

It doesn’t escape me that we have somehow scraped through another year without major catastrophe or trauma. With all of us miraculously in good health. Rich and I both feel stressed and stretched really thin most days, and we’re not perfect. But we know exactly how much we have to be thankful for and we count it everyday.

It’s the best, pretty much.

Onward and upward!

THE BABES

HARRY

Harry started out the year happy and confident. He had been doing really well socially and academically in London. Things were hard for him, understandably when we moved. I worried about him struggling socially. But I thought he’d be fine academically. The opposite turned out to be the case. Everyone was friendly and nice to him and he made a couple quick friends. But in school he really struggled to keep up and adjust to the different pacing of this school and the constant assessment. We went in early a few times, had talks with the teacher, and by the end of the year he was finally making strides.

Then the new school year started and he found himself a little lost again. So, again, we worked with him and supported him a little bit. Talked with his teacher. And by the second trimester, after Thanksgiving, he was finally feeling confident again saying things like “I’m crushing school this trimester” and “I’m one of the most active participants in math class.” and “I was the only one to get 100% on my show-what-you-know.” He was disappointed at the beginning of the year when he found out that he wasn’t in advanced math. But he’s been working hard and doing well. He will be tested again in the spring of 2020, and he hopes to be in advanced math next year.

For extra activities he’s been amazingly active. We threw everyone in swim lessons, because we made it a family priority. In March at his first lesson, the instructor recommended that Harry take a few private lessons instead of the group lessons. Harry was just so PAINFULLY awkward and behind for his age. And he kept getting really frustrated and upset, because he was in class with 6 and 7 year olds. I mean, we were asking so much of him already…. with a new home, new school, and now a new skill. So.. we followed their recommendation and shelled out even more cash for a private instructor. Just enough lessons to get him caught up… is what we said. He worked with Jake – whom I call the Harry whisperer – and within a few weeks Harry was swimming the length of the pool in a smooth freestyle. The transformation from March to May was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen Harry do. From there we signed him up for a ‘summer swim league’ which was essentially a baby step into competitive swim. Harry and Finn both signed up for the summer league and they both cried their eyes out after their first practice. They were both just so overwhelmed. But eventually they got used to it. After a couple of weeks, a few other LifeTime clubs brought over their summer league swimmers and we had a couple meets at our club. It was very informal and it was the perfect introduction to swim team for Harry.

At the end of summer league, the coach asked if Harry would like to join the LifeTime swim team. I didn’t even know there was one. But, I said yes. And, when we got back from our roadtrip, Harry went to his first practice, and – again – cried for a long time afterwards. “I can’t do this. I hate swimming. It’s too much.” The whole thing. But I pressed on. I don’t know anything about swimming, but I know that he looks good and smooth in the water. And the coaches say he takes direction very well.

We went to his first official meet, and Harry looked like he was going to throw up. I thought he might. But, he didn’t. In fact, he got in the pool – made a clean start – and won his heat.

And since then he has participated, relatively, without complaint. He got ‘promoted’ from the Developmental Team, to the Bronze Team – which meant a longer practice and having to learn starts and turns. And he cried about that. It’s been a rollercoaster of winning, losing, pride, and tears (his). But overall it’s been an amazing experience for him so far. The confidence it’s giving him overflows into other areas of his life. And it has helped massively with his coordination.

This year, he also tried a few weeks of basketball, a baseball camp, and started learning how to ice skate alongside Finn. But swimming has been a constant for him, and I expect that to continue.

So, along with swimming, I’ve endeavored to make ‘learning an instrument’ a priority for the children at age 8 or 9. Harry had been learning the piano in London, and here he was able to sign up for 5th grade band. He was evaluated by the band instructors and was recommended for a brass instrument. He chose the baritone. And it comes amazingly natural to him. I can NOT make a nice sound on that thing no matter how hard I try. But he can. And he can play different notes. And hold a note for a long time (thanks swim breathing). And by December, he was able to play several songs! We’re looking forward to some band concerts in the spring.

Other than all of that, Harry remains the leader of the pack here at home. He’s creative and smart. He likes to draw and code on his laptop. He likes to make YouTube videos (even though he’s not allowed to watch YouTube). He likes to build and construct… anything. Forts, laser tag arenas, pretend zoos, legos, plus plus blocks, offbits… anything. He also loves to game. Any type. Board games, card games, video and computer games. He also loves to design and create his own games. He’s a homebody and creature of habit. He likes to have an evening snack in his room and watch tv – as a reward for completing all of the tasks in his busy day (which sometimes for him is school, homework, swim practice, and baritone practice).

He loves his siblings, he loves his room, and he loves his comfy clothes. He’s growing more confident and social everyday.

He’s kind and thoughtful, and respectful. He makes mistakes and pushes his siblings, and me, but most of the time we’re very proud of him.

Harry’s Birthday Interview:

How tall are you? I am about 5’1″

Now that you’re TEN, what’s different? I want to be more kind and I feel more active and stronger.

What’s your favorite food? AHhhhhhh… hmmmmm… hot dogs! NO! Hamburgers!

Who is your favorite friend? Henry.. and Michael..

What do you want to be when you grow up? Reptile Breeder and a TV manager

What do you like best about Daddy and Mommy? Um, that he’s really funny and that he likes to play video games with us and also that he takes care of us. That she makes great food and that she buys good things and that she takes care of every thing really good and she takes us a lot of places after school and stuff like that.

How strong is daddy? really strong, but he’s been gaining a little weight

What’s mom’s favorite thing to do? cook, and relax and watch TV

What’s your favorite thing about Theo, Finn, and Viv? Theo – ah, he’s funny. really funny and he likes playing games. Finn – that we always play together and he’s very creative. Viv – that’s she’s cute and funny.

What do you think of girls? Ah… well it depends if they’re my family or not. IF they’re my family – loving. If they’re in my class or something – very mean. In America they don’t really talk to boys that much.

If you could have a super power, what would it be? To see the future.

What’s the best thing that happened to you this year? Joining the Lane School. Or getting a Nintendo Switch, and getting a phone.

Where do you want to go on vacation? London! I want to go see Jerome.

Are you going to get married someday? I have no idea.

How do you make cookies? Mix the chocolate chips and the dough and the sugar. And then you put in the oven and then you’re like “wahoo!”

Can you tell me a joke? “Do you want to hear a construction joke?” (Ya.) “Ah, I’m still working on it.”

What do you know about God and Jesus? They created this world and Jesus died on the cross and came back to life.

FINN

At the beginning of the year Finn was happily enjoying his time off of school and looking forward to the adventure of a new school. He easily impressed the principal during our tour of the school asking smart questions and being generally funny and charming. He took second grade in stride and we never heard a whisper of trouble from him or the teacher.

He started third grade and things got alittle bit more serious, but he again didn’t seem to have any trouble He completely bombed one project – which we (teacher too) were all surprised by. We don’t really know what happened with that, but otherwise he’s been cruising right along.

He loves math and science, and it shows in his schoolwork. He continues to be freakishly smart with biology and everything of that sort. I give him shows to watch and books to read and he just eats it all up. He likes to stay up past his bed time and read in his bed. This has been a source of contention for us because while I ALWAYS advocate reading, when he’s up way too late doing it – I don’t know where to draw the line. He’s eight, after all. Several times, after his lights have been turned off – I’ve gone up to check on them, and he’s turned his bed light back on and he’s reading again. He reads everything. Fiction like the Whimpy Kid and Captain Underpants books, to Non-Fiction like “Seeing Science” “The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth” etc. I found a thousand page textbook at the used book store, and bought it for him. It’s called Modern Biology, and I think it’s high school level. It’s got everything he needs to know. All the answers to all of his questions in complete detail. And as I type this – there are several bookmarks in that book, where he’s been in it.

Finn has also taken an interest in playing hockey. All three boys started skating lessons because we thought it would be a good experience for them. Harry was okay with dropping off with lessons after a while, and Theo is very take-it-or-leave-it, but not Finn. He really loves it and he wants to play on a team. After taking the summer sessions of “Learn to Play” and private lessons with an instructor we thought he might be ready to be on a house league team. So, we took him to the evaluation days. But, he was too intimated to go on the ice. SO – we signed him back up for the “Learn to Play” except this time we signed him up for three sessions a week. And in December, he’s been back with a private instructor. Come January 2020, he’s planning on going to the evaluation days for the Spring League house team. He really wants to be on a team. I think hockey suits him, and hopefully he feels confident enough to get on the ice for the spring evaluations.

Other than that, Finn is very fun and has a great sense of humor. As in, he understands humor and sarcasm and can crack an actual joke. He loves his siblings and he loves adventure. He loves to draw. He loves to ride his bike and wrestle in the yard. He’s very hard-headed when he wants to do something. He frequently gets in trouble for lying to us and defying us. And he accepts his punishment right on the chin without much complaint.

He’s our most adventurous eater. He likes sushi and coffee and spicy chips. He likes to make his own sauce for chicken nuggets – combining his special mix of ketchup, mustard, and mayo: and calling it Finn’s Den Sauce.

Finn’s Birthday Interview:

How tall are you? I’m 4 foot 8.

Now that you’re EIGHT, what’s different? That I have harder math studies. I have harder studies.

What’s your favorite food? ah, Ribs

Who is your favorite friend? um.. all my friends. Jeet, Raahi, Michael and Anthony and Jake and Phillip

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a biologist

What do you like best about Daddy and Mommy? That they always make food for me and take care of me.

How strong is daddy? In a chart of 1 to 10, I say 7.

What’s mom’s favorite thing to do? Um.. cooking and sunbathing.

What’s your favorite thing about Harry, Finn, and Viv? Harry, that he plays with me. Theo – he makes me laugh. Vivi – she makes me laugh.

What do you think of girls? Devils.

If you could have a super power, what would it be? Be as fast as flash. And flying.

What’s the best thing that happened to you this year? Moving to America

Where do you want to go on vacation? Um.. nonono… let me think… Bahamas

Are you going to get married someday? Don’t know.

How do you make cookies? With flour, sugar, chocolate chips, milk, eggs. You crack the eggs and you put the flour in the bowl with the eggs, then you put the sugar in the bowl, then you stir it up. And then you add the milk. Then you put them in cookie shaped things and then you put it in the oven. Then you stick the chocolate chips in. Then you put it back in the oven. Then you eat them.

Can you tell me a joke? Why did the dinosaur cross the road? (Why?) Because chicken weren’t invented yet.

What do you know about God and Jesus? That God way back in the BC’s he was kind of strict. And then Jesus came down to try and tell people how to pray and how to do churches. They killed Jesus because the priests lied to them. Then two days later he came back alive and went back to heaven and peace came around the world.

THEO

Theo started the year happy to go along with whatever we were doing. He took the move and all of the changes pretty much in stride and we never really saw him go through any signs of stress. He missed his friends from Reception, but he wasn’t overly devastated.

Instead of putting him in preschool for three months, I decided to keep him home. Mostly, honestly, to play with Viv. He had lots of schooling in London prior to the move – including full day Reception for the entire fall. So I felt like he could safely sit this one out and join everyone in Kindergarten in the fall. And he went in and has been breezing right on through. The first thing his teacher said to me at our conference was “He is all boy.” And ah, I don’t think that’s necessarily a compliment. But regardless, a good report overall from school.

He is our most social boy. For Harry and Finn, they usually tell me about the things they are doing in school, but not Theo. He usually tells me about the people at school, and I know there’s a few times where his social habits have distracted him from learning. So, it’s something that we work on with him. And since he’s my little daytime buddy, he also has a core group of little buddies that he plays with at the Kids Club at LifeTime. In fact, on mornings when I don’t plan a gym visit he often begs, BEGS, me and cries to go to Kids Club to play with his friends. And sometimes… I oblige. It’s like he’s got FOMO at 5.

Of the three boys he is also the only one to take notice of music. He has natural perfect rhythm and he notices songs. As in, if he hears a song he likes he immediately wants to know the title and who sings it. Then, that song goes into the memory bank. And sometimes he’ll request it weeks later. He’s amazing. I make him little playlists that we listen to in the car – since he and I spend a lot of time in the car. I have him listen to everything under the sun. Everything. He’s already diverse in his knowledge, but his current favorites are Luke Bryan, Imagine Dragons, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Lizzo. WIth the top spot probably being The Killers.

He liked skating well enough, he’ll be keeping that up in the new year to see if he wants to continue. He is also in regular swimming lessons still, and he’s moved up a couple levels – he knows free style and backstroke and can confidently swim the length of the pool. He is also our most interested in baseball. We put him in the baseball camp in the summer, and the fall tball. He loved both and asked for more. We are happy to oblige. We love baseball too.

He loves to eat meat, of any type. In fact, out of his actual mouth “For dessert, can I just have more chicken?” He’s almost as adventurous as Finn. He eats sushi and spicy things, like Finn does. He doesn’t love fruit, but we can always count on him to eat his meat and veggies.

He loves to play with his siblings. He loves to do puzzles. He loves to put things together and take things apart. He doesn’t like to sing, but he like to keep the rhythm of a song. He’s a natural with math – like his brothers. Also like his brothers, he likes to game. LOVES it in fact. And he loves learning to read. He’s kind and sweet with Vivian, and he can hang with the boys during their wrestling matches.

Theo’s Birthday Interview:

How tall are you? 5 feet high, I fink.

Now that you’re FIVE, what’s different? That I feel like I’m six.

What’s your favorite food? Ahh, MEAT.

Who is your favorite friend? Fred! But too bad Fred is in London.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Police Man.

What does daddy do at work? Get money. It’s easy to tell.

What do you like best about Daddy and Mommy? That mommy makes food. And that daddy makes money.

How strong is daddy? SUPERstrong.

What’s mom’s favorite thing to do? Drive the car and listen to the song. It’s easy to tell.

What’s your favorite thing about Harry, Finn, and Viv? Harry, playing with him. Finn, that he shares his ipad with me. Vivian, she likes drawing with me.

What do you think of girls? Pretty nice.

If you could have a super power, what would it be? Saving the world. Super strength! I mean, invisible!

What’s the best thing that happened to you this year? Getting presents at London from Santa.

Where do you want to go on vacation? The beach! And finding shells and crabs and starfishes.

Are you going to get married someday? NO. Probably yes.

How do you make cookies? Get chocolate chips. Get some dough and flour. Mix it. And then you put the flour in and the chocolate chips. And then you put it in the fridge and then you wait.

Can you tell me a joke? ohhh. K. I know like 10 joke. “Why does the chicken cross the road?” (Why?) “Because it’s gets squished.” “I mean – it gets all globby and bobby.”

What do you know about God and Jesus? He lives in space.

Vivian

Vivian has changed a lot this year. She had been going to half day nursery in London and was slowing coming out of her shell there. When we moved here, she went back to being home full time with me (and Theo). Then in the fall she started full day preschool, three days a week. I pack a lunch for her, and she gets a nap time in the afternoon. It’s been a wonderful experience for her and she’s loving it. It was during the conference with her teacher, however, that I realized I completely forgot to teach Vivian her alphabet at home. Whoops! I don’t know what happened. I taught all the boys their alphabet at home when they were 2, and when I got to Viv’s conference the teacher showed me a paper and was like, “So, this is how her letter recognition is going.” And it was not good. She started going to Nursery in London when she was two, because that was the UK standard, and I guess it just slipped my mind… I don’t know. I know she did some letter work in school in London. Did she forget it all? Anyway – I was a little blindsided.

She loves to play with her brothers. She’s a princess and a tiger. And even though she’s shy, she’s fairly social and has a couple good little friends at school and at Kids Club. She naturally balances being super-princess-girl with shooting-her-bow-and-arrow and doing somersaults to hang with the boys. She loves to ride her bike and play baseball. She loves to play dolls and push her stroller around. She likes to color with me and do yoga. She likes to go to the store. She like flowers and jewelry and anything pink. She likes to play outside and run in the grass. She likes to sing along to Disney princess songs, but prefers to watch shows like Paw Patrol, Sonic, Captain Underpants, and Shark Boy and Lava Girl.

She likes to help, with everything. She wears a dress most days. She declares her love for me several times a day. She asks for cuddles and hugs. She’s intuitive. She’s observant. She’s funny. She’s smart. She hides things around the house. I find her bracelets in the laundry basket, the silverware drawer and my toothbrush holder. If someone brings something home that she thinks is special, she’ll find a way to sneak it into her room and hide it. Finn brought home a little crystal one day. A few days later, I found it tucked in Vivi’s nightstand. She did the same thing with rocks, a jelly starfish, coins, chapstick, bouncy balls, Christmas ornaments, and several other items.

She started a very casual ballet class at LifeTime and she liked it well enough, but hasn’t asked to go back. She takes swim lessons. She loves the water and swims confidently all around the pool. She has now asked to skate with the boys, however. So, in the new year we plan to let her try ice skating. And she’ll probably pick another activity to try.

Vivian Birthday Interview:

How tall are you? 3!

Now that you’re FOUR, what’s different? Preschool. Or practice school!

What’s your favorite food? Fig Bars and Cheerios

Who is your favorite friend? I have another Vivian who’s like me. Strawberry, Streacher,  and Y…c…q…o.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Um… a princess. Remember I’m gonna be the queen.

What do you like best about Daddy and Mommy? Daddy is so strong and he always tickle me. I like best about mommy that you are so fluffy.

How strong is daddy? SUPER STRONG! Like a million strong.

What’s mom’s favorite thing to do? um.. work and you always do the dishes. Clean your glasses and clean the clock and me and Theo dust everything and we eat and daddy tickles on Sunday and Wednesday and Monday.

What’s your favorite thing about Harry, Finn, and Viv? Harry, cus I love him and he always cuddles with me and I like his bed and he’s so skinny. Finn, cus he loves me and Theo. Theo, cus he has so many closets.

What do you think of boys? They have short hair.

If you could have a super power, what would it be? Um, pink.

What’s the best thing that happened to you this year? When I sleep, my hair changed colors.

Where do you want to go on vacation? To grandma’s house!

Are you going to get married someday? Ya. I’m going to marry Theo. I mean, Harry.

How do you make cookies? you use sugar and butter and you mix it up. And mom, you put it to a ball. And roll it. And make sure it’s flat. And put it on the plate and eat it. See? I’m good at it.

Can you tell me a joke? A dinosaur went on the road and crushed a dinosaur on the belly and on the tail.

What do you know about God and Jesus? Easter Eggs. And Jesus died and went back to his house.

KID WORDS

Me to Viv “Are you going to help us clean up?”

Viv “No. I’m being a princess.”

Theo “Mom I like it better when you paint that color on your lips.”

Theo “Vivi got scratched at the gym. So, I went and found all the people that scratched her and tried to scratch them and get them away.”

Me, to Theo and Vivian: “Good cleaning up guys.”   Theo “I did it all.”
Viv “Ya, I just did nothing.”

Viv “My penis is about to grow in.”

“When I grow up I want to be a princess. With a pink dress and a pink hat. No…. Not hat.” Vivian

Vivian “Mom you’re a good driver. And very nice. I love you. And daddy. And me and you are both girls. You can share your earrings with me. I want a bunch of snacks.”

Theo, to Vivian “I love you more than the sun. I love you more than the moon.”

Theo, to me “You look like a princess in your apron mom.”

Theo “Mom. You are the best baker, but the guy who made this (lunchable) is the best guy I ever had.”

Vivian, to me “I love to lick you.”

Vivian, to me “You’re the best, babe.”

“This music is really nice mom… (Me, “Thanks”) I’m just saying that because I love you.” Theo

“Mom. I’m so lucky to have you.” Harry

“Mom. I’m good at dolls.” Vivian

“I want to talk about married now.” Vivian

“I love when you give me kisses. Everytime you give me a kiss, I keep it. I’ve got them all stacked up inside.” Theo, to me

“Frozen is in the real snow and we live in London.” Vivian “We don’t live in London anymore, remember?” Me  “Oh, ya, we live in Costco.” Vivian

“I fell down at running club. I don’t like running in curves.” Finn

I approach the boys, Vivian is crying, holding her face. Finn says “Ok. So. We were playing ball. And Vivi’s face got in the way. And it. Well….. It went bonk.”

“WOW. NEIL DIAMOND. What a cool name!” Harry

“I’ve caught a rolly polly. I named him Bro. I’m going to keep him as a pet. I like Bro. He’s like a dog. Just really really tiny.” Theo

Theo points to PetSmart “That’s where I get my hair cut.”

“Mom. What is the fat content of human breast milk? Did you know that an average human baby weighs six more pounds than an average grey wolf pup.” Finn

“We all have toes.” Theo

Finn: Mom. Name an animal that lives in the temperate forest. Me: ah…. I’m not sure what a temperate forest is.  Finn:  WHAT!?!?!?

Harry to Rich “Dad. You haven’t gone to the gym in a while.”

“Mom, when we get home, can I hug you?” Vivian

While I’m pulling Vivian in the bike trailer “Mom. You look so beautiful riding your bike.” Vivian

“For my birthday, I want special powers.” Vivian

“Mom. I love you, but I don’t want to eat the rest of my food.” Vivian

Riding in the bed of the truck from our neighbor’s house to ours, “Mom, I’m going to draw this so I never forget it.” Finn

“I have a science test on Friday. I’m totally gonna wiz on it!” Finn

“I know how the Flash runs so fast. He eats all his peas.” Theo

Watching Rich play basketball “Look at dad, doing such a good job keeping up with all of the other guys. He’s so much older than everyone.” Harry

“I hurt my feelings” Vivian

Getting ready to paint toe nails “Yes, mom, I want pink on my toenails. But please don’t put it on my eye brows.” VIvian

“Mom. When I grow up I’m going to join The Killers.” Theo (The Killers are a rock band)

“Mom. Where does Luke Bryan live? I want to see him. And Lizzo.” Theo

“When I go looking for things I can’t find them. Mostly because I don’t really use my eyes. Also, because I’m lazy.” Finn

Watching Rich play basketball “He’s just hanging loose sipping juice!” Finn

Helping with laundry “This is a nice system you got here mom.” Harry

“Is that smell your body?” Vivian, to me

“I love your head.” Vivian, to me

“It’s hard to find a cat or dog as cute as Viv.” Finn

“I want to marry this guacamole.” Theo

Finn, listening to song “Rich” by Maren Morris “I just love it when she says shit. It’s just so satisfying.” 

“When we hug you it feels like a metal table, when we hug grandma it feels like a big glob of jelly and I love it!” Finn

Harry, listening to song “YMCA”: “Why did they write a song about a gym?”

“When The Killers die, I want to take over for them. And I’ll get some friends to be in the band too.” Theo

“Can I drink this smoothie in the bathtub?” Vivian

“Can we go back to Paris and I wear these earrings? When can we go back to Paris?” Vivian

Seeing cornfields covered in snow “This is a field. For chasing bunnies.” Finn

“I know all the numbers. One through a million.” Harry

“I want to cuddle with these bananas.” Vivian

Mom Fails

left sunroof open overnight

throat punched myself with automatic umbrella

sent empty water bottles in lunch boxes

forgot swim bag for practice

forgot wallet at store

forgot wallet at post office (I blame Amazon for both of these)

forgot to teach Viv the alphabet

Rich and I spent some Quiet Time in London for a couple weeks in January. We had just moved our children back to Illinois to be with family while we took care of logistical items for our international move.

On a Saturday morning we were eating brunch at Dishoom, which is one of the best places to do such a thing.

Dishoom happens to be right near St.Pancras, the international train station in London.

It’s beautiful all on it’s own.

After brunch we were walking through St. Pancras, and Rich said “What if we just took the train to Paris right now?”

And that was it.

WELL… first we had a short debate.

“We hate Paris” I said.

“I know” he said.

I have talked about my Paris feelings before. But we just couldn’t help feeling like maybe we just weren’t doing it right. We should just give it one more try, while we had the chance.

“How much is it gonna be?” I said

“Not that bad” he said.

Standing in the train station, from his phone, Rich booked a flight, then promptly found a hotel. We know our Paris neighborhoods just well enough to know where we wanted to be.

Note – we first compared train tickets to plane tickets and ended up going with flights. Often, in Europe, plane tickets are cheaper than train tickets. Just depends. And you have to consider the timing of each and the ground transport options.

Worked out there was a flight leaving soon that we could make. There are often multiple flights per day between major destinations. For example there were five flights from London to Paris this day… I think tickets were $40/person.

We went back to the apartment and grabbed a bag. Then we went to the airport and got on the plane. It’s amazing how fast we can move without the kids.

Like, whoa.

We arrived late afternoon and checked into our hotel.

Changed and went out for some food. Actually I think we took a power nap first, if I remember correctly. Because we know in Paris, you can eat dinner at 11pm if you want.

We knew we wanted some good wine.

I mean…. Hello.

Rich did a little research and found L’Avant Comtpoir – a highly rated wine bar with French style tapas. We found the restaurant, but barely. It was TEENY TINY. Just a long thin bar and a row of stools. And it was jam packed with people. We actually walked by it a couple times trying to find it. Once we realized where it was we weren’t even sure how to approach it. There were people everywhere, but no hostess or anything. There seemed to a be a few other people waiting to be served and they were just standing around and mingling outside, sort of like we were. The menu was just pictures of tapas bites hanging from the ceiling, only in French. And the wines were listed on the wall.

We felt really overwhelmed and thought about leaving. But we decided to wait just a few minutes in the crowd. One stool opened. Rich said “take that one” and he stood at my side as we tried to decide how and what to order. A few minutes went by and the people next to us were finished. Keep in mind, no customers at the bar are in any type of hurry.

This is how big it was.

There are our legs. And that’s how we sat – with my legs basically inside Rich’s, because there was also no real leg room under the bar.

And that tiled wall is the outer wall of the restaurant – with hooks to poke yourself on.

Then is was time to try and order food and wine.

No small task for us.

Luckily for us the bartender was FRIENDLY!

And he spoke English with us, and at least pretended like he didn’t want to vomit while doing so.

And he helped us order. WHAT?

We had the house white and the house red. Here’s a tip when you’re in France. You can order the “house” of anything and it will be absolutely delicious. They ain’t messing around with their wine. And “the house wine” is good.

We ate a few tapas plates, but I don’t even remember what they were because honestly – the star of the show here – was the butter. If you look back at the first picture you can see a slab of yellow on the bar with a knife stuck in it. You might ordinarily over look such a thing. But they keep dishing out simple warm bread, and then dropping head-size slabs of this butter right within arms reach.

Ohrmegard YOU GUYS.

Soft, creamy, a hint of sweet, just the right amount of salt on top.

OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS.

This butter changed my mind about Paris.

Have you heard about the butter?

It wins.

And… I mean… on that hot fresh bread.

Get in my mouth now.

Anyway.

Once we were done there we wandered around, looking for some dessert.

We found an adorable chocolate shop on our walk, but that’s not quite what we wanted.

We moved on and found a little place that had creme brulee and chocoalte mousse.

Yep, that’s the ticket.

I know our dessert was good here, but honestly I was still thinking about that butter from dinner.

In the morning we got up, and headed straight to Ble Sucre. We had read that this pastry shop might possibly have the best croissants in Paris. And…. ah… I haven’t tried all of the croissants in Paris, but I can tell you that these are the best. When the line is long, you’re in the right place.

Once you have your pastries, you sit outside the restaurant and this is your view.

PURE PERFECTION!

We started with croissants, and GOT BACK IN LINE for more: almond and chocolate on the second round.

And all I could think was that they used that butter from L’Avant Comtpoir to make these pastries. THE BUTTER YOU GUYS. It makes these pastries.

I’ve had a lot of pastries, ok. I have a soft spot for – specifically – croissants. I’ve had them in Rome and Amsterdam and London. I’ve had them in Greece and Spain. I’ve had them in Thailand – where they are actually kind of amazing. I’ve had them in America – where they are the most sad, btw.

But nothing compares to these. My mouth is watering as I type this.

These are technically perfect with the magical amount of softness and crunch. Perfect density but also airy. And then the flavors after that…. hint of sweet. Not too much, just enough. Perfect salt. Just perfect.

And I’m now converted.

I can now say I would return to Paris.

If only to have these croissants.

I’m serious.

Then we strolled down the famous French market street “Rue Cler”

Then we went to Notre Dame, because I was in search of some artwork I had seen along the river in previous trips. I regretted not buying the street art, so I was happy to have a chance to go back and get it myself. I got a painting and combination of prints that now hang in Viv’s room.

After that we ventured to a museum that we’d always wanted to visit during trips before; the Musee D’Orsay. It’s beautiful, and honestly preferable to the Louvre – in my opinion.

Then, we had just enough time to score some famous Angelina hot chocolate.

Yep – in fact, delicious.

Then it was back to the airport, where the food is just as beautiful and tasty.

We had a leisurely dinner while we waited for our late flight.

Basically this little weekend in Paris was pretty awesome. I’m hesitant to declare my love.

I mean, I don’t think I love it here.

But I definitely don’t hate it anymore – the butter is too good for me to ever say that again.

I’m so glad we decided to give it one more chance.

I can confidently say: I LIKE Paris.

SO.

We were moving from London back to the Chicago area.

Rich was to start his new role in Chicago in February, but he still needed to work in London for the first two weeks in January. We didn’t think it was “worth it” to put the kids back in their London school for one month. So – the day after Christmas we moved them to Illinois and they stayed with family for the entire month of January. It was really special for them to have concentrated family time after three and a half years of living abroad. And we were lucky that our amazing family was able to take all four of them on.

They had a wonderful time.

This also worked really well because we were able to spare the children from the mess of packing up the house and moving out. After taking the kids to my parent’s house in Illinois, I flew back to London to tie up all the loose ends. Since Rich was still going to be working, he and I “moved” into a studio apartment. I went back and forth between the apartment and our house to finish selling the things we weren’t moving, packing up and shipping all the things we were moving, hiring cleaners, touch up painters, etc. It was frantic and exhausting. Everything was done by January 4th and we turned our keys in and said good-bye to the house.

Our home for two and a half weeks in London was this precious little studio apartment. We found it on AirBnb and it was so cute and fun and perfect. The bed lowered down over the couch. Although that’s not something I would want to do everyday, it was fun during our short stay. A very small, but full functioning kitchen area and a cute little bathroom were all we needed.

Adding to the fun-ness of this apartment was it’s location. We went from family-central Wimbledon to hip-and-cool Camden. We knew we would want something super close to Rich’s work. I cross referenced that with the Fierce Grace yoga studio I was going to be attending during this time. We hoped we would end up near Camden, because we had visited the neighborhood a few times and fell in love. So this worked out just right.

Everyday Rich went to work, and I went to hot yoga.

We ate out almost every night – trying all of the restaurants we wanted – not worrying about kid meals or space for six.

And we have never felt more cool.

We went to the theater TWICE.

Living near the theater district, footloose and fancy-free, I was able to check the last minute ticket stall in the morning and score cheap tickets to Aladdin for myself for a matinee.

And together we saw Lion King from the Orchestra pit.

Since our studio didn’t have laundry, I walked around the corner a couple times to do laundry, and walked by a beautiful pastry shop in the process.

A short walk in the other direction was the always fun and trendy Camden Market, where I spent several afternoons.

This man hand-makes leather goods from his shop inside Camden Market. You can customize anything you want and I ordered this purse for my mom.

We also explored the Tate modern, since we hadn’t ever made it there.

Rich wanted to leave as soon as we arrived, but I really enjoyed being confused by the things we saw there.

We rode the water taxi for the first time, took in an outdoor light exhibit, and a rooftop botanical garden.

AND THEN – we took our final ride on the tube.

During this time in London, we also spent the weekend in Paris…. but that’s another story.

When I think about this time we had together in London, I think about how fun and extraordinary it was to make decisions for only ourselves. I think about the time I spent by myself during the days, doing as I pleased.

But mostly, I remember the quiet.

This time was gloriously quiet.

The perfect antidote to the chaos of our move.

Hello!

We decided to take a road-trip with our boys to the West Coast and back.

Here is that story.

The idea for this trip began as we were staring down an international move from London back home to the US. We were trying to get the kids (and ourselves) excited about the type of traveling we would be able to do around the United States. We were telling the boys about the national parks. Rich decided he needed to take nature-baby-Finn to the Redwoods and we simultaneously got invited to stay with friends near Portland. Plus, we wanted to do something “super American” to celebrate our move back. What better way to do that than to take a massive road-trip? We were excited at the thought. Honestly, we started thinking about this trip further in advance than any other trip we’ve taken.

Once we started getting down to the nitty gritty of logistics, we realized that we were going to be asking a lot of Vivian. And subsequently – even more of ourselves. Several long, long, long days in the car, late nights, early mornings, no potty breaks, a different bed every other night.

She’s four.

The big boys – especially – are at the perfect age for this trip. But, it just became clear that we needed to try to leave her at home, and give this one to the boys. For ourselves. For the boys. And for her. Vivian had spent her whole life in London, and our family didn’t get to see her that much. They stepped up big time to alternate time taking care of her. She got lots of needed one-on-one time with aunts, grandmas, grandpas, and cousins.

It worked out best for everyone.

And with that – we were off!

Our first check in with Viv. She’s looking and feeling great with Aunt Erika and Uncle Jake!

We drove first from Chicago, through Iowa and into Nebraska – where we spent the night.

We got up early the next day and drove to Wyoming were we met our first major destination mid afternoon – GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK.

Rich may have gotten a speeding WARNING along the way. Ooopps!

I was making peanut butter sandwiches in the front seat and didn’t even realize why he was pulling over.

Sorry Wyoming.

We stayed in a cabin at Colter Bay Village.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g143029-d101244-Reviews-Colter_Bay_Village-Grand_Teton_National_Park_Wyoming.html

I don’t know what else to say – THIS PLACE WAS AMAZING.

Colter Bay Village has cabins, camping and RV parking. There are also a couple nice restaurants, and a well equipped general store. By staying here only one night – I felt like we really hurt the village’s feelings. I mean – we totally did not get to do it justice.

But I was glad for the time that we had.

I can’t talk enough about how the air felt here.

I constantly think about it – even now.

We had been driving about 7 hours in the van. We pulled up at Colter Bay and I opened my door before we came to a complete stop. I couldn’t help myself I stood full-up on the floorboard of the open van door – so anxious to take in the scene.

“Rich! THE AIR! It’s incredible. You gotta smell it. Get out.” I said.

While I was throwing bags into the cabin, the boys discovered three deer right outside the door. I mean, the joy.

We had dinner at the village restaurant and went out for a walk around the lake.

The boys hunted for a bear. I did not.

The air was crisp and clean.

Finn said to me “Mom. This is like a whole different world. I can’t believe it. There are more trees than buildings.”

Harry pointed off in the distance… to the lake and the mountains and said “Mom. Is that real? It looks fake. It just looks so amazing, like it isn’t real. Like a movie set.”

….. it’s all real boys. That’s why we’re here.

These cabins were perfect.

No wifi, no cable. Warm and clean, 100 years old – and perfect.

We put the boys to bed and had some wine from the general store. Rich realized he was overwhelmingly tired, and told me he was nodding off before I got in the shower. Literally laying on top of the covers, he said “I think I gotta capture this sleep honey.”

“Go for it!” I said. “We had a long beautiful day.”

I got out of the shower and did some stretching. At about 11:30, I peeked outside and remembered that I saw something in the visitors center about the exceptional stargazing here. So, I slid on Rich’s shoes and jacket – the first I could find – and snuck very quietly out the door because I was sure the night sky was not-to-be-missed.

And I was right. It was clear and sparkly. The best I’ve certainly ever seen. I spent some time out there and turned around to head back in. It was at that point I realized, that – in my excitement to get outside – I forgot to bring a key.

I locked myself out.

Rich was A-SLEEP. Like, so asleep. So asleep that my increasing-in-volume knocks and calls from outside the bedroom window didn’t register with him at all. People were sleeping in nearby cabins, so I was remiss to make too much of a commotion. Instead, I opted to calmly remove the screen from the window and hoist myself in enough to grab a pillow and throw it at Rich. And, finally, I got him to wake…. barely. He was all like “What ARE YOU DOING!?!?!” “What IS HAPPENING right now?” “Are you hanging in the window?”

And it took him a good minute to wake up enough to realize what he was seeing… me – teetering on my stomach through the window. He roused, and let me in the front door. I felt genuinely bad about it, because I know how sweet it is when you get that just-right-natural kind of sleep. But, I also really wanted to sleep INSIDE the cabin.

Sorry, babe.

Anyways…. I woke up the next morning, and went out for an early run.

This was the view.

I got back to the cabin and declared “We live in the wrong place!”

I mean, the air alone.

C’mon.

But, we couldn’t dilly. This day was a big day. This day was Yellowstone National Park day.

I threw some snacks on the floor for the boys while Rich grabbed coffee from the store. And we were off!

Check in with Viv. Doing awesome!

And then we arrived.

And again – we totally, for sure, without a doubt did not get enough time here.

Now that I know what I know – ONE DAY – practically unthinkable.

A very pleasant Danish family took this picture of us with the sign.

They were leaving the park in their RV and they were getting a ‘good-bye’ picture with the sign.

They had just spent the week in Yellowstone, they said. And then they asked how long we were here. And we told them the truth. And they stared back at us – straight blank, in their little Danish accent said “Vu only planned vone day here?”

We didn’t know, OK.

Now we know.

We had a lot of other items on our road-trip list. We didn’t think we could schedule an extra night here because we wanted to get to Portland. We had no idea what to expect. So, we just did the best with the time we had.

We had heard the the geyser trail was a better bet than waiting on Old Faithful if you were short on time and/or had kids. We were both of those things. So, we did that. You walk along a slightly precarious walkway in and among hot springs, geysers (which Finn kept pronouncing “juysers”), and sulfur pits. By precarious, I mean that there are signs that say “if you step off this pathway, you may fall into a hot pit.”

We finished the trail ending with the Morning Glory pond and circling back around. We even made it back in time to see Old Faithful going off as we approached the trail head.

We had read on a couple of blogs that many people preferred the Grand geyser to Old Faithful. Because, they said, it put on just as good of a show and goes off just as often. We weren’t sure if we had enough time to wait for it, but it was right along the trail and everyone else was waiting. So we decided to wait as well. That’s the thing about waiting on Geysers. There is no schedule. You just have to wait and hope.

We got to watch the full eruption of this geyser up close, from start to finish. They boys were in complete AWE. Theo shouted the entire time. And after it was done Harry said “Mom, we’ll never see anything better than that.”

We were hot and tired after the trail.

The Old Faithful lodge to the rescue. With lunch and amazing atmosphere. We had tasty bison sausage and wild game chili.

Then we ventured in the car to the Lamar Valley area of the park, where we began to see sprawling vistas AND canyons too, somehow. I didn’t know the two could exist at the same place.

But they do in Yellowstone. It is an actual wonderland.

We saw the bison – up CLOSE and personal.

And we also saw a grizzly bear.

THAT’S RIGHT. A grizzly bear mama and two cubs. It’s very rare, from what I understand. People wait and hope for days to see a bear in Yellowstone. And three just sauntered right in front of our car. We were in so much shock that I didn’t get a picture. But I did get a video.

Unless we wanted to drive into the late late night, we HAD to leave the park.

We didn’t want to.

We left to the most perfect sunset, and contemplated how we could get more Yellowstone in our life.

We drove along the riverside. We saw a man in the river, wearing waders and overalls, leisurely fly fishing in the evening sun. Fresh air, mountains the distance, nothing but the sound of the stream. Nobody bothering him. Just taking his time. Breathing in the fresh beautiful air, in arguably the most beautiful setting on planet earth.

And that was his day. God Bless him. I hate him. But ya know, God Bless.

The entire state of Wyoming really took me by surprise. And honestly, I’m hesitant to publicly profess my love because I kind of want to keep the secret to myself so that no one else ever goes there. But, whatever, I guess that’s not fair to Wyoming. I love it there. And I don’t know why anyone else with a heart and soul wouldn’t also love it.

Once we entered Idaho the sun had set. And it started to rain, lightly. The boys were quiet. I has reading a book. I said to Rich “Is it raining?” He said “No. That’s bugs.” I looked up from my book…. “Ah, what? That can’t be bugs. It’s rain.”

No. It was in-fact, bugs. That were so thick that they hit our windshield like rain.

Bug Rain. It was so gross.

We poured ourselves into bed in Idaho. We got up bright and early the next morning to clean the windshield and then drive to our friend’s house near Portland. This day also happened to be princess’s official birthday, and she was spoiled by family accordingly – first by Aunt Erika with a custom made glitter “four” shirt and donuts, then by Grandma Susie with a bike, and by Great Aunt Patty who brought over a homemade cherry pie – because that is what Vivian had requested.

We arrived at our friend’s house, where Rich’s family was already staying. We spent the night catching up and drinking wine and trying to control the wild children – who (again) stayed up way past their bedtime.

The next day, our friends took us to a beautiful waterfall and then for an impromtu hike on Mt. Hood. The weather was amazing. The kids enjoyed being together and playing ‘the floor is lava’ along the trail of our hike.

Roadside GIANT ice cream cones for the way home. Yes, of course.

The next day, our friends took us to the most perfect beach. And our boys got their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. Even though it was slightly over-cast, and the ocean water was ice-bucket cold, we spent the entire day. It was so fun.

Check in with Viv – she’s got new nails and a new-found love for Banks, the dog.

The next day, our friends were gone for the day taking Rich’s family to Seattle for their flight home. And I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say – so I’ll just say that our friends MAY have left us a pass to the Adidas employee store. We had fun buying new Superstars for everyone, walking around downtown Portland, and calling it an early night.

The next day was another big day.

This day was pacific coast highway day and (hopefully, depending on time) REDWOODS day. Arguably Rich’s most anticipated day of the whole trip.

Along the way, we stopped in at at glass-blowing workshop and store, that I JUST HAD TO GO IN or I would die.

We also stopped at the sea lion caves.

Then, late afternoon, we arrived at Redwood National Park.

We spotted elk and found a place to park so that we could wander around a few groves.

And again – I would like to talk about the air.

It smells incredible in here.

Trees, clean and fresh. That’s it. It’s the best.

I asked the boys to all come over by the “Big Tree” sign for a picture. The big boys made it over. Then Theo, who was walking along the path shouted “Here comes the star!” and proceeded to jump and trip over some roots and land face down on the path. A mouth full of dirt, wood chips in his shirt pockets and two skinned knees kinda fall…

He was quickly cleaned up and set to rights, but he still talks about how he fell down in the Redwoods. Like – it was the most memorable part for him.

This is our van alongside the road – for scale purposes.

Again – we didn’t know what to expect here. We didn’t now how to budget time for it, and if we would need more than the afternoon. Of course we needed more than the afternoon, silly. We stayed in a nearby hotel, so instead of heading on over to our next destination first thing in the morning, we decided to return to a few more groves in the Redwoods before driving. It made our travel day quite a bit longer, but I’m so glad we did it. The trees needed us to come back and I needed to get some more fresh forest air. I put the boys “forest” clothes back on from yesterday, we ate breakfast, and we went back in.

I think this might have been the boys’ best day. They were just right at home. It felt so right to go spend more time with the trees.

Did you know people live in the Redwoods? I didn’t know that. There’s like, literally a little tiny town in there. Can you imagine that? “Oh ya, I live in the Redwoods.”

Anyway, it was so fun to see the evening sun on the first day at dusk, and then to see the morning sun against the trees. We had to pull ourselves away, and find lunch along the road. During the drive through California, we were treated to a setting sun and amazing views.

We arrived late to our hotel, again, with not much else to do but go straight to sleep.

And in the morning sun, we had a beautiful view of Lake Tahoe outside.

Before we get the day going, we’ll check in with Viv first. She’s continuing to live her best life.

We had done a little bit of sleepy eyed research the night before on where to go at Lake Tahoe. Reports said “Sand Harbor Beach”. They said it was peaceful and pristine. Crystal clear water and well equipped. The best cove on the north side of the lake. But they also said that parking often fills up and CLOSES by 8:30AM. Despite our late night, we decided we needed to turn around and get the early worm. I mean, what’s the point of doing it if you don’t do it all the way.

I managed to pack us up a cooler and beach gear for the day. I thought the water might be cold at 8:30 in the morning and that we’d probably want to secure our parking spot and then spend some time walking the trails before doing any sort of water-related activities.

Despite our best efforts, we arrived there about 9:00am convinced we’d missed out on parking, because the line to get in was, in fact, LOOOOOONG. But we got a spot, and it became clear that – along with a parking spot – we also needed to secure our beach spot at 9 in the morning. So instead of hiking around we found a little spot to set up camp. The boys did not mind any of this and were as happy as happy kids can be.

Yes, the water is really that blue and yes it’s really that clear.

The reports were right. It was absolutely perfect. I mean, I didn’t visit any other spots on the lake, but I can tell you this was the best one.

Theo didn’t want to kayak, and that was fine. So, we rented a kayak and took turns taking the big boys out. This was their first time doing such a thing, and they both fell in love and didn’t want to stop. Who can blame them?

In between these pictures of Finn jumping off the rocks, I would like to talk a little bit about HIS day here. I’m going to back it up…. all of my children are smart, but Finn is a little *extra* in the science/nature/animal department. He has an above average knowledge of living things. He can identify several different types of fungus on sight. He knows each species of otter and what they eat and where they live. I’ve seen him differentiate between extinct birds at the Natural History Museum. He knows how to cross breed snakes. I mean, it’s just a-lot sometimes. He’s also the most headstrong when he thinks he knows best. Like, the rules don’t always apply to him. And if he wants to do something, he will, and he doesn’t care about the consequences…. or safety.

So, this whole trip, he was in complete heaven. All the new outdoors sights and adventures. He saw new things and touched and smelled and learned things he didn’t know. Each time we pulled up to a new park, or grove, or trail, he would bust out of the van full speed READY. Out and taking it in and constant chatter and just going going going.

Like, “finally, this is where I belong. I HAVE ARRIVED.”

And we were happy to have him be this way… for the most part. But here at Lake Tahoe it was especially out of control. Every time we took our eyes off him, he was sneaking to the other side of the rock coves, getting too close to a cliff, going out too far in the water trying to spear fish. Upon arrival, he wanted to go into the freezing water with his clothes on. He wanted to inspect the trees and take bark samples. He wanted to dig in the ground and look for insects. He wanted to kayak. I wanted to kayak too, so we went. He wanted to jump off the rocks. So he and I went to the big rocks.

The ones that look like this:

So, I say to him “Finn, you and I can go on the rocks. But you have to stay within arms reach of me at all times.” He says “Finally, all that rock climbing I do at the gym is coming in handy. I know how to do this.”

I know these rocks don’t look that scary in these pictures, but when you’re actually out on them they are big and deep and hard. Like – if you fall from them, it’s the end of your day… or your head… or your life. Climbing on them carelessly is not an option.

He, of course, starts to get ahead of me. I say “Finn, back by me!” He says, “Mom. Why do you keep disciplining me? I can do this.” I say back “I know you can, I’m just trying to make sure you SURVIVE it.” And he continued on like that. And I felt like our job for most of the day was to make sure Finn didn’t die. Harry tried to keep up with Finn on the baby rocks and ended up scraping his feet up kinda nasty. And after that we were all feeling a little tired – physically and mentally.

So, mid afternoon, we called it a day. I was sad to leave our perfect spot and our perfect weather. But we HAD been there since 9 in the morning and I have to admit – the sense of relief I felt at having Finn contained again was huge. ahhh… oh my gosh – he was such a handful. We love you Finn. But the next time I take you to Lake Tahoe is when you are at least 25, or maybe when you have an unruly-nature-loving son of your own.

If there is sand in the cooler – that means it was a good day.

We get back to town and find a place to eat pizza. That sounds perfect.

And we ended the day with shaved ice. Which Theo tried and didn’t like.

The little strip of the town where we stayed was so cute. Quiet, little shops, restaurants and cabins. A nice grocery store where we stocked up, and a beachfront park.

Time to move on.

Let’s check on Viv – having fun!

We drove from Lake Tahoe to Provo, Utah. I don’t know what was going on the with the insect population at this time of year in the west. But, during our drive out of Lake Tahoe, we hit a short butterfly rain. This was even worse than the bug rain. Do they breed up there or something? I don’t know. Seriously, butterflies covered the road and flew all over the place and into our van. It was all very distressing for Finn – who directed RIch to slow the van down.

Anyway – we made it to Provo and spent the night. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. During our meal, a complete stranger approached us and complimented us on how nice our boys were. Saying “I know how much work it takes, and it’s clear you’ve done the work.”

A tear came to my eye; I was so touched by his compliment. I was gracious to the man, but in my mind I thought “They are only being so nice right now because they are dog tired.” Seriously, if you see a parent doing what appears to be a good job, and you think it. You should say it to them. Say it their face. It could make their day or their month.

Now to Colorado, on the way we stopped at Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. We had only planned on stopping at Arches, but once I looked at the map and realized the Canyonlands was only about 20 minutes away, we added that to the day.

Our time here was fast and furious. And again – we didn’t know what to expect and we didn’t do it justice. We just hit a few major spots and moved on.

And let me tell you – on this day – IT WAS HOT. We pulled up to baseline 100 degrees.

This is the moment we jumped back into the air-cooled van. Did I mention how hot it was?

During the 20 minute drive from Arches to Canyonlands, Theo fell asleep, and Rich was oh-so-sad to stay in the air-conditioned van with him while I took the big boys to the first and only trailhead of Canyonlands that we encountered.

After about 5 minutes, Harry had enough and went back to the van.

But not Finn.

The heat, the rain, the cold. Nothing stops him if there is something to be explored.

We got back in the blessedly cool van and journeyed on towards our next stop.

I have to say, I don’t want to be throwing shade at Arches or Canyonlands – and I’m definitely glad we went because the scenery is so specifically unique. But, this was our least favorite. Again – I know – we didn’t give it a proper chance and we were so hot.

But there are CAMPGROUNDS here. People camp here. I couldn’t believe that. Who does that? Why?

I mean, obviously, I just prefer something else. I could see going back to Tetons, Yellowstone, Redwoods and exploring for DAYS. But here – I was glad to move on. I think alot of it was the pure seclusion that you feel. You drive in the desert for hours to get here and there’s just not much else. My anxiety was high as we arrived. And I found it hard to relax. I don’t know – maybe it would just take some getting used to.

But I just kept thinking “Where will we get water?” “And where will we go if Finn falls and breaks an arm?” Ah – it was scary to me.

Summary – glad we did it and I was glad to move on.

AND NOW – We were on our way to one of our most favorite spots on the planet earth – Breckenridge Colorado.

Let’s do one last check with Viv. I think she’s doing alright….

We blessedly left the dessert, and headed into the mountains. Since it’s sort of “off season” in the ski town of Breckenridge we were able to snag a two story loft apartment. Even at off-season price, this was a splurge for us. But since it was the last stop on the trip, we thought it would be perfect. And it ended up being just what we needed. A little extra space and a little extra quiet to cap off all the nights of sharing a hotel room. No one had to share a bed, so it was the perfect re-fueling two nights.

And in this picture – you can see the pure joy.

Theo and Finn were fighting over a stuffed bear they found on the bunk bed.

Even though that picture doesn’t show it – they were ecstatic upon entry to this place. They were ready to move in. Saying “This is the best house ever!” “Are we going to live here?!” etc.

We hope to return to Breckenridge in a couple years, and they already fully expect us to stay right back here.

I got up for the morning run, and again was greeted by beautiful scenery and wonderful crisp air.

And I returned home to Rich still wonderfully asleep and children lounging in their jammies.

Our place was right by the center of town, so I walked on down to get some things for breakfast.

Look how Starbucks looks in Breckenridge. You almost miss it!

Croissants from the French bakery….

After our wonderfully lazy morning, we headed out all together to walk around and just have a very leisurely day.

By afternoon, it started to rain (some how our only rain of the trip!), and we were ready to head back inside – cuddle on the couch for a movie, do some laundry, and relax for a take out dinner. We needed to begin the trek home the next day.

We left Colorado. Did one night in Kansas, and powered through to Illinois. And I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank the people who built playgrounds at gas stations.

We were so happy to be back with Vivian and she was so happy to see us and to tell all about her adventures with family. The next day, we gave Viv a proper birthday party.

And then, it was back home.

How special was this trip? A fun adventure on the road with our boys.

That’s the stuff.

And by the way – even with your GPS you still need an Atlas for this area of the country. I had one. I loved it so much.

And also – I feel like this trip was sponsored by Subway. That’s how much we ate there. Have your feelings about it – but we needed to NOT eat junk the entire time and Subway was there for us.

We’ll never forget it.

I kinda can’t believe that we did it.

I’m so happy that we did.

OUR FEET IN THE FOREST OF THE REDWOODS

OUR FEET AT THE LAKE TAHOE BEACH

OUR FEET IN THE RED DESERT IN UTAH