Disneyland...Also Known As The Vacation That Wore Us Down

Though I've failed to properly document our last few vacations, I'm happy to report that our most recent one will be on the books! Here goes....

After a whirlwind day before setting off for Disney (recap - Dylan's school performance, couple of hours of work, Luci to vet and Cade to orthopedist), we finally made our trek to the airport. It had been a long day. Cade had not napped much and our flight was scheduled to leave at 6. All was going well until we boarded the plane. Cade was in the front pack I often carry him in and I while I was slipping into our row of seats, I banged my head pretty hard then Cade started screaming. After many minutes of inconsolable crying paired with trashing around, I had to surmise that I had somehow hurt him too when I banged his head. Perhaps leaning over in that position hurt his already hurting hips? Did he hurt his head too?

Sitting in our seats trying to calm him down was very discouraging. I mentioned to the flight attendant that I thought he was hurt. She said that if we really thought so we would need to deboard...once in flight there would be no access to medical attention. What to do, what to do? In the next few minutes (mind you, this had been going on for well over 20 minutes at this point), super Dad Mike finally got Cade to settle into his shoulder and stop fussing. With the worst case scenario being and ER doctor (my cousin, Allen) at the other end of the flight, we stayed put and took off.

Turns out Cade was fine. What we had witnessed was Cade discovering a temper tantrum. Fueled by lack of regular napping, this (unfortunately) is something we witnessed several more times over the next week. As luck would have it, the tantrums always happened at convenient locations such as on the airplane or in the middle of Disneyland. You know, the kind of places where the ideal treatment of said tantrum (staying nearby and letting them ride it out) was not able to happen. Joy.

Following our long plane trip there, ridiculously long wait for luggage, equally long wait for a rental car, long ride to our rental house (with lovely detour due to the highway being closed), the whole family got to sleep around midnight west coast time (3am our time). Best way to adjust to time change is to hop right into it. We weren't all raring to go at 6am but my kids have crazy accurate internal clocks and don't sleep late regardless of what time they go down. In this case, they did sleep late by our usual time clock, but were still up around 8am California time. What better way to keep tired kids as entertained and happy as possible then at Disneyland?

My parents were joining for the trip to see the wedding.
We all got a house together for the week.

Dylan wanted to stay in the stroller all morning. Tired boy.

One of Cade's favorite toys to play with is a Goofy figurine. His admiration for the life size guy was even larger. Goofy made that little guy happy several times throughout our trip.

Cade Meets Goofy

He almost threw a fit while we were in line to meet him because we wouldn't let him go to the front to see him (tough thing about that age....don't quite understand concept of lines and waiting yet). Once we were up there, he didn't want to leave.

When we finally pried him away from Goofy, we headed to some rides. Dylan was excited (finally coerced him to leave the stroller) and Cade was less than thrilled...until the ride got going.

First Ride!

After that, it was a delicate balance of more rides, keeping kids happy, trying to let sleeping baby sleep and having a good time.

Cade also loves Buzz Lightyear
(He's actually holding a Buzz toy in his hand in this picture.)
This was in line for the ride...he wouldn't take his eyes off Buzz!

The Hines Family on the Ride
We have one of these at the house with just Mike and I and then
one with Mike, Dylan and I. This will join the others.

Cade had a nice snooze on me while the rest
of the group rode the Star Wars ride.
I hung out in the gift shop a the ride exit.
This is how I entertained myself.

Sunscreen and Water Break

Cade, Mike and Pipaw on Mr. Toad's Wilde Ride

Watch Out! Dylan's Driving

Cade and I on Dumbo.
It was hot...hence the red cheeks.

One of the coolest parts about the day was getting to hang with my cousin Allen, aka the Father of the Bride, for a while. Weddings are great events to see family but it's often so crazy that quality time with them doesn't happen. It was nice to be able to see him face to face and get to chat while waiting in lines for a few rides he came on with us. But we didn't push our luck too much. Once the kids really started fading, we decided to head out but not before stopping to watch the afternoon parade for a bit.

My parents stayed on to enjoy the park more and we went home and enjoyed chilling in our rental house. A little dinner, a little kid movie and it was early to bed for all of us. The next day was the wedding....the whole point of this trip! Hopefully after a good night's sleep, the boys would be in good form for the event.

Cade and his new pillow buddy, Rex.

Recharging the Parental Batteries

Last Friday, the sun came out....both literally and figuratively. Thursday night and morning the boys were both well and happy. The rain stopped and we finally got a little vitamin D in our systems. And Luci had a follow up appointment with the ophthalmologist who was absolutely shocked...in a good way. Her eye had improved so much that her initial grim diagnosis was no more. Looks like Luci will be keeping her eye!

I also got a much needed break. Since I was scheduled to host a shower\birthday party on Saturday, Mike took the boys up to NH solo and I got the night to myself. I went on a long, leisurely dinner with a friend, slept in, went for a run, did a little yoga, showered all by myself and ran some errands. It was so luxurious! After the party, I made the drive up to meet my boys. They both had stayed up late to get to see me..what a treat for both of us.

The next day was Father's Day. We needed\wanted something to fill our time for the morning until our meeting with the builder. We had a leisurely breakfast, let Cade have his morning nap and then we headed up to Franconia Notch to check out The Basin. With all the rain we've been having, we thought it would be a good place to go. And it did not disappoint! 

First though, we loaded the car seats in the mini for our first family convertible ride.

Look! We all fit!

Dylan loved riding with the top down. With the boys in the back, we put the top up for our highway portion of the ride and Dylan kept asking if we were still on the highway...he was ready for some more wind! We parked and made the short walk to the basin and then explored the pathways around it. The boys had a great time watching the water.

Us at the Basin

Dylan's been into crazy posing lately. 

Ready, Set, Go!
Cade's favorite game.

On the rock...is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's super Dylan!

Dad With His Boys

Rock Throwing Time

Love this pic

I need longer arms....
and apparently be more aware of where my youngest's are!
(He looks scared...did he think I was going to drop him?)

Cade found a better place to hang on

Then it was time to head to the new place to meet with the builder and check progress. I hope I don't jinx myself, but this has been a pretty drama free building process. I've heard so many nightmares. Thus far, our builder has been wonderful to work with and awesome with the time line. Sure it's still been stressful due to the mass amounts of decisions that need to be made in a small amount of time, but I don't think we could have asked for a better experience. Two thirds of the way through.

Garage Foundation

Our New Place
Actually is starting to look like a house.

85% Drywalled
Talked to the builder today and said they're now 100% done.

Our big wrap around deck has started.
As of today, the builder said they're done.

Part of our incredible view.
I got out on the partially finished deck to get a first glimpse of our view.
Until now, we've only been able to imagine the true vantage point.

The Back

The rest of our Father's Day adventure consisted of packing up, getting home and hanging out. Since Mike had been solo with the boys, he got to drove in the convertible home and I drove back with the kiddos. He then had the luxury of having a whole hour to himself once we got back to the house. He chose to spend that time playing video games. Quite the party animals, aren't we? We both get some rare time of total freedom and I choose dinner and he chooses video games. After our last month of complete chaos and more unpleasant moments than we cared for, it was great time for both of us that we needed to recharge our batteries a bit.

On The Side

Last time I filled you in on all of our main courses that are keeping us busy. Here are a "few" other things that have been keeping us busy as well.

We refinanced the house. This in itself is not that huge of a deal but with general chaos going on, it was a true pain in the you know what to gather up all the needed paperwork. And, of course, just when you think you're done, they need even more info. That was a couple of weeks and several dozen emails back in forth before we then had to take a couple of hours to travel to the closing location and sign paperwork.

We bought a new car! If you know my car purchasing past, you know I'm the kind of gal that likes a fast, sporty car to drive. Well, my Murano, while a great family car, definitely does not fit the fast\sporty bill. Since our cars are both paid off and we had a 3rd bay of the garage to fill, I wanted something fun. However, we have to house other things besides cars in our garage besides cars (like lawn mower, trash, recycling, tricycles, stroller, etc) so it need to be pretty small to be able to fit everything in. Also, even though it would mostly be a car for me to commute in, I still wanted to be able to fit in the whole family when need be. And, if you're getting an extra car, might as well go totally impractical and get a convertible. There weren't a lot of cars on the market that fit that criteria. This is what we ended up getting:

Yep, a Mini! The decision took a while because we started out looking at used and couldn't find something we would be happy with. After looking into how well the car retains its value, we bit the bullet and went with new. And, with Mini, you can pretty easily customize just about everything. So, about the same time we started picking out finishings for a new condo, we were picking and choosing all the details we wanted in our car. It only took about 3 weeks to build and then a couple more to get shipped to the states and make it's way to the northeast. We picked it up last Saturday and so far it is proving to be a VERY fun car to drive! I'm going to enjoy this convertible thing this summer.

And speaking of designing things, there was one aspect in our house I knew I wanted to change when we bought the place. The mudroom set up just didn't work for us. There's great space for storage but they essentially built a big closet as the mudroom and we need an open space. After over a year of assessing our needs and thinking of how I wanted it arranged, the light bulb finally went off and I came up with a preliminary plan. However, the final touches definitely needed the hand of a professional so I brought in a good friend of mine who has been helping us with cabinet design, layout and finishing touches. At this point we have a pretty finalized design but still need to pick out cabinet design and new flooring (I absolutely hate the tile that's in there now). So, this means we'll hopefully have a new mudroom space ready to go by the end of summer. But, before then, still more decisions to make and then the fun part of dirty\messy construction.

Also on the redesign front, there are a couple of things not working for us in the master closet. Fixing the issue had me stumped so my mudroom designer friend recommended her closet designer friend. We had a meeting with her and she gave us a total redesign at a huge cost. So, we contacted the original installation company of our closet and met with him about some more economical, less involved tweaks that could make the closet work for us more. Still waiting on his design and pricing.

In addition to the projects brought upon by ourselves, the boys have had some extra appointments taking up a good amount of time. First, Dylan. He's had a very long term issue of gagging and throwing up. After a good week of it happening daily, we decided it was time to get some help. Kind of a long story but here's the short version: pediatrician recommended specialist, went to specialist and wasted about 4 hours with no info other than scheduling, a reflux medication and more appointments made. Reflux meds was a drama to itself (gagging issues mixed with gross medicine...it was quite the trial trying to get that down him for a couple of weeks). Next appointment did barium swallow to check for blockage (nothing there) then met with a different GI specialist about where to go from here. We got a new reflux medicine (which has been much better to work with) and are still trying to determine our next step (therapy, stay\get off meds, give it more time to see if he grows out of it).

Next, Cade. Poor little Cade has had a rough month. One soccer Sunday morning I was solo with the boys and realized that Cade would not walk. Kind of disturbing to say the least. I took him on a Sunday visit to the pediatrician and the diagnosis was toxic synovitis. That means the snotty nose he'd had the day before caused his body to send out its healing powers but they sent them to the wrong place....his hips which caused fluid to build up and him to be very uncomfortable walking. Poor guy! After him having that on and off for over 10 days, we went back then were send to an orthopedic. Like taking a car to the mechanic for an issue, his exam there went fine. Whatever the cause of his walking discomfort (toxic synovitis, minor fracture or some sort of sprain), he was deemed ok to go on vacation. Oh, did I mention we traveled to a wedding in California last week? The day we left for that vacation was also the day we saw the orthopedic, went to Dylan's final day of school performance (more later) and also took Luci to the vet. It was quite the crazy day.

Also on the health front, Luci. Poor Luci. 2 weeks ago, just before leaving for our trip, Luci's eye looked strange so we needed her to get seen before we left. Her diagnosis was uveitis. We were given some eye drops and instructed to come back a few days later to have it rechecked. Thank goodness we have an awesome cat sitter that was willing to not only medicate her but take her to the vet for us. The eye was getting worse. More meds and instructions to make an appointment with an ophthalmologist. That appointment happened just after we got back late last week. Unfortunately, it's not good news. The ultrasound showed a mass on her iris which is most likely due to an underlying issue. If the eye doesn't heal completely very soon, Luci will have to go in for more tests. Next step is a chest xray to check for a larger issue. If there's no larger issue, then they'll "just" have to remove her eye! That was shocking news that really threw us off guard. Poor thing. So, it's an ongoing current issue that I'll definitely keep you guys update on.

All of this stuff has been occupying almost every second of every day since March. With the change of season, we also had to plan a few things for summer. Dylan finished up his first year of preschool and gave a smashingly awesome final performance on his last day of school. It was really great. But, on to planning summer activities. We researched a few fun things for Dylan do to this summer with his neighbors and friends and managed to even register for a couple of them.

Preschool Performance
(Dylan, bottom row second from left)

Cade enjoyed the performance and had a great time clapping.

My Baby!

Best Friend Isabella and Dylan

They are too cute together!

Cade loves playing with them too.

Dylan with His Teachers: Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Wombolt

To kick off our family summer season, we went (as I said earlier) to California for my cousin's wedding. It happening at Disneyland, of course we had to stay a few more days and play. While we have some wonderful memories of the trip and were so incredibly happy to get to spend some time celebrating with family, it was one of the more exhausting weeks of my life (will have much more to say about that trip another time). And, it being our "vacation" and "break" from the real world made coming back to all these things feel like getting repeatedly pummeled in the chest.

The last few months have been nothing short of hectic, fast paced, exhausting, wonderful and very trying. So many good things happening and wrenches constantly being thrown our way has definitely been keeping us on our toes (and probably adding a few more grays to our hair). Once this duplex is finished we are planning to have a (much deserved) week of hanging there and playing. The thought of that week keeps me chugging along.

Trying to Stay Afloat

Seems I just can't keep up with blogging these days. It was such a high priority for me to journal our lives here for so long that I didn't let things like busy days and fatigue hold me back from getting the latest post up. The last few months however have been quite the flood of activity and we find ourselves just trying to ride the wave as best we can and focus on what absolutely has to be done that day. Blogging, well, is one of those things that really never "needs" to be done and, therefore, it hasn't.

You might find yourself wondering what has been making us all kinds of busy. Well, on my last post I briefly mentioned that we found a new place for us in New Hampshire. This means we'll be selling our current one. For anyone that's ever sold a property, you know what a pain it is to get the place ready to sell. Yep, a big pain. All those little minor things that need to be attended to on your place now all need to be attended to right now. Add to it that the place is a 2 hour drive from where we actually live and all that stuff must be done on the weekends while juggling 2 young kids and their naps and general craziness in a too small for us space. Nutty.

Also add that the place needs to be listed as fully furnished. So there's been a big switcheroo of furniture. The must keep pieces have been divided up between bring back to our house and a storage unit up north. Those pieces then had to be replaced at the condo so we've been doing a good bit of bargain hunting on craiglist for replacements. The place was officially listed a couple of weeks ago. Cross your fingers for us that it goes quickly or we're going to have to deal with renting it out...not such a desirable situation for us.

Now, for the new place. Did we find a beautiful ready to move in place that would make the transition easy on us? Of course not! When we were looking we fell madly in love with the view of one of the condos but didn't love some of the finishings. Well, wouldn't you know it, the condo complex had new units being added. Even though I really didn't want to buy this year (after having a chaotic last year plus with new house, new baby, cat death, etc), Mike and I both agreed we couldn't let that view pass us by. When we talked about finding a new place, a good view was at the top of the list and this one was just better than either of us could have imagined in our wildest dreams. We'll have a panoramic view of the mountain range - the center being the gorgeous Welch\Dickey peaks we hike almost every year.

The View From Our Bedroom Window
Serisously, the pictures don't even start to give it justice. It's breathtaking!

The condo being a new build, we had meetings with the builder to make sure we wanted to do this, chats with the neighbors on their experiences building, the usual real estate negotiations, research on costs of some items....and that was all before the purchase and sell was signed. Then it was on to choosing finishings. As the condo is in progress we're still doing that. Most of the big decisions have been made but today, for example, Mike went out to choose some granite slabs for our kitchen and we have to sit down and finalize paint colors tonight. Always a deadline to meet on that front.

Cade checking out the job site. This photo is from our first visit after they started building.
The foundation had been poured before we even made an offer.

We've also had to shop for all our furniture. I know it seems too early to stress over that but trust me, it had to be done proactively. Some of our build decisions were based on furniture measurements. Also, given that there aren't exactly a lot of places that deliver up in the boonies, we had to scout out all stores that were our options and go with just one to keep delivery costs down and attempt to streamline that process. Some of our furniture had 12 week lead times and the build time of the condo is only 14 weeks...not a lot of spare time. Things are trucking along on the build and we are scheduled to close mid July. We are VERY excited!

Our last visit there was very rainy and the boys had a great time
splashing in the puddles in the basement. This was just over two
weeks ago and (to give you an idea of progress), the duplex is
now weather tight and drywall is going up.

Selling and buying have been the main courses on our plates but there have been plenty on the side. That was just a lot of words to read (and type) so I'll let your eyes take a break and fill ya in on more later. Now, I need to go check out some paint wheels....

Good Bye Winter, Hello (Middle Of) Spring!

Hi Folks!

Long time no blog, huh? This is by far the longest blogging vacation I've ever taken. I truly hope I'm not losing my motivation for this little project because I love having this venue as a sort of family journal. It's probably no surprise that a big reason I've been MIA is because we have been extremely busy. I'll get to some of that later. For now, I have this very special event to blog about that happened back in April - Dylan's first snow shoeing trip! Well, the first one that he took not on my back at least. 

We had a hard time getting to our beloved NH getaway this winter. Our December cruise, holidays, another vacation in Florida in January kept us away for a while. Then there was a long period of time where the timing of bad weather kept us home. Seems like this winter was one for Friday afternoon snowstorms....not an ideal time to be driving! Finally, in early March (just before my last blog entry of my girls weekend occurred), we got up to the mountains just in time to enjoy the last of the winter season.

It was actually fairly warm but still a good base of snow. We headed out to the trail behind our condo to see how the waterfall was fairing. The path was well mushed down. The depth definitely didn't require snowshoes but the many patches of hard ice made having the crampons underneath the snowshoes very handy to have on. Dylan started out super excited and energized and then lost interest about 20 minutes into our trek.

Thank god for all the puddles we discovered just after that point because splashing in them re energized him.

Splash!

He made it all the way to the waterfall. It was still well frozen over despite the fact that we didn't even need our coats on.

There's a waterfall hidden in there somewhere.

See! Water!

Cade Enjoyed the Ride

Dylan struck the "peace man!" pose without any prompting for this pic at the top of the falls.

Dylan made it about half way back to the house when he tuckered out and I carried him the rest of the way. So Mike didn't make it through without having to carry a kid for a while.

The day after our snowshoeing trip, we met with our realtor. As much as we love our condo, it's time to face the fact that we've outgrown it. When we bought it, it was just Mike and I. Obviously, our family has doubled since then. We barely fit comfortably in it and a big reason we enjoy the place is having friends there which has just become too crowded to do. I was looking forward to a year of no big changes (moves, babies, pets dying, etc) but we figured we should start looking so that we're comfortable with the market and can pull the trigger when the perfect place finally came along.

After seeing the range of properties around several towns in our area, wouldn't you know it, we found a place we couldn't live without. The trigger was going to get pulled! The place is a story in itself so I'll save it for another day. After taking so long of a break, I can't give you all of our life events in one post now, can I?