Thanksgiving 2 in Yucca and Palm Springs

November 29, 2017 by

The day after Thanksgiving, we had planned to drive a few hours to Great Aunt Linda and Uncle David’s house in Yucca Valley and spend some time with them and Grammy, Grandpa and Aunt Sarah, who drove out from Utah, and Uncle Mike and Ali who drove out from Wyoming. The whirlwind of the week of Thanksgiving, however, had finally caught up with me, and I woke up feeling exhausted and like a cold was coming on. That, coupled, with feeling nauseous and dizzy from morning sickness (all-day sickness, really), was enough to keep me in bed and sadly, unable to travel.

Jake was still up for taking all three girls, however, so after summoning up the energy to get them all packed, I bid farewell as they took off on their journey through the desert. While I wish I could have come to hang out with everyone for Thanksgiving weekend, a nice, restful three-day staycation at home was just what the doctor ordered!

Meanwhile, in the desert, the girls were having a blast on their extended Daddy-Daughter date (minus the not-so-fun extra few hours in the car both ways due to traffic over the holiday). Jake and the girls stayed at a Marriott condo in Palm Desert, and met up with our family at Great Aunt Linda and Uncle David’s house upon arrival for a second Thanksgiving feast. The next morning, they met up with everyone at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Springs.

Getting the text updates at home made me miss everyone! They had so much fun riding camels and playing at the zoo that I don’t think they missed me!

Camel ride for two.

No camel ride for Meredith, so she had to settle for a ride on Daddy’s shoulders.

Silly Great Uncle David!

Posing for this picture is SO lame, Daddy.

Cheery Meredith is always up for saying a big “CHEESE!”

The adults try to catch up with Meredith.

Meredith was so excited to hold the birdies… until one bit her.

Hey, did that thing bite me?

Ouch! Whenever Meredith sees birds, she STILL talks about the “Bad birdie ouchie.”

NOT funny, Grammy!

The twins, fortunately, had a bite-free experience.

Feed the birds. Tuppence a bag.

Amelia the bird lady.

Sammy calls for one more bird.

Pizza time.

Taking a rest back at the condo after a busy day.

A pretty view, minus Jake’s monster feet.

Back in Yucca, the girls loved visiting the park by Great Aunt Linda and Uncle David’s house.

Riding the stagecoach.

Meredith got a little too dizzy spinning with Uncle Mike.

Before leaving back home, everyone met up for breakfast in town.

As a parting gift, Aunt Linda and Uncle David gave the girls a bunch of old hats from Uncle David’s mom’s house… perfect for dress up!

Jake and the girls had to take several rest stops on the way home because the holiday weekend traffic was so bad. Very glad I was not in the car with them!

When Jake and girls collapsed through the door, they looked like bedraggled travelers who had just completed a pilgrimage through the desert for months! They had a fun time, but the car ride and exhaustion from all the excitement had definitely taken its toll, especially on Jake!

Back at home, while I had spent a relaxing weekend resting and trying to curb my morning sickness, I had also torn the house apart all weekend looking everywhere, including the trash, for my wedding ring, which I had taken off while preparing Thanksgiving dinner and thought for sure it must have been accidentally thrown away! I was near hysterical when Jake and the girls returned, but fortunately, Jake found it behind one of our dressers without too much effort. I swear I had already looked there, but I blamed it on the pregnancy brain!

I missed everyone, but the girls loved their adventurous Thanksgiving and seeing our family. A big thanks to Great Aunt Linda and Uncle David for hosting, the rest of our family for helping with the girls in my absence, and Jake for letting me stay home in bed!

Lots of love,

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Thanksgiving 2017

November 26, 2017 by

Our third annual Friendsgiving with the Erpelding family was hosted at our house this year! Our two families were joined by Great Grandpa, Sheela’s mom, who was visiting from Richmond, VA and Sheela’s best friend from Richmond but who now lives in Japan with her family came into town last minute to spend time with Sheela, so we had them over too! With 20 of us, it was a full house! The older kids were awesome helping with the little ones and we split who was responsible for which dish, so with all that team effort, it was a relatively easy-going Thanksgiving!

Ready to go before the feast begins.

We brined the turkey in a huge bucket of salt water and spices two days before, patted it dry and let is sit overnight in the fridge and then roasted it for a few hours on Thanksgiving. The result was a juicy, tender and crispy on the outside turkey that everyone gobbled up.

Our friend, Michael, has a wet stone for knife sharpening and graciously agreed to sharpen all of our knives prior to Thanksgiving. Our super sharp knives felt like brand-new!

The Erpeldings brought a delicious honey-baked ham, yummy green bean casserole, yummy marshmallow sweet potato casserole, their traditionaly yummy sauerkraut, and yummy pumpkin and pecan pies. We contributed the turkey, rolls, pecan-crusted sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, mini pumpkin pie desserts for the kids and homemade apple pie from the girls’ school’s fundraiser. We all had leftovers for days! Everything was homemade, but if I had to do it over again, I would definitely outsource the rolls… no matter how many times I try them, I am not a good bread/roll maker! We were in luck that the weather was unusually warm this Thanksgiving and was 85 degrees in the afternoon! The kids worked on crafts before dinner and because they seemed content playing outside, the adults went ahead and started eating first, inside.

Halfway through our dinner, the kids all decided they were hungry, so we took a little break to dish everyone up and let them loose outside where they feasted at their kids’ tables. Meredith sat inside on Sheela’s lap and ate, along with Ulala’s adorable baby, Emi, in the high chair.

Samantha and Owen dine together.

Lily put together a fun montage of photos she took, which was great since I was so busy hosting that I didn’t get any pictures! The Musicaly app she uses has a time limit, so you have to pause to look at all the pictures closely!

After dinner, the kids partied in the hot tub and pool. I’m sure our neighbors were wondering what kind of raucous Thanksgiving we were having!

I was in the kitchen getting out the desserts, when all of a sudden, I heard a loud chorus of “Pie! Pie! Pie!” coming from outside. Apparently, the kids were out of the pool and ready for dessert!

Samantha, Sheela, Amelia, Avery and Meredith

Great Grandpa and Meredith with their tummies full!

Our biggest ever Friendsgiving was a huge success thanks to everyone’s team work. We’re thankful to have such great family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of love,

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November in a nutshell

November 18, 2017 by

A random compilation of pre-Thanksgiving photos from November!

We begin with all of the festive Thanksgiving-themed school projects, including these very cute and useful laminated placemats:

More turkey projects:

Joyriding on a crisp fall day in the Barbie Jeep.

The night the girls most look forward to during the week is Friday night, which is movie night at our house. I won an air popper at the preschool’s annual dinner fundraiser, so the girls have enjoyed popping their own corn and don’t seem to mind the lack of butter or salt. We just eat it straight up plain!

My dreams of seeing Hamilton came true! I didn’t think I’d survive the drive up to LA since I was in the throes of morning sickness, but I had been dying to see this show forever and wasn’t going to let some pesky nausea and extreme fatigue stop me, even though this was the latest I had been out in months! We had some yummy tapas at a restaurant in the theater district before meeting our friends, Sheela and Todd, at the show.  I don’t often say anything is really worth the drive to LA, but this was definitely an exception. Best. Musical. Ever.

Samantha and Amelia did their best to smile and not look tortured in their school photos.

 

Meredith hangs with her bestie, Maple, whom she lovingly refers to as “May May.” They are hilarious together! One minute they are throwing sand and pushing each other, and the next they are hugging and kissing bye bye. Meredith frequently asks where May May is when we go to the park and she’s not there, and sometimes asks to bless May May in her prayers.

The twins started ice skating lessons, and despite spills and struggles the first few weeks, they love it. Ice skating is one of the few lessons we’ve tried that they are super excited to go to each week, probably because Jake buys them hot chocolate afterwards.

Daddy Daughter date at the Spectrum. I believe I was at a doctor’s appointment on this particular excursion and when I picked them up, I notice they were wearing new pants that we don’t own. They explained that Amelia had an accident, so instead of thinking to go to the car where I keep extra clothes, Jake just ran into one of the stores and bought them new undies and pants.

Livin’ la vida loca.

Meredith is obsessed with her dollies.

There’s an orange grove within biking distance of our house and the girls love to bike there, bringing big sacks of oranges home with them. The ride home is uphill all the way, so they are always exhausted when they get back.

Just past the orange grove is a fun little “Exploration Park” the girls like.

Showing off those strong muscles.

Gymnastics practice.

Thanksgiving potluck time! The hour of setting up, serving a class of hungry preschoolers and directing them to help clean up is tiring! I didn’t even get a chance to go say hi to Amelia in her class since her class is smaller and they were on to storytime by the time I got there. It seemed like every kid in this class asked for demanded two or three more helpings of everything… and then wasted it all! Argh! There was so much food that I wanted to take a few dishes home and call Thanksgiving done!

A few nighttime shenanigans:

Jake filmed this at 1 a.m. one night after Samantha had vomited and Amelia had woken up, startled and crying incoherently.  Apparently, she wanted to throw up too! Good times.

Lots of love,

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The Color Run

November 5, 2017 by

On a sunny weekend in November, we spent a few days in San Diego, renting an Air Bnb with our friend, Lucero, and her kiddos, Kennedy and Sebastian. We were there for a 5k fun run, the Color Run, at the football  stadium, but Samantha, Amelia and Meredith were most excited about having a sleepover party with their friends!

We stayed at the cutest beach rental, right across the street from the beach, and the kids loved their “hotel.” Sebastian stayed with Lucero in their room, we had the perfect little closet space to put Meredith inside her pack n play in our room, and the twins plus Kennedy had their very own couch bed. The girls fell asleep to a movie and everything seemed to go okay, until about 12 a.m., when Amelia randomly woke up crying/screaming and wandering to our room. She took forever to fall asleep again, at which point, Kennedy was fed up and slept in her mom’s room. Needless to say, we were all a little cranky in the morning, except for Meredith who slept peacefully in her closet.

Despite a bad night’s sleep, we got to the stadium bright and early for the 5k Color Run.

The kids were super excited about their swag, especially the gold glitter tattoos.

Ready, set, go!

The course was set up outside the football stadium, and wasn’t the most scenic of 5ks I’ve ever done, but what it lacked in scenery, it made up for in fun!

I did my best to run in spite of feeling not the greatest due to morning sickness and pregnancy fatigue. But fortunately, I kept just the right pace with the kids! Kennedy ran almost the entire way, while the twins, Meredith and Sebastian ventured out from their comfy strollers occassionally when we made them get out and run.

At each check point, volunteers stand on the sidelines throwing little balls that burst with colored powder, hence the “Color Run.”

But the best part was one of the checkpoints that featured an awesome bubble party! Definitely the favorite.

Meredith was not a fan of all the bubbles and screamed when she got wet. She refused to come out of her stroller and play with the other kids.

We made them run the last stretch and they complained the entire way.

Amelia shows off her medal.

Even though they said the powder was non-toxic and safe for pregnant people, I still didn’t want to breathe it in, so I brought a bandana to cover my face anytime there was a color bomb that burst.

The girls’ favorite part of any fun run is all the free stuff they can grab afterwards. The Color Run had some particularly popular swag, including fruit pouches, flavored sparkling water, snacks, epsom salts, protein bars and beauty products. Lucero and I grabbed as much as we could and stuffed all of it in our strollers.

After a quick lunch stop at In n Out, we showered off all that color back at the beach rental and walked across the street to the beach. The kids had a blast making an epic pool in the sand.

We were sad Lucero and kids had to go back home that day, but we hung out at the beach and stayed at the rental an extra night.

Samantha the tree climber.

The next night of sleep was significantly better than the first. It seems like whenever we go anywhere, the girls have a hard time adjusting to the new sleeping quarters, sights, sounds, etc., and never get good sleep! Everyone was so exhausted the second night that they conked out and slept in the next day. We walked around town, ate breakfast and hit the beach before heading home.

Cupcakes, anyone?

Sad to leave!

Super sad to leave!

Lots of love,

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