sick

During the month of August, our weekends seemed cursed! We had two failed excursions back to back!

Disaster #1: Riding the trolley in Laguna Beach.

Being a yearly rite of passage, riding the trolley had been on the girls’ summer bucket list and I had been putting it off since we generally avoid Laguna in the summer at all costs. Between the influx of tourists and school being out, there’s an epic amount of traffic until Labor Day, turning a 20 minute drive into 40+, in addition to the fun of having no parking and being packed like sardines at the most popular beaches. During the summer, we tend to go south to the lesser known San Clemente beaches or up to Newport Coast, which has longer stretches of sand, more nature and less city. However, every year, we’ve braved the crowds and have ridden the trolley once every summer and figured with the start of school approaching, now was as good a time as any.

Last year’s trolley ride and walk down to Victoria Beach Castle in Laguna featured an epic fail of trying (and failing) to catch the trolley, but at least we had a scenic reward at the end:

So little last year!

This year, traffic was reasonable and we got lucky finding parking right next to a trolley stop. With the Arts Festival going on and it being Satuday night, the trolleys were running slow and we had to wait a good 30 minutes for one. Once it arrived, the girls were ecstatic to hop on.

Meredith rotated from seat to seat, sitting with random strangers and hugging people’s knees as she toddled her way down the aisle and back up. This was a small taste of what riding on an airplane would have been like with her…

The passengers gave a collective groan each time the trolley driver stopped to pick up more people. What started out as a reasonably full trolley soon became uncomfortably close quarters as the trolley let on more and more beachgoers, including a hoard of obnoxious middle school boys, another group of middle school girls who rolled eyes continuously at said boys, and a few dozen elderly tourists. It was hot, stinky, and the girls were completely melting down with hunger and boredom by the time we got off. Our mistake was staying on the trolley too long… instead of getting off at the first place to eat we saw, we decided to keep going closer to the downtown where there were more places to walk around. A 30 minute trolley ride with three hangry little girls was a recipe for disaster!

Meredith lightened the mood and cracked up all the passengers when she grabbed my phone and continously took selfies for 20 minutes, yelling, “Cheeeeeeeeeese!” the entire time.

We’ve never been so happy to get off a trolley! With the trolley now out of their system, our next stop was to find food: fast! We stopped at a healthy looking Mediterranean fast food place and while the food was decent enough, I was not happy when the bill totaled way more than the menu had stated. After expressing my confusion, the cashier explained that the prices of the salads we had ordered were not up on their menu, but that they were $15… talk about a scam!

He also had the audacity to comment that he couldn’t understand why our girls would be throwing a fit about having water instead of a soda (hangry and starving, the twins had seen sodas (which they never, ever have) in the cooler and when I ordered waters, their last shred of patience exploded and they started pitching a fit). Thank you for your parenting advice, random cashier worker. None of us were happy walking out of there and we ate our chicken skewers, basmati rice and the aforementioned overpriced salad in subdued silence by the beach.

Playtime before hopping back on the trolley.

The way back on the trolley was a much shorter trip, but not without its mishaps. Halfway through the ride, our trolley got hit by a car from the behind, sending Meredith and me, who were standing in the aisle, flying forward. No one got hurt, but the trolley driver had to pull over and call in the accident, which equated to an extra twenty-five minutes sitting on the non-moving trolley with three overtired and claustrophobic minions.

The black Audi that hit the trolley didn’t even pull over and zoomed away around the corner, so we were all venting about the hit and run while waiting for the driver to start back up. Thankfully, the good people of the trolley took turns passing Meredith back and forth over the seats. She loves people-watching and interacting with everyone and anyone! Meanwhile, the twins had moved seats a few rows back and were chatting it up with a little boy. Meredith made good friends with a twelve-year-old girl sporting a tiara… apparently they had gone out with her family to celebrate her birthday and her present was going to Paris. She had been earning the money for her trip since she was nine years old and was definitely an inspiration to the twins!

Our failed trolley ride excursion over, we limped back to our car and got home in record time to put everyone to bed. The very next day, Samantha broke her arm, further adding to our no good, very bad weekend!

Weekend Fail #2: The week after our failed trolley ride, Samantha became ill with a random fever. By the weekend, her fever was gone, but she was still feeling out of sorts. Amelia and Meredith seemed unaffected so Jake decided to get them out of the house and took them to a craft project at Michael’s. Parker, Maple, Phi and her sister, Mindy, were all there for the craft too and the girls had a blast painting kindness rocks and painting their names on canvas.

Phi texted me this picture a few minutes before Amelia threw up. Yes, threw up… in the aisles of Michael’s! Jake called me from the road saying, “We’re coming in hot… Amelia threw up and we need some soup ready!”

Apparently, everything was fine until Amelia started saying she felt cold and that her tummy hurt. While walking out, she threw up in the aisle, and thankfully, Phi was there to grab Meredith and help everyone to the car! I felt bad for not being there to help, but also grateful I wasn’t there to see that! Poor Amelia looked so pale when she got home and could barely slurp down any soup. Everyone took a record 4 hour nap and for the rest of the weekend Amelia, and then Meredith, went back and forth with fevers, chills, and coughing.

We usually do family movie night on Fridays, but this weekend and into the week, we watched a movie pretty much every day while the sicklings recovered. Even when sick, Meredith has a crazy amount of energy!

Doing pull-ups on the TV bar while watching 101 Dalmations.

Three little sick girls spent a lot of time sleeping that weekend and while we cancelled our weekend plans, it was nice just to lounge (especially when everyone was taking epically long naps). Hopefully, we’ve reached our quota of failed weekends for the coming months.

Lots of love,

The last two weeks of September were not our finest moments of 2016. First, the twins came down with a cold that wasn’t severe enough to curb their energy levels too much, but was bad enough that I kept them home from preschool for a day and we pretty much stayed at or near home for the rest of the week while they recovered. I like staying home, but there’s something about being forced to be at home that makes everyone go stir crazy. Let’s just say the days were long!

After a week of being constantly informed that, “I HAVE SNOT! I NEED A TISSUE!” Samantha and Amelia slowly regenerated to normal energy levels (read: bouncing off the walls) and desperately needed to get out of the house/back to their regular scheduled programming. Just when they were on the upswing, Meredith and I caught the dreaded disease and felt miserable together. Cue another week of chicken noodle, tomato, and potato leek soup on repeat.

As everyone knows, there ain’t no sick days for momma, so I dragged my pitiful self around, trying to keep the twins alive and Meredith comforted. The poor thing needed to get a nice steaming next to the shower every few hours because she was so congested. Still, she was remarkably happy for being up all night and sneezing all day.

Jake was the sole survivor and entertained me by texting memes during the week, while I alternated between feeling very sorry for myself and thinking, “C’MON, SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Despite being holed up at home, it gave us an excuse to cuddle up and watch movies, read books, play board games and just hang out. If it weren’t for the coughing, congestion, and general sense of doom and gloom, it would have been quite pleasant!

Lots of garage playroom time.

The twins generally felt well enough to play at the neighborhood park for twenty minutes, after which they were cranky, achy, tired, and in dire need of chicken noodle soup. Either that, or I ran out of tissues and we had to go home.

Something on my face? Who, me?

One benefit of having no agenda for the day was that the girls had to use their creativity skills to keep busy.

Our saving grace while I was feeling sick was having a little bit of rest time while the girls were at preschool. Meredith, of course, was bored to tears, and was always so happy to pick up the twins!

I call it, “Maniacal Baby Troll Doll Murders Berries.”

When we were too tired to go to the park, but getting cabin fever inside, we caught up on some much-needed gardening. We harvested buckets of tomatoes, green peppers, and zucchini, which unfortunately didn’t fare that well due to a caterpillar invasion. The twins helped me catch them all and we drowned them in soapy water– without remorse.

After the girls had gotten over their cold, but while Meredith and I were in the beginning stages of feeling horrible, I dragged myself out to take the girls to their gymnastics evaluation. Not sure what they did to earn their medal, but they were proud! Ever since they watched Team USA during the Olympics, they have a renewed zeal for gymnastics and tell me it’s their favorite class.