TRAVEL

A major highlight of the trip this year was TUBING! MorMor bought this awesome double tube that MorFar pulled behind the motorboat. You don’t see many 4 year olds doing this (LOL!), but of course the boys loved it! Kyle especially! He had his thumb up (signal for ‘FASTER!!!’) virtually the entire time he was in the tube. It took awhile for Owen to warm up to it, but he soon discovered that he too loved tubing as long as he was snugly seated directly behind his brother! 😉 Their favorite was tubing with MorMor! (You don’t see many 50somethings doing this either LOL! —my Mom rocks!!!!)

Another major highlight of the trip this year was the Bamboo Shoots ride at StoryLand (click here). This was Owen’s favorite ride last year too, and he had been looking forward to it for 12 months! Kyle claims that the “Polar Coaster” ride was his favorite this year… but I’m not totally sure that he didn’t love the Bamboo Shoots just as much as Owen. The best part of the Bamboo Shoots was that we could all four ride it together. We got there first thing in the morning and there was no line so the four of us rode it over and over and over together about 100 times in a row. SO MUCH FUN! Meanwhile Meera was hanging out with MorMor (while MorFar took these pictures)!

The day after we returned home from NH we were all five out for lunch. Kyle and Braydon got up to go to the bathroom. Sitting there with Owen, out of the blue I said, “Owen, what was your favorite part of our trip to New Hampshire?” Given how action packed the trip was, and given how many super fun things we did, and given how into it all the boys are/were, I fully expected Owen to respond with something like “tubing!” or “bamboo shoots!” or “the motorboat!” or “the kayak!” or “swimming in the lake!” etc., etc., etc. Instead I watched him think about it for a moment, then he turned to me and said, “My favorite part was MorFar. My MorFar is so fun!” A few minutes later B & K returned to the table. I said, “Kyle, what was your favorite part of our trip to New Hampshire?” Without any hesitation he said, “Seeing MorMor and MorFar.” How sweet it is.

We’re back from our annual summer trip to New Hampshire. Click here for last year’s post for background (and go back to August 22, 2007 in the archives for last year’s photos). We spent the first night at my parents’ house and the next day having an absolute *blast* at StoryLand. Then we headed for ‘MorMor and MorFar’s Cottage’ for the remainder of our time. This –the Cottage– has got to be one of our favorite places on earth (quite possibly our most very favorite). And when I say “our” I mean all five of us. I have loved it my whole life; Braydon loves it as much as me; This was Kyle and Owen’s fourth year making this trip, and I truly don’t think any two kids could be more in love with a place than these two are with this place; And of course this year was special because it was Meera’s first trip to NH and to the Cottage. Meera travelled great (first time on a plane), and given how well she slept at the Cottage, I think it is safe to include Meera in the “our” of “our favorite place.” I’m not even going to try to explain how much fun we had and how much joy this little spot on earth gives us. It was beyond fabulous. We had the best time with MorMor and MorFar. Truly one of our best vacations ever. I have about a million photos to post, so I’ll let them do the talking (I’ll hopefully post them tomorrow) …as I write all of this, though, I can’t help but note that I feel heavy in my heart. My cousin Karen is in very critical condition with extreme stage 4 cancer. Words can’t express the tragic sadness of this. We are praying here for Karen, her husband and their two young girls, for my aunt and uncle, and for Karen’s entire extended family and network of friends. Having just returned from such an incredibly joy-filled few days at a place that has brought so much joy to five generations of my family— but feeling the weight of Karen’s pain and sorrow so heavy in my soul— it reminds me once again of the deep importance of living life to the absolute fullest. We have no time to spare.

Lots more photos! Posts are here, here, here, here, here, and here!

In early February we went to Sand Key, Florida for our last Vaca as a family of four. But two months later we were really feeling the urge to try to squeeze in another get-away B.B. (Before Baby) — not a real Vaca but a teeny tiny mini-vaca. We decided to just do it and we sprang for a weekend trip to Baltimore this past weekend. We love Baltimore. And Baltimore holds extra special meaning for us because we spent our first Adoption Day weekend there, celebrating the one-year-anniversary of being a family, in January 2006. The city is the perfect size for a quick weekend trip, it is easy to navigate with little ones, there is tons and tons to do, it is just the right distance from our house (not too close, not too far), and –probably best of all– downtown Baltimore has such a nice mix of black and white people. Now, granted, we’re still the only family walking around that looks anything remotely like we do…. and the city has all sorts of problems with segregation (what racially diverse city doesn’t?) that would make it very different to live there than to visit there…. but…. to spend a weekend hanging out in Inner Harbor Baltimore, with lots and lots of white and black people all mixed together, is really nice for our family. We had a fabulous mini-vaca with lots of highlights that included:

• A nice hotel right in the heart of the Inner Harbor (we parked the car and never got in it again)
• The hotel’s swimming pool all to ourselves on Saturday morning (turns out most people just simply aren’t doing cannonballs at 7am… nor do they want to witness two three year olds doing them at that hour)
• Beautiful 70-80 degree weather all day
• A trip to the National Aquarium
• At the aquarium, our first experience with a “4D” Immersion Theater (Owen was freaked out beyond belief and begged Braydon to take him out of the theater only 2 minutes into it; Kyle loved it and couldn’t get enough of it)
• Watching the fudge makers sing, stomp, and dance (K & O were way into it) at The Fudgery
• Frozen custard (Owen will always choose ‘vanilla with colored jimmies in a cone’ and Kyle will always choose ‘milkshake’ — always, always, always!)
• Taking the “BOAT!!!!!” (i.e., the Water Taxis) to/from Fells Point for lunch… Baltimore crabcakes at an outdoor table overlooking the water for lunch
• Incredible spectacular couldn’t-be-more-perfectly-coincidentally-PERFECT-coincidence: When our boat docked in Fells Point there was… none other than… an all-male, all-black, all-young (middle school and high school age) street musician DRUM CORE playing hard-core marching band drumming music in Fells Point Center. And… most of them had gorgeous dreadlocks! Talk about an AWESOME coincidence! We watched them and listened for close to an hour. K & O were in heaven (K especially). And…
• While watching the drumming street musicians Kyle made a cute little friend. It always amazes me how easily and quickly young kids can make friends. It is so incredibly sweet to watch and witness.
• Macaroni & cheese in the hotel room and then early to bed for an exhausted K & O. And then –while the boys slept– lovely salads, white wine (yes, I indulged, and Baby Sister approved), and cheesecake in the hotel room for H & B.
• We left Sunday morning for a visit in Delaware with our friends Ben and Ruth and their adorable baby twins Robin and Anna.

I know, I know, going on a whirlwind weekend trip to Baltimore 4.5 weeks from my due date is probably a little crazy. And admittedly, I overdid it a bit (a lot). But it was just the right thing for our family. Driving down there Friday evening Kyle started in with a new phrase we’d never heard him say before– it started when he didn’t want to stop for dinner and insisted we eat in the car — “Let’s Keep Moving!” he insisted. And then he repeated that over and over the whole weekend… no time to doddle, no time to waste… “Let’s Keep Moving!” As soon as we’d exit the aquarium, it was, “Let’s Keep Moving!” As soon as we’d finish our lunch, it was, “Let’s Keep Moving!” As soon as the light signaled we could cross the street, it was “Let’s Keep Moving!” All. Weekend. Long. I thought it was a fitting motto — for me in particular. As of yesterday I’m officially 9 months pregnant, and as much as my entire body often feels like it wants to completely shut down I’ve got Kyle’s little motto ringing in my ears: “Let’s Keep Moving!” Move along people! Move along! There’s FUN to be had! There’s too much to do in this wild, crazy world to linger! We only live once! Carpe Diem! “Let’s keep moving!”

The week before last, when we were in Sand Key, Kyle and Owen perfected the art of making “Ks.” This was incredibly exciting for both boys since prior to Sand Key they could not seem to manage to make a “K” no matter how hard they tried. It was gratifying especially for Kyle given that it is the first letter of his name and the one letter in his name that both he and Owen simply could not write. Making “Ks” in the sand was a major activity of our trip. Hundreds of them were drawn, all over the beach, by all four of us. And somehow this turned into a sort of letter-writing-breakthrough for K & O. They started writing other letters that had previously stumped them (“Rs,” “Ms,” and “Bs” for example), and then numbers too (they mastered the previously-impossible “4” when they became absolutely determined to write our hotel room number – 441 – in the sand over and over and over), and then on the last day of our trip– the elusive shape of a heart (a shape that both of them loved but neither of them could draw before we left for Florida). Somehow the sand-writing just turned a corner for them. Maybe it was because they could write so big in the sand? (instead of being constrained to paper) Or maybe it was because they could use their fingers? (instead of pencils, markers, crayons, or sidewalk chalk) Or maybe it was just the beautiful setting, the doting parents willing/able to watch them write in the sand for hours, or the glorious sunshine and warm breezes??? Who knows. Whatever it was, it was a huge breakthrough. They’ve been writing letters, numbers, and shapes like madmen ever since. They can write many/most letters now. They can both write their own names and each other’s names now. They can write Alex’s name. And they can write more and more numbers and draw more and more shapes each day. When it rains, it pours. Here, ever since we returned from Sand Key, it is pouring letters, numbers, and shapes.