5.24.21 - Kid snippets: Look, here's the deal

When Clara wants to explain something complicated, she starts with "Look, here's the deal."

My dad says that all the time, but Clara is hardly ever around him. I didn't think I said it much if ever, but idk where else she'd get it.

4.16.20 - Joy status: piano practice, pickup truck, fireplaces

Joy Inventory: listening to Sola and then Rocket practice piano (in particular Rocket is learning Hedwig's Theme); driving my dad's big pickup truck; the rearview camera on my dad's big pickup truck making me a much better driver; a cozy fireplace on this, another snowy day; having friends who disagree/discuss well; generous and supportive in-laws; and, always, Diet Coke.

5.24.19 - Ellen's graduation

I didn't have time to write a full blog post, but highlights:

It was very sweet watching Ellen walk across the stage and get "hooded." Can't believe she has an MD finally. So much work. I'm really proud of her. I thought she looked incredibly sophisticated in her graduation attire. I'm extra proud of her because she doesn't have a doctor or even PhD in the family (unlike nearly everyone who graduated) and I think that speaks to her particular resilience, confidence, and hard work compared to people who came from families with more pedigree and experience. She's a freaking BAMF.

Ellen on the top step because she now has the most advanced degree.

Lunch after the graduation was a lot of fun, actually. Dad, Jill, Rocket, Ellen, Igor, and I all went to a pretty nice sandwich place (Steubens) and had a pretty funny conversation about the use of the word "like" in conversation. Had a great time, also had a chocolate malt.

Other highlights of the visit before that included Ellen making spinach sausage loaf, ridiculous amounts of giggles on the drive home from a taqueria dinner (I was the only sober one, Mom and Julie were giggling at everything, it was pretty funny), and giving Ellen her med school scrapbook and enjoying her and other people enjoying it. I love making a good scrapbook.

11.21.18 - Thanksgiving (for us)

Because Neil, Emily, and the Wolks had to leave Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday.

First of all, it was great for my family to stay at the Air Bnb. It's like a two minute drive from Dad's house, as opposed to a 40 minute drive between the ranch and Dad's house. We got to sleep in until the kids woke up naturally, and when they did wake up we didn't have to worry about waking anyone else up. I gave them a bowl of Cheerios which they happily ate together and we turned on the big screen TV for them to watch Super Simple Songs. They both seemed pretty impressed with that huge TV, which is on a table only a couple feet off the ground. For them it's probably like a mini movie screen. We got ready to go in our own time and then drove the very short drive back to Tejon.

When we arrived Dad was making pies. Zoey, Rocket, and Sola were cutting hearts, stars, and flowers out of extra pie dough to make pretty pie toppings. There was a lot of flour around, and I let the kids know that because Clara has celiac she can't touch the flour and if she does she has to wash her hands. They seemed to understand and take it seriously. I like when kids get to the age where they feel sort of honored at being given real responsibility.

I was also gratified to see how seriously Dad was taking it. A year ago when we arrived for Thanksgiving he went to hug Clara while he was covered in flour (he just didn't remember), but in contrast this year when the older kids were done with pie decorations he instructed Rocket to go to the master bathroom, change all his clothes, and wash off his hands and arms. He also had Rocket get Zoey a chance of clothes, all so that they wouldn't likely get flour on Clara. Dad still had several hours to go in the kitchen, and so he kept reminding people to please keep Clara out of the kitchen because of the flour. It is a relief to see the people around us take her Celiac seriously and make sure she's protected. Of course when she's a bit older it will be much easier because she will understand and keep an eye out for herself, but right now when she doesn't get it the extra eyes help.

Not long after we got there, Jack took the kids and Julie and I walked to Safeway to get contact solution for her and gluten free pizza for Clara. After we walked past her old house and then back to Tejon, visiting the whole way, mostly talking about marriage and kids. It's good to have a sibling that can relate on that level.

The next few hours were actually pretty relaxed. I visited with Dad and Jill and whoever was in the kitchen/dining area while helping Dad prep different dishes. Jane napped for a long time on Dad's bed. Clara played very happily either directly with the other kids or near them with the fake food, especially the ice cream scoops and cones, which she loved. Jack even found time to do a couple quizzes.

Clara and Malcolm dump clementines out of their truck.

Eventually everyone arrived from the ranch (Neil, Emily, Ellen, Everett, Henry) to help out. There was a bit of chaos as Dad tried to make sure there were enough ovens to keep everything warm, and Jack and Everett ran some dishes to our Air Bnb to use the oven there. I mostly watched the kids and stayed out of it. When Jane first got up from her nap she was a bit stoic but she warmed up eventually.

I was also kind of excited that this year we officially had a kids table. We pulled the coffee table from the front living room into the dining room and Zoey, Malcolm, and Clara sat at it. For a second Clara was upset because she wanted a chair, but we found a step stool for her and she was fine with it. She ate her gluten free pizza and didn't care in the slightest that everyone else was eating other stuff. I guess she's used to it. Even better, Jennifer brought individual gluten free pies, so after dinner Clara got her own apple pie. I thought that was really sweet, since she'd been pointing out the pies all day.

At the grown up table I got to eat in relative peace thanks to Julie taking Jane for a while and then Jane eating happily from Jack's lap. There were waaaaay more cheesy potatoes than we could possibly go through, but that's a good problem to have. There was also rare steak, which was awesome, and Jennifer's cranberry sauce was excellent! It's some kind of finely diced fruit salad type recipe including celery for crunch and nuts. Really the best cranberry dish I've had for Thanksgiving. Neil and Emily made a lot of vegan food and their vegan "cheesy" potatoes were pretty good. Their vegan spaghetti (zoodles = zucchini noodles) and sausage was delicious too. I wouldn't have even known it was vegan if Julie hadn't told me.

After dinner there were plenty of hands to help clean up and Dad was playing a lot of very cheerful dance songs he likes. Jane had really started to warm up and would kind of sway to some of the music. She also does this little move where she puts one arm behind her back and the other across her stomach and kind of bounces her knees a bit. It was a big hit, especially with Paul and his parents. Paul seems to really love little kids.

Also now that Dad was finally not covered in flour he was able to play with Clara. She had been calling for him ("Papi! Papi look!") all day to show him what she was doing but he had to watch from a distance because of the baking. But now he could play. He went down to the family room and danced with Clara, Malcolm, Zoey, and sometimes Rocket. Malcolm in particular was getting waaaay into the music and just going nuts. Apparently he especially likes 'No excuses' by Meghan Trainor, because when Julie put that song on he sort of froze for a second in a look of delight and astonishment, and then started dancing crazy fast. It was great. Clara had a similar reaction to the recent favorite: 'I've been everywhere man' by the Road Hammers. They sing the verses very quickly and she marches her feet up and down as fast as she can while yelling 'Faster!' It's awesome.

The day before Sola had asked me if we could play The Paper Game or Quiplash and I told her not that day but probably on our Thanksgiving day. She had mentioned it once or twice during today also, and Harrison also asked about it, so clearly they were excited. Neil kindly set up Quiplash on his laptop (hooked up to the big screen) and a lot of people got to play. It was a big hit. It's great to have a game that allows you to sit still on the couch and laugh, and in our big and chaotic family it's also great to have a game that can keep moving along even when various people get interrupted and have to leave and come back to it. It also worked out well that my siblings were playing but so were Harrison, Sola, and even Rocket (Emily lent him her phone) because there were sort of two groups of humor and it caused a lot of split votes, instead of one side dominating with only one person the odd man out. It was also a good way to wind down as the music is a lot more low key compared to the dance music Dad had been playing.

After a few rounds of that it was time for those of us with small children to go back to our Air Bnb's and put them to bed. I helped Jack get our kids to bed, and then I went back to Tejon and Dad and I drove up to the ranch to join Neil, Ellen, and Everett for DOOM! (Neil had been trying to get the DOOM network working with a lot of frustration, and he had previously mentioned he didn't know what the point was since we'd never get a chance to play anyway without me staying at the ranch. I told him I would absolutely make a trip to the ranch to play DOOM, which I think is extremely fun, so he felt more motivated and figured it all out). Dad watched us for a good hour, and we of course were laughing our heads off. At first there were some settings issues with this version of DOOM and none of the guns were reappearing, so we were having a lot of pistol fights which we still found hilarious. Neil fixed it eventually though. Also this version allowed us to change the colors of our players to anything, so I was black and Ellen was purple. This version also showed your rank (X out of 4) and the spread between first and last place, which was kind of cool. We played for a little over two hours. There were at least two points where I was laughing so hard I had to stop playing and just get it together. I love it.

I was pretty exhausted when I got back home so it was good to get into our already warm apartment and pass out. Overall an excellent Thanksgiving.

7.10.18 - Favorite parts of the Field Day trip

Dad: the balloon fight and karaoke with Julie

Sola: Egg toss and three-legged race.

(Because she crushed it.)

Jill: My favorite part of Field Day was Harrison singing.

(I don't have a pic of Harrison singing but here he is playing hot potato.)

Everett: Henry telling me he's going to give me his super awesome phone come October because he's going to get a new one then.

Henry: water balloon fight

Henry cleans his glasses while Dad takes the fight up a notch with the hose.

Me: Everett singing Led Zeppelin

Neil: I'd say it's tie between the Betrayal game with Ellen where Dad became stupid Ox and bringing Clara in from the car while she was passed out. Beating Everett in chess is a close second. Clara being excited about the plane taking off was also great.

Bryan: My ultimate victory in Munchkin.

Me: I love how much Clara enjoyed the bubble machines and four wheeler and everyone singing karaoke.

Ellen: Dad being dumb Ox was soooo funny. I also really enjoyed day 2 of just hanging around talking.

Julie: Not in any particular order: driving the jeep at the ranch, karaoke, watching my kids run around the ranch, meeting Emily, the five united.

5.4.18 - Random joys for a random day in May

The last week has been rough, with yesterday particularly so. Jack's been really slammed at the end of the semester and I'm left to take care of a lot of different responsibilities mostly by myself. It's a bit overwhelming. Then yesterday Beth was sick and I had the girls. Couldn't get work done. The girls were fussy. Speech therapy didn't go well. By the end of the day I was very frustrated and exhausted. But that's when it started to turn around.

I decided to take one of my cheat days for my current calorie bet with Julie. Jack was on his way home so he stopped first to pick us up a ready-made pizza and a big bag of Reese's. By the time he got home I had (finally) gotten the kids to bed, so I could eat in peace. Man did that junk food hit the spot.

About to feel better in 3...2...1...

Also Dad was up late scrambling to put together slides for a last minute webinar CER had scheduled for this morning. He asked if I could help and I said sure. You'd think I'd be too tired to do it, but actually eating junk food and getting work done uninterrupted made me feel much better. It also helped that the work was mostly graphics-related, which I particularly enjoy, and that it was really immediately helpful to Dad, which I also particularly enjoy. Plus I was able to put to use some of the tricks I've learned more recently with PowerPoint, and it sure made my life easier. I wasn't too worried about the lost sleep because I knew once the webinar was over today I'd have time to take a nap. I can power through that.

I made this image and apparently it was really useful.

Then this morning Jack was able to drop off the girls for the first time in a week, which was a welcome relief. I got up early to help with the webinar slides. I did clock out to help Jack get the girls ready and in the car (and then quickly went and mailed our homemade (Grand)Mother's Day cards), and then got back to it. It was an enjoyable morning because I was very absorbed in the work so the time went fast. As an aside I also had a nice chat with Nathaniel while working on it. Social media really helps me feel connected even when I work from home and rarely see other adults in person. Oh, and I also basically had Reese's and very cold milk for breakfast, haha.

The webinar went decently. I worked on Photoshop graphics while listening to it. Another small joy is my increasing interest and understanding of the companies and technologies Dad covers. I mean I'm nowhere close to his level, of course, but as I piece more together it makes the work more interesting. And after the webinar was over Dad called and thanked me for my help, which he doesn't do that often. I don't believe I need a lot of thanks or validation, but it's still nice from time to time, and I appreciated it.

After the webinar I helped a little with post webinar work but for the most part the staff had it in hand, which is a great improvement from even a couple months ago. I don't have to worry about the transcript or any of the other post-webinar task list because they're trained and can handle it. That's pretty wonderful. Anyway so I did get to take a nap--a luxuriously long nap because Jack picked up the girls and took them with him to run one or two errands. So that was wonderful.

This evening has been great too. First of all it's the first time Jack has been home and awake for any length of time in a while. Even when he is mostly working on school work (as he was tonight) it makes a big difference having him around because I can ask for his help briefly while I do other things or because the girls will play contended in the room he's in even if I leave to do other things. That's how it went for probably half an hour while I video chatted with Mom, and it was a really nice visit.

Tonight I've also had plenty of time to goof around with the girls, including singing "Humpty Dumpty" and "Monkeys jumping on the bed" to Clara as she pretended to fall off our bed over and over. Jane was thrilled to be part of the action and kept bouncing on the bed herself.

After burning a lot of energy, I went ahead and put some videos on for them. For a while they both sat happily eating and watching videos. Then I switched to trains videos and Clara got very excited and ran into the nursery to bring back her toy engine. So I turned it on and set it to run in circles in the living room, and she ran in counter clockwise circles around it and said she was riding it. Jane watched the whole spectacle with a lot of approval. It was very sweet.

While they did that, I sat and worked on this entry and enjoyed the last bit of my 24 hours of calorie freedom by eating tortilla chips with salsa and sour cream and having a diet coke.

[Note 7/31/18 - I never finished this entry and can no longer remember what else I would have recorded, so it ends here.]

4.30.18 - April joy statuses

4.26.18 - Get off the phone!

2.7.18 - Dad is a liar

Yesterday Jack received a package in the mail containing this:

So Jack called Dad and when the phone when to voicemail, Jack left a message saying something like "Hi this is Jack calling for Leo. Leo if you get this message can you give me a call?''

Today--as is the case nearly every day--Dad called me about work-related stuff, and then he said he got a weird voicemail from Jack and he thinks Jack might have called the wrong number. I explained that, no, we received an SSRO letter and trophy, and Dad tried to act like he had no idea what I was talking about. I said "Stop trying, this letter is clearly from you!" When he continued to deny it, I read him the whole letter, especially emphasizing the phrase "My shame runs deep," which is a quote Dad has said many times over the years that's originally from Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

Specifically from Jerry Steiner, the guy on the left.

At this point I could hear Dad smiling over the phone as he explained that he had sold "the rights" (the rights???) to the SSRO to "some guys" and he can't control what they do with that information. I said, "So your argument is that, first of all, there are 'rights' to the SSRO, and that they went to guys who have our address, know Parker Lewis Can't Lose, and sent us a reward?? And a trophy I've seen sitting around at your house?" When he stuck with that story, I suggested he call Jack to explain, and he said "Why should I have to justify what other people do?" "Justify?? Like your reputation is getting sullied with generosity?" He just laughed.

My dad is such a goof.

11.23.17 - Thanksgiving Day

We traveled all day yesterday from Sacramento to Denver airport to Colorado Springs to Dad's ranch about another 45 minutes away. I'm sure it was overwhelming for both the girls, but especially clara who (1) is old enough to be more anxious about all the unfamiliarity and (2) had barely slept at all. She did pass out near the end of the flight on Jack, but she woke up not 20 minutes later as we were trying to put all out stuff together to deplane, and then she didn't sleep the whole drive to COS, surprisingly. (Side note: Jack was so sweet on the plane trying to hold Clara still so she could sleep while still gathering our belongings with his feet and whatever.)

Anyway, Clara also fell asleep at the very end of our drive to the ranch. (We got there at like 10 p.m.) Jack took her upstairs and put her in the master bedroom but she woke up, and then he had to take her ponytails out and she was very fussy. I felt bad for her, but once Jack brought our bags up, I remembered we had packed her very favorite Maurader's Map blanket and her teddy bear (Bobo). I got the blanket out and gave it to her and she smiled and smushed her whole face into it. Then I got Bobo out and gave him to her and she gave him a big hug, and held on to both him and her blanket, and kept saying "It's Bobo!" and "It's a blanket!" It was so sweet.

We didn't even try to get her to sleep in a bed separate from us. The master bed is king size anyway, so it isn't really difficult to have sleep between us. I ended up sleeping on a matress on the floor most of the night with Jane (easier to nurse her that way without worrying about Clara kicking her or rolling on her or something).

Clara woke up at about 7:30am (which really isn't that bad - over 7 hours of almost continuous sleep is pretty good for me these days). She was fussy and teary eyed, I suspect because she didn't know where she was. But I cuddled her for a long while and she calmed down. Then she layed on her tummy next to me while I checked a few things online and absentmindedly rubbed her back. At one point I stopped rubbing her back to type something and she sat up, grabbed my hand, put it back on her back, and layed back down.

I softly sang "If I Only Had a Brain" to her and when I switched to "If I Only Had a Heart" I had Bobo sing it to her, which made her smile a lot. She eventually took him from me and snuggled him. It was a nice 15-20 minutes of quiet cuddle time with her while Jack and Jane slept.

Even after Jack and Jane woke up, we all hung out in the master bedroom for probably 45 minutes or so just taking our time. Jack built another fire in the wood burning stove and we kept that going for a while. Between that and the electric blanket it was cozy enough, although without those it would have been too cold. Clara had a smoothie and I skimmed FB to see what everyone else was doing to prep for the holiday. It was a pretty relaxing morning.

Eventually we got up and started getting ready to go. It took quite a while, but we left by 10:45 am, which isn't too bad. Henry went with us, and Neil and Emily stayed at the ranch to cook their vegan dishes.

Shortly after we got to Dad's, Dave called via FB (facetime? I think?) and Clara, Jane, and I got to see the Jackson clan at their Thanksgiving. In particular Clara and Naomi got to stare at each other through the phone for a bit. They both said hi a few times. Naomi was impressed with what she thought was a cupcake (actually an acorn) on Jane's onesie. It was nice to briefly see everyone.

It was weirdly calm and relaxed at Dad's. Normally on Thanksgiving it feels like a lot of bustling about trying to get everything ready in time, but Dad and Jill had prepped a lot of their food in advance, and Ellen, Everett, Henry, and my family had all gotten there so early we had hours to get ready. Ellen and Everett prepped green bean casserole and cheesy potatoes while I boiled sweet potatoes Jack, Henry, and Everett all took turns keeping an eye on Clara, and Jane got passed from person to person pretty regularly (and cheerfully). It's a lot easier getting cooking or anything else done with children around when there are so many adults to help look after the kids. It was nice to sip some wine while prepping food too.

After a while, Jill's younger brother Stuart and his family arrived. Jill had been particularly looking forward to this and had told me multiple times what a sweet guy Stuart is, and she was right. He was very friendly and joking around a lot. He was very easy to talk to. His son, Wilder, is about 6 months younger than Clara, so that gave his wife, Alexis, and me common ground to talk about, which was nice. I appreciate how often being a parent has made conversations with new people easier.

Stuart and Jill made a pretty delicious bowl of sangria, too. We had quite a bit of that.

It did start to be a bit of a rush at the end. Dad got into host/solution mode especially regarding the many dishes we needed to bake in only two ovens. He pulled it off well. By the time we were ready to eat we had covered the kitchen island, computer counter, coffee maker counter, and fully extended baker station with food, including sweet potato casserole (one vegan, one gluten free), cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, the turkey, stuffing, vegan eggplant parmesan, vegan Swedish meatballs, vegan mac'n'cheese, cranberry salad, sangria, wine, beer, and of course a whole bunch of different pies...

 including the caramel rose applie pie from this video:

The feast was wonderful. Jane sat in my lap. The last week or so she's shown a lot more attention to my food, so today I decided to let her try the tiniest bit of sweet potato casserole. She seemed really taken aback, but I assume by the texture because sweet potato casserole is delicious. I didn't give her any more at that point. We'll start her properly with rice cereal when we get home. I had made one of the casseroles gluten free and tried to get Clara to try it but she wasn't having it. Amazingly picky eater, that girl, but it kind of works out in our favor.

After everyone digested (and cleaned up) a bit, a whole bunch of us played The Paper Game. I think there were 10 people playing, which is more than enough to only go around once, which is a nice change of pace. Also Sola had this big set of multicolored gel pens for everyone to use, which makes it easy to track who drew or wrote what since everyone has a different color. Neil's drawings are always some of my favorites but I gotta say Sola always impresses me with the Paper Game. She's a lot younger than everyone else playing but keeps up with the humor, both laughing and making others laugh. It's awesome.

Once The Paper Game was done (which gave us more time to digest) we busted out the pies. The caramel apple rose pie was delicious. So sweet. I think that's actually the only kind I ate, although yesterday I did try a slice of chocolate pie with homemade whipped cream. Jill also made a flourless chocolate cake and earlier I ate some of the leftover icing to that, also fantastic. So many wonderful foods.

We went back to the ranch house and this time we put the heater on, which is much more efficient and consistent then the fires. We still made fires in the living room and the wood burning oven of the master bedroom, and they were cozy too. 

7.12.17 - CO July Trip - the rest of the visit

(Written 7/22/17)

I'm glad we decided to stay a full week for our CO visit. Between the length of the trip and all of Kristin's help, we had enough time to do most of the things we'd talked about before getting there. Jill had wanted to play Paper Game (so did I), Everett really wanted to watch Interstellar with me, and I really wanted to play Quiplash with everyone. We hoped to play Tichu too, although we were skeptical it would happen, as it usually doesn't.

Well the day after Field Day (Sunday), we got the girls ready and drove down to Tejon for the afternoon and evening. Kristin watched the girls and we were able to play Quiplash for a couple hours, and it was as funny as I'd hoped. At one point Everett named his character "Ed's goatee" so I named mine "Ev's goatee," and whenever we voted the same way on a question we made a big deal about it. At another point the room code was MOME, so someone named their character that, I named mine "MO' MONEY" and Everett named his "MO' PROBLEMS" and Eric the DJ (who had come by) named his "E MO MONEY," so again we all joked that we were teams.

There were definitely parts when I was crying laughing, although sadly I can't remember most of them now. I know Neil won a round by saying that Willy Wonka's bank statements included an entry for "Billy Bonka's Vanilla Factory." Everett won a round saying the Bible should be renamed to "The Life of Jeezy Creezy." During one game, Bryon named himself "Last Place," and his answer to the final round question was "Don't vote for this! I want to lose!" He won, of course. Jill played too and, as I hoped, she really enjoyed it. Even Dad stayed and watched for a long time and laughed along. There's something very appealing about a game where you can just sit on the couch as you play.

The leisure of Quiplash.

We played Quiplash again I think both the next day and the day after. Eventually Sola got in on it and even Rocket (with his Aunt Jennifer's help) played some too. So I'd say it was a hit!

Anyway, after a lot of Quiplash that Sunday, Neil, Everett, Henry and I played Tichu, but Neil and Henry completely stomped us.

But Everett keeps a positive attitude.

Then Dad took Neil and Emily to the airport to go back home. Everyone wished they'd be in town longer but it was still great to see them. Side note: that was the first time everyone had met Emily, and she was a hit! Friendly, easy to talk to, and she laughs so easily, which I love. So that went well.

When we went home that night the girls fell asleep pretty easily and slept in the next morning. It was a huge relief. Amazing how much better the entire day is when you get enough sleep.

The next day, Monday, we stayed at the ranch. Kristin came up to help out and eventually the rest of the family joined to hang out. The weather was spotty with rain off and on frequently enough that it was hard to get out and do things. Even so, Sola, Henry, and Jack all got some time with four wheelers and dirt bikes, and later Henry and Jack did some trap shooting while Everett and I watched and commentated from the truck.

Everett telling Jack he's supposed to shoot the clay pigeons.

Everett decided to stay the night at the ranch with us so we could play Tichu one more time before Henry left the next day. Jane cooperated and slept in her swing for almost the entire game, and Kristin was putting Clara to bed for a lot of it too, so we played nearly uninterrupted. We drank Diet Coke and ate Hershey's bars (from the ranch s'mores supplies in the upstairs kitchen), and Henry also warmed up a bunch of leftover ribs. Dinner of champions.

Everett trying to keep Jack from looking at Henry and non-verbally communicating their strategy.

Jack not at all sure he should've called Tichu.

Everett and I were winning by quite a bit, but we didn't quite finish the game before Jane woke up -- we were over 900. If I had just remembered to call Tichu on my very first completely overpowering hand (the 1 and a huge straight and the dragon!!) we would've already won. Alas.

The next day (Tuesday), Henry headed back home. We all went to Tejon and for a little while Clara enjoyed the backyard, particularly climbing up the slide and then sliding back down by herself as well as watching Sola on the trampoline.

I love this photo.

But the girls, who had slept terribly the night before, wouldn't really go down for naps either. I was getting pretty frustrated but the day was saved when Kristin took the two of them for a very long walk and I was able to sit on the porch swing with Everett and chat with him, Jill, Dad, and Ellen and have a glass or two of wine. The weather was great too - not raining, but overcast so it wasn't too hot. That porch swing is one of my favorite places to be.

Eventually my friend Jen and her incredibly smiley 6-month-old James joined us. Jen even brought lemon cheesecake (which was excellent) because she'd been practicing different recipes to make a great cake for her mom's upcoming birthday. We drank and ate on the back porch and then moved inside to play paper game, also with Sola and Jennifer (Jill's sister). James was surprisingly cooperative while we played, and Jen is a pretty good artist, which makes it more fun. Jennifer is also fun to play with because she compliments almost every single drawing she receives as well done. She's just such a cheerful laid back person.

Jen and incredibly smiley James.

Finally, on Wednesday we somehow managed to watch the nearly 3 hour movie Interstellar all the way through. Everett had been pushing me to watch it for months but it was enjoyable to watch with him. It was a pretty thought-provoking movie and I was glad to watch it on a (bigger than my laptop) screen with decent sound.

That day I also did the annual kid interviews, which were fun. Sola's interview was kind of through-provoking too, because she's about to start high school and I can still remember pretty clearly the summer before I started high school. Not long after the interviews I went on a long walk with Jill and the dogs and we talked about it, and we both think Sola seems pretty well equipped (in terms of friends and her own maturity) to deal with whatever comes up. Guess we'll see.

On a final note, I think staying at the ranch this trip worked out really well. It gave us time in the morning to get up and get going without things being too crazy, and it gave everyone else a break from the chaos of little kids around all the time. I didn't mind the drives back and forth either, because mostly the girls fell asleep and Jack and I had a chance to talk with each other one-on-one. Plus it's a very pretty drive. And staying at the ranch gave us a bit more control over feeding Clara with a bit less worry about cross contamination or other issues. Spot on, good choice. I expect next time we're all out we'll stay there again.

Clara has plenty of legroom on one of the drives from the ranch to Tejon.

7.8.17 - CO July Trip - Field Day

The girls didn't sleep well the first night, and all of us were exhausted by the next day, but that just made me all the more glad we decided to stay at the ranch. Otherwise we would have had to get everyone up and ready to go and then trek to the ranch for field day. Instead we were already there!

Dad et al started arriving around 10 am to get setup and soon the ranch house was bustling. There were a lot of balloons to be filled with helium and tied. Dad used them as markers for the front gate and the road to the house, so people who hadn't been there before would know they were going the right way. Jill and Dad had (wisely) chosen not to cook everything themselves this year. Instead Jill bought a bunch of Costco rotisserie chickens and sandwich trays (both tortilla wraps and croissant sandwiches, **yum**), potato salad, lots of chips, and other fun delicious summery food. And of course there was tons of Diet Coke.

At some point while everyone was getting ready, we transferred Jane to the baby swing Jill bought, and Jane loved it. In fact the entire trip she probably spent hours in that swing every day. So helpful.

Chillaxin'

Miss Kristin also came up to help with the kids. She was very attentive to my concerns and instructions about what specifically Clara can eat, and she even cleaned out a kitchen cabinet to store all of Clara's food, and brought me duct tape to mark the cabinet "Clara's cabinet, please stay out." I really appreciated how seriously Kristin took the celiac issue.

While everyone was enjoying a very delicious lunch, Kristin ran into the nearest town to pick up a few more things (like whole milk and frozen fruit for smoothies). In the time she was gone, almost everyone went down to the corral for the beginning of field day games. Jack took Clara (in her lovely sunhat), and I stayed at the ranch house with Jane. I was pretty happy to sit in a totally quiet, cozy living room while Jane slept in her swing. My only regret was being unable to videotape the games, but Everett happily took on that job (and did great). So I was later able to watch video of sack races, 3 legged race, relay race, and balloon toss.

Franklin's parents help him with balloon toss as Dad oversees his good works.

When Kristin came back, I fed Jane one more time and then walked by myself down to the corral. I got there in time to see the end of little kid hot potato and all of older kid hot potato. Not too long after I arrived, Jack took Clara back up to the house so Kristin could watch her while he took a much needed nap.

Clara was also pretty tired.

I stayed at the corral and got to give a try at balloon stomp (which I was terrible at) and play RPS (which made me laugh pretty hard). Before balloon stomp Dad actually drove up to the house to see if Jack wanted to participate, since Jack now has a history of coming in 2nd place (both SSROs plus 2016 field day). But Dad said Jack looked so exhausted Dad didn't want to wake him. Instead Dad made himself a rum and Diet Coke and then came back down to continue.

The little kids just don't really get RPS.

Matt won adult RPS.

Typical Colorado, in the middle of what had been warm weather it started to rain, so we took a break. A bunch of people piled into the back of the pickup and Dad ferried them up to the ranch house. For a little while Ellen, Bryon, a few others, and I stayed in the barn and chatted and watched the rain. Eventually Matt came back in the pickup to get us. We got back to the ranch and got to enjoy a bit more food during the rain break.

We went back to the corral and watched the kids (and some adults, including Dad) have a water balloon fight and a color fight. The color fight was genius - not too hard to clean up, much less gross and more fun to watch than a food fight, but the same overall principle (try to keep your white tshirt as white as possible). In both fights, Everett got on the bullhorn (at my urging) and told everyone to attack Dad, who every easily outran a pack of children, but it was fun to watch.

Dad demonstrates stylish water balloon throwing.

Franklin doesn't care what happens, he's just glad to be here.

After that the kids were going to do a water gun fight, but by then I was so exhausted I decided to walk back up to the ranch house and take a nap myself. Normally I have a hard time napping when there's so much going on and so much visiting to do, but I made myself so that I would have energy for karaoke later. I was glad I did. Jack was still sleeping in the king bed when I got up there, and rather than disturb him I decided to wind down on Clara's mattress on the floor (which itself was very comfortable too). I passed out and I am pretty sure I was out for over two hours, no problem. Man, it was great to know someone else was taking care of our kids so Jack and I could both catch up on sleep. Now that's a vacation.

By the time I woke up people were getting into dinner (the rotisserie chicken, a whole lot of ribs, and similar food from lunch). Various guys were dirt biking and going trap shooting. Jack was up by then and off happily zooming around on the big dirt bike (forget what it's called). Some kids were playing on the gigantic swing Dad had rigged up, and others were playing giant Jenga (which I later found out was a homemade set) on the patio. Clara was happy to hang out on the (now very baby proofed) balcony. Jane kept baby swinging away.

This is a double reflection shot and shadow photo!

Side note: love the balcony now. Last year the railing was far enough apart Clara could slip through it, so I was always nervously watching her and trying to keep the balcony door shut. This year they had fixed it and there was no way she could get out, so I could let her go in and out of the house without a problem, and she could be outside without anyone having to follow her around. I hope someday we have a house with a balcony like that.

After dinner Eric the DJ got karaoke going. The first hour or two was mostly the kids. In fact the very first song was Julian's, and he chose "Paint it Black"! Unexpected. Then there was the Pokemon theme song and lots of kids' movie songs, especially Moana. At one point 5-6 kids were singing "How Far I'll Go" from Moana, and I actually found it really moving. It's partly because I find that song moving anyway, and it's partly because Sola was singing it pretty passionately and I was thinking about one time over four years ago when Sola and I were driving down the highway with the windows down belting "Let It Go" from Frozen. Something about the connection there, and Sola's sweetness and how fast she's growing up and how much I like the song they're singing made it a Moment for me. I even felt a bit misty eyed. Anyway it was sweet.

Rocket karaoke's in his pajamas.

The kids dominated karaoke for a couple hours and then (at my request, actually), Dad told Eric there would be no more kids' songs, and the adults took over. Everett, Emily, Neil, and I sang "Jumper" with Ellen to start. Then there was some song where I gave my mic to Neil and Emily and tried to share with Everett instead, but he wouldn't, and we started wrestling around for it, and Dad joined in, and all the while all three of us were still singing (through laughter). We were very out of breath by the end.

I had to stop to go feed Jane, but that worked out well for me because despite my nap I was still a bit tired. I sat alone with her in the upstairs kids room and she fed while I finished the last episode of Turn Season 3 (which was epic). Jane took quite a while, but I was so into the episode it was fine.

buh buh BUM

Then I got to hand Jane back off to Kristin (who had miraculously gotten Clara to sleep in her own bed despite the loud karaoke music), and I went back downstairs and enjoyed s'mores and many more karaoke songs before bed. And I didn't need to worry about videotaping any of it because Henry had that covered most of the night.

Ellen is amazed/disgusted by Eric the DJ's incredible singing voice.

AND, when it was all finished, I didn't have to haul back down into town before bed. Instead my kids were already asleep and Jack and I were able to just go upstairs, change, and pass out.

It was an exhausting but wonderful day.