Sanity Trip

I think we've pretty well established by now that I really love these two little gippers, right?  We know they are cute and funny and fun and smart and delightful.  

 

 

And you all know by now that we are thrilled to be having another baby, right?

 



 

 

Well, having said all that (and meant it) I had a little phase of feeling...shall we say...overwhelmed.  Like, really overwhelmed.  So I did what anyone with years of trainings of how important self care is would do...I booked a trip to see some friends.  By myself.  That's right.  All alone.  I would be flying all by myself!!  I know I said I love traveling with my babies (and I do) but I just really wanted a chance to catch my breath.  So my sweetheart Paulio got some time off work to watch the tots and off to Chicago I went. 

 

I was surprised how hard it was for me to leave my little babies.  I cried the night I put them to bed before heading to the airport.  And most of the next day.  (Being overtired and pregnant didn't help reduce the tears any!)

 

I stayed with Griff and Ben who have provided me sanctuary and a chance to catch my breath many many times in my life.  Man, they are good friends.  Because we all love a good party, Brittany flew out from California and The Beast drove up from Iowa.  (His name is Jacob, but his nickname is Beastie.  I think that's one of the best nicknames I've ever heard!) Just for the weekend and man it was great.  My friends are so fun!  We mostly just visited, which is my favorite thing in the world.  I slept in as long as I wanted and walked around leisurely the rest of the time.  We laughed and talked and talked and talked.  And I caught my breath.

 

One day we went in to Chicago and took an architecture boat tour.  It was cool.  We also went to the Botanic Gardens which was really a cool place.  No pictures though.  Apparently Paul is the one who takes pictures on our vacations. 

 

 

 

It was pretty much perfect.  While travelling everything was easier, but I happily learned that just because it's easier, it doesn't mean it's better.  I sure was a happy camper when these guys picked me up from the airport. 





 

And so, my sanity is restored.  Well, whatever there was to begin with.  All thanks to Paul Wall who is the most supportive, understanding, coolest, kindest husband ever.  Thanks Paul!

 

The Backyard

It's winter now, but it used to be fall.  It was a beautiful fall.  Nothing but falling leaves and happiness in the backyard.  And a sled.  Of course.

 

 

 

Aren't they cute?

Getting Sick

You know what happens when we travel?  By the time we get home, Esme is sick.  And then Ezra gets sick.  Esme gets better.  And Ezra gets worse.  Our trip to Colorado was no exception.  Ezra ended up having some breathing problems and eventually wound up in the ER.   At least he had his dad to hold him.  Ezra loves his dad so much and when he was sick all he wanted was to snuggle with Paul. 

He ended up needing to be admitted but thankfully started improving shortly after that.   

This time around he only had to stay overnight and by the next morning was feeling much better and was ready to go!  (I think he looks like a house elf in this gown.)

Paul "The Hospital Hater" Rigg stayed with Ezra while Esme and I went home for a good night's rest. The next morning, with one kid each to be in charge of, both Paul and I separately had the thought of how much easier it is with just one!  But it didn't last long.  We went to keep them company/rile them up at the hospital while we waited to be discharged.

Ezra, patiently waiting for his discharge paperwork.

Once again we are grateful to have access to good medical care.  We were glad to live so close to medical help and that he was so much better so quickly.  He was all smiles when we got home and loosed him in the backyard. Good job Ezra!

 

Becoming Travelers

In September we made our way to Colorado.  By now our kids are 3 months shy of 2 years old.  I had always imagined that flying would get easier as they got older.  Then I had a friend warn me that as they get wigglier, it does not exactly feel easier. 

 

I'm kind of a nervous Nelly when it comes to travelling with the tots because there is just so much that can go wrong.  Well, on our way to Salt Lake City where we had our second layover scheduled, we were diverted to Pocatello due to thunderstorms in SLC.  We spent some time on the tarmac before they let us continue on to SLC.  This is when Ezra decided to have a blow out and get poop all over his shirt.  And this is of course the trip I decided not to put extra clothes in the diaper bag because we never use them. By the time we got there we had of course missed our connection, the last of the day.  So we joined the line of every other passenger on the flight who had also missed their connection to try to figure out what we were going to do.  

 

 

Apparently there was some convention in town, so there were "no hotel rooms." When Paul then tried to rent us a car to drive the rest of the way to Grand Junction  we found out there were no cars either.  (Side note: Paul said, "Well this is stupid.  He was holding Esme who then said, clear as day, "Stupid!" Guess we gotta start watching what we say!) While he was learning this, I was gathering our luggage because we thought we were going to drive and besides, Ezra needed a shirt!  I guess we were looking pretty pitiful as we were deciding to just sleep in the airport because the lady who then had to recheck our luggage that she had just got for us was being super nice.  Also, a family that had been on our flight on their way to London for a wedding (that they were going to miss 2 days of festivities now) saw us and felt so bad for us that they gave us food vouchers that they had fought for (we certainly weren't offered any!) and offered us their magical hotel room in the town without any hotel rooms.  Well, we couldn't take their hotel room and by this point it's getting late enough that going to a hotel to sleep for a couple hours before coming back to the airport sounds stupid anyway. 

So we snuggle in and just as the tots are falling asleep a couple airline ladies come up with extra blankets and bags of snacks and coloring books. 

 

I just want the whole world to know that the babies were SO GREAT!  They were great staying up until midnight while we tried to figure everything out.  They were great sleeping on the floor for about 8 hours.  Throughout the night Esme would wake up, pop up her little head, happy as a lamb and look around.  I told her "It's still sleepy time" and she would dive back in and snuggle up and go to sleep.  To me, this was beautiful.  Part of what I love about travelling is the humbling experiences, the inconvenience.  To be able to share this with my kids who handled it like champs made me soooo happy.  I was so proud of them!  I told them after this, they can come with me anywhere.  Not to mention how great it is to see the kindness of so many strangers.  People were SO nice to us.

 

 

 

Well, the next morning came and we were on the same flight as Uncle Pete!  That was fun.  And finally we made it to Colorado. 



 

These guys had a great time hunting.  They were hunting for elk, but they ran across this bear!  I guess he got pretty close.

And then they ran across this elk that got a little too close.  Jeff had a muzzle loader tag for a buck and it worked!  It was their first night out.  So that was great because it took the pressure off for the rest of the week that we were there. 

 

They also got a little deer on another trip in the next day or two. Which meant we got to hang out all together!  This was a really great trip for me because it ended up being so much better than I anticipated.  I thought Paul would be out hunting the whole time, leaving me with the kids alone at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Instead we all got to play with them.  And most importantly, I realized how sweet it is to watch them playing with Grandma and Grandpa. What a beautiful thing.  And it kind of felt like a vacation because there was someone else to play with my tots!  It couldn't have been better.

 

I guess I didn't get any good pictures of the time at their house.  Trust me, it was lovely. 

At least we have documentation of my babies getting to be good little travelers. 

I think I kind of like this growing up business.

The Apple Trees

We were so excited to learn that this house has two amazing apple trees.  Mostly people only have crabapples up here, so we were quite looking forward to some big real apples.  They went from this...

 

 

...to this!  And we got a ton of them.  We made apple butter and applesauce.  And Ezra ate a million apples.  Every time we went outside he would grab one and walk around munching on it for the rest of the day.  In the fall when they were all gone it took a while before he realized no matter how far we held him up to the tree, there still were no more to be had. 

Pretty great!

The Fair! Again!!

I like reliable things.  One thing you can rely on is that at the end of August this family will be at the Alaska State Fair!  This year Nat was planning a trip to AK and we were stoked to see her, of course.  But we made sure she knew that we had plans while she was planning to be here.  The fair!!!  'Tis not to be missed, even for a long lost friend.  She ended up not being able to make that trip happen, but you better believe we made our trip happen!

 

Here we are starting the day all smiles.



 

First things first, we thought we would scare the kids with some dinosaurs.  They were not fans of this exhibit!

They liked the lizards a little better.

 

 But what they really loved was the farm animals!!

 

I can't tell you how happy it made me to see them be so excited to see the animals in real life that they have spent so much time reading about.  I may have shed a tear or two.  I'm just so glad to have kids.  Sometimes having kids is really hard, but sometimes you get a moment of witnessing pure joy and excitement over some sheep and chickens.  I felt very grateful and like this is what I was waiting for all those years.   

I don't know if you remember, but last year the fair happened shortly after we found out about our kids' allergies.  I was still breastfeeding then which meant I couldn't eat any of the fair food.  You better believe that this year I made up for it.  I said I was going to get 2 cream puffs, but I couldn't do it.  Apparently there are limits even for me.  I sure enjoyed my one cream puff though!

 

Paul, on the other hand, decided to try something new this year.  The Doughnut Burger.

 



 

I am afraid you heard me correctly.  A cheeseburger with a doughnut for a bun.  With an egg on it??

 

Unfortunately the sheepdog riding monkeys weren't there, but we did enjoy the lumberjack show.  It was soooo windy all day.  I was impressed with how well the babies tolerated it because it really was remarkably windy!

We musn't forget The Rat Race.  It's still happening.  Imagine that.

It was a great day with our tots.  They were champs and enjoyed all the stuff to look at.  I'm already looking forward to next year's cream puff.

Vashon Vacation

In the month of June we had time to purchase a house, remodel a house, have a visit from Levi's family, go dipnetting and take a trip to Seattle for a Rigg family get together.  It was a pretty busy month.  The Rigg family decided to meet up on Vashon Island outside of Seattle because Pete and Leah (of Seattle) welcomed their first son to their family a couple weeks before and we wanted them to be able to party with us.  Leah is such a trooper!  Do you know what I would have done if someone had expected me to party 2 weeks after I gave birth?  Absolutely nothing.  I would have continued trying not to die, which was all I could do for quite a while.  But Pete and Leah were down to play, proving once again that they are awesome.  It was fun. 

We stayed in a sweet vacation rental that fit all of us.  It had a great view overlooking the beach which was a short walk away.

 

We got some really great family photos taken there.  If I can find them I'll put them in a separate post.   On our way back to the house after taking pictures on the beach we found this guy, bringing Paul some joy.

 

 

Here is sweet William.  He was so brand new and so great! 

 

If you asked Ezra and Esme what the best part of the trip was, they would say the ramp up to the front door.  (Besides Grandma and Grandpa, of course.)  They spent a lot of time running up and down this ramp which made a terrific banging sound.  My favorite story from the trip involves this ramp.  Everett (a fantastic cousin) was waiting on the tricycle to drive up the ramp.  Ezra was standing on the ramp not noticing what was going on.  Because Everett is so great, he was just waiting patiently for Ezra to move because he didn't want to bulldoze him over.  Esme, looking at the scene realized Everett wanted to go up the ramp, marched over, grabbed Ezra and pulled him out of the way.  Pretty funny!

To get to and from the island we would take this ferry.  This day we left our cars behind and took our army of strollers to visit the zoo.

Sometimes we were pretty worn out by the time we took the ferry back to the island. It was nice that our kids are at the point where they sleep through the night so we could stay up and play games to our hearts' content after they went to bed.

I hear you're not supposed to post potentially embarrassing pictures of your kids on the internet.  But this one is just so illustrative of how Ezra felt about the walk down to the beach.

Mostly it was blue skies and sunny the entire time we were there.  This must have been the one cloudy day when we decided to get a picture by the water. 

We certainly ate well while we were there.  That's one thing the Rigg family does really well.  This was from the night we enjoyed seafood from Pike's Place. 

Finally our kids are old enough to be entertained by the airplanes in the airport, making travelling just that much better.  Also, this trip was only a 3 hour direct flight.  Easy peasy!

 

It was a really nice time together as a family in a beautiful place.  Can't wait to do it again.