There was a time when free baseball tickets would make a big impression on me.
But now I feel like we have graduated to the big leagues.
Some friends have invited us and two other couples to spend 4 days with them in Cabo San Lucas at a swanky home.
This is where we are flying off to Thursday morning.
Golf, surfing, lots of pool time and attending Church in Spanish. I can't wait.
The best part is that Jacob and Emily are coming all the way from Utah to babysit our quiet, docile children. They couldn't be more fun and our kids can't wait for them to get here and us to leave.
We have become accustomed to occasionally being awakened in the middle of the night by a scared, crying child who is having a nightmare.
It's usually the typical kinda stuff triggered by something that happened earlier that day.
If I kill a spider in the girls room Paige (10), who suffers from an extreme case of arachnophobia, will be sure to wake up about 2am with wild stories of things crawling on the ceiling.
Kate (7) seems to be affected by watching villains on screen. Her middle of the night panic attacks usually revolve around being chased by the most recently watched bad guy.
But it is Garrett (4) who truly suffers and is tormented during his much needed REM sleep. His nightmare's break my heart.
Last night at 3am we were awakened by Garrett's uncontrollable sobbing. Mindy quickly ran in to see what the problem was and try and console him.
Mindy: What's wrong honey? Garrett: (still crying and blubbering) Mindy: It's ok. Did you have a nightmare? Garrett: I...I...(a couple of wails) didn't get any... any.... dessert tonight!! Mindy: Yes you did. You had a nice big bowl of ice cream. Garrett: No... No... I didn't get any! Mindy: It's just a nightmare. Sometimes it seems real but I promise you had ice cream.
(Picture from Flickr)
It took Mindy another 1/2 an hour to calm Garrett down, continually reassuring him he did enjoy ice cream with the rest of the family.
I always hear about how hard it is to go shopping with kids. Today Mindy was able to provide me with a good illustration.
She decided to take our two boys to the peaceful, piano music playing world of Nordstrom's, not to go shopping as much as to just pick up one single item.
But of course...
She found the article and went to the check out counter. As the money was being sucked out of our credit card Garrett (4) was pushing Ryan (2) around in a stroller. After signing the receipt Mindy turned around just as Garrett rolled up....with an empty stroller!
Mindy: Where is Ryan? Garrett: He went down the stairs Mindy: What? Garrett: I put him on the stairs Mindy: What do you mean you put him on the stairs? There are no...
It was then that Mindy realized what had happened. Garrett had passed by one of the joys of his life, the escalator, and encouraged Ryan to take a ride down to the first floor.
Mindy drops everything and runs down the escalator.
When she reaches the first floor she finds a crowd of Gucci carrying women surrounding a crying little boy who wouldn't let anybody touch him.
As Mindy is recovering Ryan and explaining "yes he is my son", "I know I should keep a better eye on him", etc. down comes the cashier holding Garrett's hand. Oops kinda forgot him in the mad dash. But hey he is four years old.
Once again I say it's a good thing they are cute kids or else....
Even though, as my kids continually point out, my hair is graying, I have been able to take some solace in the fact that I still have a toddler in diapers, Ryan (2 1/2). As demented as it sounds a poopy diaper somehow makes me feel younger. Gives me something in common with these young couples just having their first kids.
But the past couple of days Ryan threatened my tenuous grasp on youth; he started potty training.
Although he had figured out how to stand at the toilet like his older brother, he just doesn't get the concept of sitting down and leaving a deposit.
So today when he ran away, while in his underwear, to do his business in his pants he crossed the line. The tidy whities went back into storage and Ryan is sporting huggies again.
So here is the irony. We are way to old to chase this kid around like the young couples do, trying out all the new fangled potty training strategies. So instead I will just change an occasional diaper over the next few months and day dream about my thick, dark brown hair.
During my years of business travel I have stayed in more than my fair share of swanky hotels. But when I am paying the bill, and traveling with all my kids, I tend to be a little less discriminating.
So for our recent trip to Disneyland we stayed at the Best Western right across the street from Disneyland. It was actually closer to the parks than the Disneyland hotels and while the rooms were nothing to write home about they worked fine.
My choice of hotel created quite the comical situation at work.
My fellow salary slaves engaged me in the following conversation:
Comrade: So how was Disneyland? Me: Great! Comrade: Where did you stay? Me: The Best Western Comrade: Oh! (awkward pause ) Well... Anyway so how was Disneyland?
Yeah I can mix with the proletariat and proud of it.
Even though we live less than 80 miles from Disneyland we have made it a point to only go for special occasions and when we do go we really go. Like this time, 4 full days at Disneyland. So it is a unique and special experience for the kids when we do go. This way it is exciting and fun for all of us.
My favorite moments:
I love that Garrett (4) went on space mountain for his first ever ride at Disneyland. He ended up going three times by the end of our 4 days. On his last ride he went with Mindy and I sat in the car behind them. He was just tall enough to get onto the ride so I couldn't even see the top of his head when he sat down. But as we got ready to go his little hands came up in the air. He had seen and heard his sisters talk about keeping your hands up on the roller coasters so he was following. And he kept them up the entire ride!!
I love that Kate (7) was obsessed with buying a hat. She bought one on the first day with some of her money. By the third day all four girls on the trip had a hat and wore them everywhere.
(See the 4 Micky Mouse Hats?)
I love that Paige (10), our daredevil, was afraid of the Maliboomer ride. I finally talked her into trying it with me. She even sat down in the seat but then chickened out. But she couldn't let it go (I mean I couldn't stop teasing her about it) so she came back an hour later and did it.
I lave that Ryan (2) was a good sport waiting for all the kids to get off rides he couldn't go on. He knew the drill and didn't complain. But when he was able to go on a ride he was mesmerized. His favorite was Pirates of the Caribbean.
Speaking of Pirates I love that each of the four times we went on this ride all the girls would sing "Yo Ho Ho a Pirates life for me..." at the top of their lungs in perfect harmony. We definitely should have won some kind of award for the boat with the most pirate spirit.
I also loved being with my sister Melissa and family. It felt like a vacation because our kids had cousins to play with and hardly seemed to fight. (And of course I got to see Jeff)
I vividly remember my childhood trips to Disneyland. It's odd to think that the memories of the past few days will stick with my kids for a lifetime.
We just spent the past 4 days at The Happiest Place On Earth with my Sister and her family of three kids.
During that time we discovered a little known fact, which is:Disney could care less about making the Kids happy, what they really want is happy Pigeons.
That's right, the park that Walt built is all about the cozy comfort of Feathered Rats.
Let me explain how we discovered this shocking truth.
Each morning as we entered Disney Land our kids would skip down main street in anticipation of seeing their first Character or getting to that first ride of the day. True excitement, the kind of excitement that parents use to justify spending a bazillion dollars at the Enchanted Kingdom.
So one morning, as the kids are literally holding hands and gleefully skipping along, our 2 year old (Ryan) sees a pigeon, lets out a squeal and chases after it. This catches the attention of Garrett (4) who joins in the chase. The pigeons fly off a few feet, wait for the kids to get close, then fly off a few more feet.Us adults are happily watching our progeny traipse on in front of us. Some holding hands, some skipping and a couple chasing birds. A Norman Rockwell moment for sure.
As we veer off to Frontier Land a pleasant looking, older Disney Employee asks us to stop for a moment. My first thought was maybe he wanted to compliment us on our happy brood, or maybe they had selected our good looking group for some kind of prize.But his countenance quickly darkened as he launched into his speech. I quote:
"Here at Disneyland it is unacceptable to chase animals. Unacceptable. And completely unacceptable for parents to not do anything about it. Please don't cut short your experience here because you can't respect the animals. That is just unacceptable."
Yeah. Unbelievable but true. An otherwise perfect experience marred by our alleged disrespect for nasty little pigeons.
We aren't planning our next trip to The Magic Kingdom for at least 2 years. That gives me plenty of time to train my boys in the ancient art of Killing Pigeons!
Often times I will wake up in the morning and Mindy will fill me in on the nightly activities of our children.
My response: Your kidding, I didn't hear a thing. Mindy: Yeah!
Sad but true I have evolved into one of those guys.
Except for rare occasions. Last night was one of those times.
Kate (7) came downstairs about 9pm complaining about her back hurting. But after she hurled all over the kitchen floor we realized she isn't so good at self diagnosis. So we cleaned her up and got her into bed.
When I finally got into bed myself all I could do was stare at the ceiling. There was one, and only one, thought running through my mind?
"Man I hope she doesn't puke all over the carpet"?
Very loving and sentimental I know.
So the rest of the night I bolted out of bed at the slightest sound. All but once it was a false alarm. During Kate's only real incident of the night she made it to the toilet which she tightly hugged. (I think I was more grossed out about her hands all over the toilet her brothers use than I was the vomit, but I digress...)
So during all the mayhem where was Mindy? Sleeping soundly. Once she saw the fear in my eyes she knew she could get some shut eye.
Apparently there are assigned seats, kinda like church. Don't even try and take some hard core chicks bike. (sorry in my book anyone with silicone enhancements, a sports bra, lycra shorts and attitude is a chick)
Speaking of silicone. Has every 35-45 yr old women gone under the knife!!!
Anyone who sits in the front row is really there to look at themselves in the mirror. There is nothing worse than a sweaty, hairy man in a tank top admiring himself.
And anyway nobody really looks good in biking shorts with pads in the butt.
It's a love/hate thing with the instructors. It's great and all to have some encouragement, but it annoys me to be struggling for breath while they are just chatting away like the workout is no big deal.
Size 13 biking shoes look really, really big.
I sweat. I mean I really, really sweat. I had to stop and move some of my stuff away from the bike because I was making a puddle.
No wonder all those enhanced women weren't hitting on me?
Golf, surfing, lots of pool time and attending Church in Spanish. I can't wait.
Golf, surfing, lots of pool time and attending Church in Spanish. I can't wait.
