"Pencil" vania

Moving on to the second part of the trip... Joe's house is a magical wonderland of toys (Wii, karaoke machine, homemade marshmallow shooters), plants, dogs, art supplies, cooking implements, and delicious hot fresh pizzas coming out of the oven at all times. It's amazing anyone ever leaves the house.

Somehow, though, we managed to slide out of the house long enough to get to the creek where Joe is a ranger and the kids are wildlife collection experts. With Tupperware containers in hand, we found frogs, salamanders, fish, water bugs, and precious metals.

We did a slow, winding, uphill trek through the stream, and although the water was icy cold, it was a welcome relief in the humid weather. Everyone had some form of water shoes; Lily's were particularly effective because she caught a fish in them (!).

When we finally got to the peak of the stream, we switched over to the main path and we went downhill in about one-third the time that it took to go up. Total yield: Several creatures, which we set free, plus about 5 pounds' worth of rocks, which we had to whittle down before packing our bags.

The next day we headed to Joe's CSA farm to pick up his weekly share and to pick whatever produce we could get our hands on. Were the kids bored with the idea of going to yet another farm? Yeah, right (as they go running at top speed toward the raspberry bushes):

One thing that was amazing at this farm was that they had all-you-can-pick flowers - the most beautiful flowers you've ever seen - for as far as the eye could see.

Loaded up with fruit, veggies, and flowers, we headed back to the house for a massive pizza dinner. You can read more about that whole affair on Jolly Tomato. But you can get just a flavor of it right here:

Mmm. Pizza.

Homegrown

Summer in New Jersey, and the weather is...tolerable? Nice, even? Well, stranger things have happened. We are just recovering from a great week back East and we've got some crazy stories to tell. Like the salamanders and frogs we caught...or the bug-smashing job at my friend's farm...or the yellow jackets that came after the kids with a vengeance when they disrupted the hive.

Day 1: My mom made this beautiful "Welcome to New Jersey" pink potato salad (yes, pink potatoes - Jersey grown). Also: How do you know you're at a South Jersey farm stand? When they trust you to just leave the money.

I had been telling my friends from work about Wawa and they didn't believe me that there was actually a place with that name. So we headed over to Wawa to take a picture, and whaddya know, there was a huge rainbow overhead. As my friend Sue said when I sent her the picture, "It must be a truly magical place." Indeed.

Day 2: My best friend from middle school/high school happened to be in town visiting her dad at the same time. She called and asked if we wanted to stop by her dad's farm. She and I caught up while the kids did some vegetable picking and bug-smashing (killing the pests that were killing the plants). Of course I had a great time, but would you believe how much fun the kids had? For the next two mornings Luke was asking if he could go back and work at the farm. You can bet they'll be putting him to work at Christmas.

Then - joy! - Joe and the cousins came over and we immediately dragged them out to a second farm for some blackberry picking. Listen to Joe on the way down the rural gravelly road to the farm: "This place is ridiculous. Who would want to live back here? Who plows this place when it snows? Where are we, West Virginia?" Now the farm comes into view and it's a gorgeous Victorian house on the waterfront with a huge farm for a backyard. On the way out he's completely changed his tune: "You know, I can attach a snow plow to the front of this car..."

That night Zach and Dave put a penny on the railroad tracks and all of the kids walked down with Dad and Dave to check it out. Then Joe and I headed out to walk Steve...and we were met with three hysterical kids, sobbing all the way back to the house. Turns out someone stepped on a yellow jacket nest and the bees went bananas. Luke got the worst of it with 10 (yes, ten) stings. Lily had a handful of stings keeping her in pain, and Sam suffered from just one sting...on the butt. We doped them all up with Benedryl and Tylenol, put them to bed, and hoped for the best, until....

...Day 3: FunPlex day! Go-karts, laser tag, bumper cars, miniature golf, roller coaster, bumper boats, 3-D movie ride, arcade...Did I miss anything? You have never seen a more crowded place but it sure seemed to make the kids happy. The bee stings were completely forgotten by that point.

And you know what's really great? Watching the cousins all have so much fun together. There's something just incredibly inspiring about watching each of these little people become individuals and develop their own relationships with each other. And the more days we give them together, the stronger that bond becomes. Coming soon: Part II - the Pennsylvania leg of the trip.

Inside the village

I recently heard about this thing called "vacation" where you "relax" and have "time without kids." I don't know what that is, but if anyone has experienced it, I would like to learn more. Right now it seems about as likely as flying away on a unicorn.

As Dave continues his 24/7 work schedule (clients in London AND Hong Kong), my summer is mostly about nonstop kid planning, maintenance, and taxi driving. Fortunately for us (but not so much for our bank accounts) we have an A-list "village" of helpers.

As always, Lauren heads up the A-team. She is our all-star, never-fail, completely trusted Tuesday/Thursday babysitter. She was a Division 1 All-American soccer player who is never fatigued by two boys; she is totally happy to run alongside them when they ride bikes or scooters. The boys love to play with her dogs, go swimming at her house, and visit her grandparents who live on a horse ranch at the edge of a canyon. Here's how much she adores Zach: She saved her license plate registration sticker so that Zach could put it on himself, because she knew it would be the highlight of his week (it was). We are dreading the day next spring when she moves to Northern California and gets married, but we'll definitely have a super-cool person to visit.

Our trusted babysitter Rose is another one we are holding close while we can; she is a college undergrad who works for us in summers and on breaks. Rose is our go-to source for anything having to do with films or books; she's been known to talk to Luke for hours about Harry Potter and Hunger Games. Rose is also a cat lover who volunteered (!) to come over and stay with Kaya on the 4th of July while we were gone just to make sure she was OK with the fireworks. Again, a keeper.

Madison is our young up-and-comer; she finished high school on her own after moving here last year with her family. She has an amazing sense of humor, a delightful sense of mischief, and an unflappable cool about her that makes her seem older than her years. Needless to say, the boys adore her and ask for her often.

Kiara only babysat for us a handful of times but I'm mentioning her because I still consider her part of the team: She is a college student who was Zach's counselor at beach camp last year and she kept telling us how much she loved him, so we asked her to babysit several times last summer. This summer, when we first pulled up at beach camp, she was beside herself with excitement: "Zach!!!! I'm so happy you're back! I was just telling the other counselors that I was hoping we would see you this year!" So, yeah, whenever your kid generates that kind of enthusiasm in someone, you want them around.

Zach also has his own "team" this summer; his counselors who work with him on social, speech, and physical skills all day long from 8 am to 5pm. We have to have an adult at home the whole time that they are there, so it's not much of a break in it for us, but it relieves some of the pressure of having to come up with activities.

Pat, the lead counselor, is the guy that every kid wants to hang around with: He's athletic, funny, comes up with crazy games, and (we love this part) doesn't put up with bad behavior. He literally gets his feet wet with Zach every week at beach camp, at the waterslides and pools at day camp, and during water gun battles in our backyard.

Sharie is our M/F morning counselor who has Zach whipped into shape - He's dressed with teeth brushed and bed made before he leaves the house in the morning, and somehow he thinks she's hilarious.

Jac has the rough job of being the late afternoon counselor who arrives just as Zach has had his fill of work for the day. ("These babysitters are all RUINING my plans for the DAY!" he griped when she arrived last week at the end of a particularly long day.) Jac is focusing on social niceties and she has her fake sneeze down to a science (to make sure he "God Bless-es" her). Yesterday I overheard a priceless dialogue as Jac was trying explain to Zach and his little friend why it was important to excuse yourself after you pass gas...much to their amusement and complete obliviousness.

And last but not least, Luke has two coaches: Pete for baseball, and Grant for surfing. Yes, our kids need a surf coach. Considering how much one-on-one time Zach gets, it's only fair for Luke to have at least one guy to look up to. And both Pete, a late-20s character with a thick Brooklyn accent, and Grant, a recent high school grad who is headed off to college in the fall, are "good people."

Now the problem is that even with all of these team members, we still have to get the kids where they need to go. So that's why, in one 24-hour period yesterday, I put 120 miles on my car. That was driving to Zach's camp, driving to work, driving back to pick Zach up, driving home, and then driving to pick Luke up from film camp (which he loves, by the way - "Best. Camp. Ever.")

Will we ever have kid-free time? This morning I told them how much I would miss them when they are both in college. "Don't worry, Mom, I'm going to come and visit you a lot," Zach assured me. "And when I get out of college I'm going to live...on top of you."

50

Fifty years of anything is a hard thing to wrap your mind around, but 50 years of marriage? Talk about a rare combination of love, commitment, and luck.

We had the good fortune this weekend of celebrating Dave's parent's 50th anniversary, and it was everything we had hoped it would be: a brilliant day of family and memories.



The whole gang



What I had hoped to say, although I probably said so inelegantly at the party, is that I'm grateful to Dave's parents for setting a lifelong example of what it means to nurture a marriage day in and day out. Their example to us is that it's not about the grandiose gestures, it's about the little things.

And here I'll get even more inelegant and go off on a tangent to talk about gasoline. As a Jersey girl, I've never loved pumping my own gas. When I first met Dave, not only would he fill up my tank for me, but he would carefully and precisely clean off each window with the squeegee until my windshield was cleaner than I ever would have kept it. Earlier this week, the boys and I had to drive somewhere, but Dave rode in the car with us to the gas station around the corner so that he could fill up my tank for me before we drove away. "Boys," he told Luke and Zach, "When you're married, you'll need to remember that the secret is to do nice little things for each other, and then that makes you keep wanting to do more nice little things for each other." And sooner or later, you've made it through 50 years...

OK, back to the program:

Tony, Dave, and Suzi consulting on the toast

The siblings reminisce and lead a toast to their parents

One amazing thing about the party was that there were two people there (Suzi and Jerry) who had been at the wedding 50 years ago, and there were plenty of friends who have been in Bobbie and Dick's lives for 40 years or more. On the video screen they played a steady loop of old Super-8 movies and you'd hear a chorus of recognition through the crowd every time a familiar face appeared on the screen.

Someone in this picture is tired of posing for the camera

Is it possible for the kids to begin to wrap their minds around how lucky they are to be able to celebrate this milestone with family all around? In a word, no. They just know they're having fun. (Huge thanks to Jerry, a.k.a. Cuz, for all of the extra pictures!)

Phone-tertainment

Buncha bros

Three ladies

Golden glow (OK, Instagram filter)

Day of the Did

School's out, summer's in...and if you followed my Instagram, you'd think all I do is hang out at hotels and go out to sumptuous dinners. That's only partly true. Yes, we did drive 200 miles round-trip to Bakersfield just for our annual molcajete fix. That, and to see Unk and Craig.

Dave and I starved ourselves all day so we'd be extra-hungry for Las Molcajetes, and when the massive steaming cauldrons of Mexican stew finally arrived at our table, they did not disappoint. Craig let us get about halfway through them before mentioning, "You know, people usually order those things to share..."

We did an overnight at the hotel in Bakersfield and the boys and I got our fill of swimming while Dave finalized a deal. This is sure to be the ongoing theme of the summer... the boys and I finding entertainment while Dave continues to work 24-7. The bad part: Less of Dave to enjoy. The good part: He is truly enjoying what he does, and he's good at it.

In yet another attempt to get the boys out of the house, I dragged them off to Watts Towers last weekend. One of our summer resolutions was to get out there because the boys had both studied them in art class this year. We thought we'd have the 11 am tour to ourselves, until a tour bus full of hipsters pulled up. My annoyance turned to disbelief, however, when I realized that it was in fact Mark Zuckerberg and 15 of his closest pals. I tried to play it cool, but I did some furtive whispering to Luke and I instructed him to take as many pictures as he felt like taking, and if he could possibly get that man in those pictures that would be cool too. 

There's me on the left with the striped skirt, and there's Mark Zuckerberg on the right taking a picture. Hey, come to think of it, maybe I'm in some of his pictures.

On Monday morning we packed up all of our coolest clothes (temperature-wise; I'm sure there were some fairly uncool clothes in the bunch) and jetted off to Las Vegas, or Lis Vigis as we call it in our house. Luke has this language that he started in which all vowels are replaced with a short "i". It sounds ridiculous to even write it down, but it's addicting and has become the standard pronunciation in our house. "Mom" is "Mim", Zach is "Zich", and Dad is "Did" - which is why Father's Day was known in our family as "Day of the Did."

So we rinted a cir and stayed at the "Vinitian," a.k.a. the Venetian (I am not kidding about this short-i thing) and braved the 115-degree heat for a week. "What did you do?!?" would be the incredulous question from most people I know. We swam in the lovely Roman-bath-style pools. We admired the lovely shops and artwork. We strolled through the "canals" and "St. Mark's Square."

...and finally on Tuesday we had a joyful reunion with Suzi and Bill and the Florida crew. Tuesday night was the best; we had great seats near the front of the Blue Man Group show and everyone - young and old - had a raucous and pants-splittingly good time. (Er, maybe I should only speak for myself on that.)

This is the wild and crazy finale where giant illuminated balls and streamers dropped down from the sky

Wednesday the "bigs" (older cousins) played paintball while the "littles" got their jollies at the children's museum. I can't speak for the paintball crowd, but apparently it was quite a workout with those head-to-toe jumpsuits and the lack of air conditioning in the paintball warehouse.

Thursday we headed out to the middle of nowhere in the desert (yes! voluntarily!) to visit a little abandoned mining town-slash-ghost town, where we got a fun history lesson and a very refreshing mine tour. While it was still in the 110's outside, it was a cool 64 degrees inside the mine.

Some of my Instagram photos; don't mind the stylized filters. I was trying to convey heat.

Oh, and that day also happened to be this little holiday known as the Fourth of July. It was quite an unusual day because it was the first day in at least seven months that we could think of that Dave was not working. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't have, because there was no phone service in the desert. But it was a very good thing. When we got back to Lis Vigis we celebrated with an afternoon comedy and magic show. The craziest trick: The guy ate his pet guinea pig... and then brought it out later. But I have no idea how he pretended to eat it.

Finally, we needed fireworks to close out the day. We caught this show from the Venetian balcony:

On the last day, (sob!) we met up with the cousins for our traditional last-day-of-Vegas brunch at Bellagio.

Danish at the Bellagio brunch

Then, stuffed like plump sausages, we headed over to the Stratosphere to see if the elevator there could possibly lift our over-stuffed selves up to the top of the tower (spoiler: it could). At the 108th floor (indoor observation tower) I was feeling a little woozy and Luke wasn't too much happier. But Dave and Zach, with their stomachs of iron, decided to head up one more level to the outdoor observation tower to snap a few pictures.

Long story short: Just after Dave and Zach came down, there was some lightning in the sky, which caused them first to close down the outdoor level, and then to close down the whole upper level as well. Fortunately we were already on our way back down at that point so we didn't get stuck in the whole enormous rush to get down from the tower. Lucky break? Let me tell you...

Zach is the coin-finder in our family. Everywhere he goes, he finds money. When we got to the airport this afternoon, he was extraordinarily proud of himself because he had found a total of 42 cents during the trip (which means he came out far ahead of me, after I lost money on the slots). He was bragging about this just as we passed the TSA team in the security line, and one of the agents overheard him and motioned for both boys to come over. "See these coins?" asked the agent. "People emptied these out of their pockets. But we can't keep the money. It'll go straight to Uncle Sam...unless you want it." Zach yelped with joy and gratefully accepted the additional 95 cents. Now that's what I call a jackpot. Or possibly a jickpit.

Breather

Last weekend Dave and I jumped the gun on vacation and took a pre-summer kid-free mini-break to Terranea. Enough said right there. But when the kids came and joined us the next morning, we got a chance to enjoy the whole hike/swim/oceanside experience together.

View from the room



You can just barely make out Dave waving from our balcony on the top floor, the non-covered balcony on the end.



Boys walking and holding hands what-what?



Zach just zips right down that slide



Dave made such an enormous splash the lifeguard had to stand up and mop himself off.

And my favorite, a video I call, "Was that slow?"

Looks like the end of the school year is coming in 3...2...1...Boom! What do we do now?

In motion/ stop motion

OK - Should I just start posting stuff without pictures/videos, or should I wait until I should get all forms of media coordinated? Because that might take a while.

Anyway, I had no idea it would be *this* easy to help Zach learn to ride a bike with no training wheels. I figured there'd be tears, protests, and frustration. But I asked our babysitter Lauren to help him with it one day after school while I was working. That afternoon, while I was sitting in my office, she texted me a video of Zach...riding around the backyard nonchalantly as if he'd done it his whole life. Well, OK then. That was easy. Now the boys just hang out and ride bikes. [Insert adorable bike-riding video here]

Luke most definitely did not like his baseball team, with many younger kids on it this year. But he did spend a lot of time on skill-building and he did have the opportunity to be a hero on more than one occasion. Dave and I were not able to stick around at Luke's team party after the last game, so we didn't get to hear what the coach had to say about him at the trophy presentation until Luke gave us the full report in the morning.
Dave: "So what did the coach say about you?"
Luke: "He said I started the season with a grand slam, and I ended it with a triple..."
Dave: "And then what else did he say?"
Luke, grinning: "You couldn't really hear because everyone started shouting, 'L-F! L-F! L-F!' and his words kind of got drowned out."

[Insert video of triple here]

I've been working with Zach on his big sea life report over the past three weeks. For some reason I thought his presentation was on Wednesday. But it turned out it was on Monday, and what unfolded was an extreme comedy of errors.

Dave had dropped us all off at school on Monday; I walked the kids to class and then the plan was for me to go for a long walk - which is why I didn't have my car or my phone with me. When I found out that the presentation was supposed to be that morning, I ran the one mile home (!), frantically slapped a few more pictures and words onto the posterboard, and grabbed the electric car to zip back to school by his 8:30 presentation time.

Meanwhile, Dave, emerging from the shower, somehow heard none of this... and came downstairs to find the front room looking nearly ransacked and the electric car gone. He figured there was no way I could have come home by then and taken the car... So, fearing the worst, he called the police to report the electric car stolen.

Meanwhile, as I was filming Zach's presentation, I got a series of frantic texts from Dave. "Do you have the car?" "I need to know ASAP to call off the police." Finally I stopped filming long enough to reply:

"Filming presentation. I have cat."

"*Car."

Dave says he had to give the police a physical description of me because if they had seen me in the "stolen" car they would have stopped me at gunpoint. Sheesh. Talk about starting your morning with a little adrenaline. And people wonder why I don't need coffee.

The highlight of Zach's presentation for me was when the teacher said, "So tell me a little bit about some of these pictures on your board." And Zach replied, "Well, my mom went out and bought some gray felt. And I traced the shape of the shark and cut it out and then glued it on the board. And the felt was only 39 cents."

[Insert video of Zach's presentation here]

What's that - you wanted pictures? OK, so, everyone gives me a hard time about playing Freecell. It's just a little mindless release I have. But I don't play it to win - (boring, because I know I can always win) - I play it to challenge myself to see how few moves I can make. I am proud to report that a few days ago I set a personal record, 65 moves to win, which put me on the international leaderboard as 8th best of all time in terms of fewest moves to complete a game. You can call me Queen of the Time-Killers.

Sky rockets in flight

What do you get when you combine a kid who loves explosions with a whole bunch of engineers with too much time on their hands? The annual rocket launch day at Boeing, of course. Zach built his soda-bottle rocket, filled it with water, and...BLAMMO! Off into the stratosphere. Well, at least into the air for a few seconds.

For Mother's Day, we did something a little different. Instead of driving to brunch in a, you know, regular car...we headed out in a limo. The fact that we were limo novices was readily apparent once Dave poured Zach a glass of ice water from the pitcher...and it turned out to be vodka. Happy Mother's Day indeed.

We came back down to earth and lived a somewhat normal life for a few days... and then got all gussied up again for the epic "Godfather" fundraiser on Saturday night. This was a glamorous Monte-Carlo-style bash at one of the biggest houses in town. What to wear...what to wear...I decided to represent New Jersey with a glittery top, lots of gold chains, and five-inch gold heels. (This pic is for my mom, who can't believe I walked around like this all night, and who wanted to make sure I let people know that I most certainly did not come from that part of New Jersey.)

When we walked in, we were surrounded by tuxedoed men, women dripping in fur and jewels, and this attractive (and surprisingly delicious) cake:

Dave was riding high at the blackjack table, but sadly we left before he could cash in his "winnings" (raffle tickets for a midnight drawing). But he did parlay at least one of his dinner conversations into gaining some new clients, so it was all good...

...Except for the lowest moment of my week, which came at 5:00 am the next morning. I jolted awake with a splitting champagne headache, and got hit with the sudden realization, "I'm throwing a party at the beach for 28 kids today." (cue long, slow sad trombone). I never was able to get back to sleep so my long day started early and painfully.

Zach had originally wanted his party to be a crystal hunt at the rocky beach. But I could never quite wrap my mind around the logistics of setting up a party there, so we had arranged the next best thing: a crystal hunt at our closest beach, with crystals that we would bury ourselves.

We set it up by creating a special crystal hunt area, marked off by Dave's "open house" flags, and some glittery mesh ribbon. The astonishing part about this whole crazy scheme is that it worked, beyond our wildest imagination. It actually functioned as a kid containment area on the beach, so all of the parents could hang out and relax because the kids only wanted to be in the crystal area.

Of course it helped that we had an enormous Mexican buffet (not pictured) set up right next to the crystal hunt, so everyone had a chance to chow down before going back for more. And it helped that we had the most beautiful afternoon of the year so far. And it helped that we had some extra hired hands to help with kid wrangling, setup, and cleanup. People stayed until well after 5 pm, and as we left, one of the moms gave me the most glowing compliment I could have asked for: "Best. Party. Ever."

And then, finally, I came back down to earth... and slept.