We went on a cruise last week, did you miss me? My in-laws decided to take their three children and their families on vacation with them, so off we went, all 14 of us. It was a good vacation, even if we went to the Mexican Riviera in the summer and my sister-in-law looked at my belly and asked if I was having twins.
Here’s me and my belly with my two oldest children in Cabo San Lucas.
Boo had a spectacularly good time since he stayed in a stateroom with his two uncles and his boy cousin, who is also 11 years old. We dubbed their room, “The Man Cave”. I felt sorry for their female room attendant.
Pumpkin Girl was thrilled to have a rock climbing wall on board. She even entered the children’s rock climbing contest and came in 4th – behind three 11 year old girls! Here she is, on her way to the top:
During our days in port, Bip went to the kids’ club. It was actually his choice and it seemed a little strange to leave him behind while we went ashore, but it was a good decision. It was hot and humid and all we did was walk and shop. He would have hated it! Instead, he got to play games and have fun and eat pizza for lunch.
But now we’re home and in recovery mode. Laundry is done and suitcases are put away, now we’re trying to get back to normal. Ballet classes have started back up again and I seriously need to see about getting some school done.
I have returned.
When I said I had a lot to do before Easter, I didn’t mention that those plans included a road trip to Tucson. Philip and I sponsored one more person in the Church at the Easter Vigil this year. We’re getting very good at this. We might have to start charging for our services.
Just kidding!
I do enjoy the Easter Vigil. I don’t mind how long it is, I just wish it wasn’t so late at night. Though this year mass started at a very awkward time. We had to be there at 5 PM for the 3 hour mass that started at 6 PM. Hello? Just when were we supposed to eat dinner? We ended up having an early first lunch then a later second lunch and all was well.
OK, so other than food issues, the mass was beautiful. I love coming in to a dark church and sitting there, listening to the readings chronicling man’s history without salvation. In the dark. Like us, during Lent. Then we get to the Gloria, the lights come on and we’re all standing and singing “Glory to God in the Highest…” It’s an awesome moment. Boo glanced over to me and said, “We made it!” It’d been a long, dark Lent and we were glad it was over. Glad to be living in the light.
Then…the best Gospel of the year – earthquakes and angels and empty tombs. He has Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia.
And onward to the baptisms and confirmations. This church does full immersion baptisms, which just so totally rocks. A good time was had by all.
On Monday, we headed home. The drive out to Tucson was fun, as we all looked forward to seeing our cousins and there were lots of new sights to see along the way. The ride home was painful. The scenery was exactly the same as it was 2 days earlier, the kids were getting on each other’s nerves and John Denver’s lyrics “It’s a long way from this place to Denver” kept running through my head. The wind was absolutely wicked on the way home, and on the last day we saw 2 semis that had tipped over in the wind. We came up on the first one after the sheriff did, but before all the other first responders. The driver was walking away with the help of the sheriff, thank God. Made us very nervous about passing semis for the rest of the trip. But we made it home safely.
The next day it snowed. School closing and late openings, soccer practice cancelled. Good to be home.
And now, I have some work to do on my blog. I need to upload a newer version of my template, then change the code to be what I want. Bottom line – my blog will be sporting coffee theme for a little bit while I work behind the scenes. Then it’ll be back to its usual Easter theme.
Our impromptu trip to Disneyland was success. We were able to pull it off because of the military appreciation tickets that Disney was offering, by staying at the Disneyland Hotel for free with our vacation club points and getting good air fare. It all just came together like it was meant to be.
We were able to spend a whole day with my grandparents and nuclear-extended family (as opposed to the whole, entire clan). Pumpkin Girl just loves my grandparents house – she says she feels cozy there. The boys love it, too. It’s hard not to have fun when you are surrounded by love! The next day, my cousin April and her son joined us at Disneyland, which was a nice treat for all the kids.
I won’t bore you with all the details, since we seem to have a Disney trip every year. But here are some of the highlights:
Boo rode on the Haunted Mansion, with his eyes open this time.
I went on the Matterhorn for the first time in years. I’ve been pregnant during almost every trip, except the last one and that time the Matterhorn was closed.
In an attempt to curb the souvenir buying frenzy this year, we limited the children to 2 souvenirs each. We suggested that they keep lists during the week of the things they saw and we’d come back later to buy their top 2 selections. This worked wonderfully for Pumpkin Girl who divided her list into three parts, ranked by how much she wanted each one. The plan totally backfired on me when I told Bip to put the stuffed Eve (from Wall E) on his list, and when he talked about it constantly and was very, very sure that that was something he wanted, returned to buy it…and it was sold out. As in, the whole darn park was out. I spent 3 days looking in every darn store, asking cast members, all in vain. We were successful in finding her before we left, so a catastrophe was averted.
Boo coolly turned down Jedi Training Academy again this year, stating matter of factly that he was already a trained Jedi. Pumpkin Girl, however, wanted to attend. When the Jedi master began choosing Padawans, I told her to jump up and down and wave both her arms and make lots of noise. She was chosen, trained and then battled Darth Vader. He found her lack of pants faith disturbing. She defeated him anyway. She’s fierce.
We happened to be at the right place at the right time when the Monorail arrived and asked to ride in the rear compartment. These private compartments are bigger now, so our whole family fit and we got an amazing view on our way into the park.
Hopefully, this trip will give us our Disney fix for a while. Though I hear another cruise is in the plans…
So…Thursday night our conversation turned to Disneyland and Philip said, “We should go!”
Friday morning we booked the hotel, flights and picked up the military appreciation tickets at the local Army base.
And as I type it is Saturday night and I’m in the Disneyland Hotel, ready to start enjoy our impromtu vacation.
We’re probably crazy, but we’re enjoying ourselves. I’ll see you when we get back home…
You will be happy to know that the rest of our journey west was uneventful, boring even. From Ohio we got to Missouri and stopped for the night and a swim in the hotel pool. The next two days droned on as Missouri turned into Kansas turned into Colorado. Hundreds of thousands of miles, or so it seemed, of endless farmlands. Corn, corn and more corn. We were focused on our goal, so we resisted the temptation of stopping to see the World’s Biggest Big Mac, the World’s Biggest Prairie Dog, or the World’s Biggest Van Gogh. However, we did ponder the ability of the World’s Largest Prairie Dog to eat the World’s Largest Big Mac. Finally we turned off the interstate and headed southwest, with Pike’s Peak barely visible in the distance. Colorado slowly began to distinguish itself from Kansas as the Rocky Mountains grew larger and at last we reached our new hometown.
As we made the final turns to our new home, my heart started to beat faster. It still seemed a bit surreal to be going home- our home – for the first time.
And so here we are. We’ve seen 7 deer, 2 were in the dry creek behind our house, 3 were in the park across the street and one was in the grocery store parking lot. Apparently there are coyote in the bluff behind the park, and black bears are not unheard of. The children have already put a hole in the hammock we bought from the previous owners.
The new roof that the previous owners are paying for is taking like 4 times longer than it should, but at least it’s getting done. We had the carpets deep cleaned and discovered that they are actually a lighter color than we’d thought! We also got the locks changed and the cable set up. All that we need now is our actual furniture and that will arrive on Friday.
The other evening we sat on our deck and enjoyed the cool mountain air. An occasional breeze stirred up the Aspen trees behind our house and it all felt so right.
It’s good to be home.
I really should know better than to make plans. God always seems to intervene and our first day on the road was no different.
First, we overslept, then took longer to load the car than we’d planned, leaving an hour late. We took it stride and gleefully called out goodbye’s as we passed the landmarks of our lives.
“Goodbye, Bolling AFB”
“Goodbye, poopoo plant!”
“Goodbye, Wilson Bridge!”
And then I promptly headed us in the wrong direction as I navigated Philip through the 95/495 split. And again as I sent us on the toll road through Pennsylvania. Oops.
Meanwhile, the human resources department from Philip’s probable employer finally called while we were on the road and made him an official offer, so he called them back while we stopped for lunch. This delayed us another 30 minutes.
And then, during a midafternoon potty break, Pumpkin Girl discovered that it hurt when she peed. Then within 5 minutes had to pee again. Which hurt even more.
Great ooglie booglie.
So while we gassed up, I got on the phone with our “insurance” company who informed me that I needed a written referral from our doctor to be able to go to an urgent care place, or sit in an ER all night. R-i-g-h-t. Government health care at its finest right there. Coming to a home near you.
My original thought was to keep calling back until I got a better answer when I realized that Wright Patterson AFB was right along the way and we could stop at their ER.
Which we did. Two and half hours later, we were back on the road, meds in hand, and arrived at our final destination for the day 30 minutes later.
11:00 PM. Five hours later than planned.
But all’s well that end’s well. By the end of the day we’ll be halfway through our trip and Pumpkin will be feeling much better.
On our second day of house hunting, Pike’s Peak was clearly visible, strong and silent and covered with snow. The rain was gone and the temperatures were mild and we were confident that God would reveal our new house to us, just as he had revealed the mountain.
We were right.
I’m reluctant to share too many pictures here because the house is still occupied and the pictures are full of their stuff.
But I will show you the kitchen.
And the view from the dining room into the backyard.
And check out the staircase -
And for good measure, this is the park directly across the street.
We close on June 30th.
As Boo used to say so often, “God has blessed us again!”
Our trip to Colorado got off to a rather inauspicious start. For some unknown reason that I’m sure made sense at the time, President Obama decided to embark on his trip to the Middle East from Dulles International Airport, instead of from Andrews AFB, like he’s supposed to. So instead of taking off on time, we sat on the tarmac and waited for the President to leave.
Finally he was gone and we were allowed to take off. By the time we arrived in Colorado Springs it was 1:00 in the morning.
We spent all the next day looking at houses. It was rainy and cold, and of course we were wearing summer clothes. But we trudged on, trying to find the perfect house. But mid afternoon we were all tired and our real estate agent let us go while he took everything we’d said about the houses and put together a more precise list of homes that were what we wanted.
After a nap and a huge rainstorm, Pike’s Peak finally emerged from the clouds.
I’d been talking about wanting to see it all day, so when Philip came back to our room from getting groceries, he asked the children if they wanted to go outside and see “Mama’s Mountain.” And that’s what everyone calls it now.
I have to say that I’m enamored with Colorado Springs. The area where we looked for homes was wonderfully suburban with every shop and restaurant you could want. They even have “Five Guys” – a burger place that started in DC and is one of our favorites. Everything was wide and spacious, which is a huge change from the overcrowding of the DC Metro area. Not that DC doesn’t have a lot to offer, I just love the mountains and I always have! The Rocky Mountains are visible from pretty much everywhere and during our house hunting we saw rabbits, deer and a fox.
We hit the local mall and let Bip work out some extra energy playing in the kids area called “Tyke’s Peak.” It was the first thing we saw in the mall and while he played I went to check the directory to see what kinds of stores they had. I was thinking to myself that if they had an Orange Julius, I’d be in heaven.
So do they? Of course they do! Not only that, but a store called “All Things Catholic.” A Catholic store! Right there in the mall! I have only ever seen one other Catholic store and that one is here in Old Town Alexandria and run by Pauline nuns.
So we were more than a little bit pleased with the mall. You can tell so much about a community by the quality of the local shopping.
When we left the mall it was 5pm. On a Friday. By all accounts, it should have been rush hour traffic at its worst. What we saw made us laugh so hard and was so unbelievable that we had to take a picture.. Ladies and gentlemen…Colorado Springs on a Friday at 5pm:
Go ahead and click on that picture to make it larger and enjoy the wide open highway. And the bird poop on our window.
As Little Orphan Annie once sang, “I think I’m gonna like here!”
We’re off to Colorado today to go house hunting. It’s all very exciting and if I can get all the little people to stop saying, “uh…Mama?” every three minutes, I might actually be able to get us packed, deal with the moving guy coming to take inventory of our junk household goods and explain to Boo once again how I want him to pack five shirts, one of which needs to have a collar, not five shirts plus a collared shirt.
And remember to pack the checkbook.
Our Catholic homeschool group took the show on the road Friday with a field trip to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Or just the Basilica, for short.
After getting lost taking the scenic route in the rain, we still managed to get there in time for mass in the crypt chapel, where our group was welcomed – by name- by the officiating priest. Then lunch in the cafeteria where it looked for a moment that we were not going to be able to find seats for the 22 of us, but by the time we’d gone through the line all sorts of tables had opened up.
After lunch we had a guided tour. I’d love to say that it was wonderful, but our guide talked sooo fast that he was difficult to understand. I was trying hard to hear what he had to say, and I know that the children missed most of it. I got some great pictures, though.
The basilica contains over 70 chapels and oratories dedicated to Our Lady, and they reflect the cultures and traditions of people around the world. This one, to Our Lady of Lourdes, is a replica of the grotto in France.
I’m not sure why it had a gate in front of it.
Bip was on a potty break when we saw the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I took him back to see it and asked him if he knew who it was. “Mary!” he said in that cute preschooler way he has.
I showed him Juan Diego, with the roses spilling out of his tilma.
I thought Our Lady of China was beautiful -
Walking into the main part of the church, this is the ceiling -
And a close up of one of the domes…
When you’re visiting DC, don’t miss the Basilica! They have free pamphlets available to help you find your way or you can purchase a more in depth guide. Both are available in the bookstore or gift shop. There’s free parking, always a plus in DC!
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