Gametes In Love

We had quite the adventure last week. We spent 4 nights in Florida visiting with family, walking through the world of Harry Potter and … spending an un-anticipated extra night when we missed our flight home.

Let’s start from the top.

Shane had a business conference in Orlando last week. As it just so happened it was Ski Week at school so the kids were already looking at a week off. Grammie and Papa are wrapping up their FL winter so it made sense for Shane to extend his stay past the conference and for us to fly out to meet him.

The kids did awesome traveling! I was nervous flying with both of them by myself on a red eye, but they rocked it! (Gives me hope for the 22hr journey to Bulgaria alone with them this summer). I’m so jealous I’ve what their little bodies can do with those airplane seats.

Our hotel in Orlando was pretty perfect. Separate rooms with bunk beds. A big kid pool with water playground. Close to the RV park.

I worked all day Thursday, since a PM boot camp was scheduled over the first day of our visit. The kids spent time with Grammie and Pappa though, which was great.

Second day was all about Harry Potter. It was so cool to walk through it. The world JK Rowling created is the first I have wished was real and I could witness. Alas, being a muggle, this is as good as it’s going to get. Knowing it’s not likely for us to do this again, we splurged on the park hopper pass so we can do both Diagon Alley and Hogwarts with the Hogwarts Express. Honestly, I enjoyed Diagon Alley much more. Maybe because by the time we got to Island of Adventure it was hot, I was tired and the kids were cranky.
G surprised me by declaring he didn’t want to do any rides. We kind of tricked him going on the Gringotts bank ride. After that it was a little harder to, though he admitted the ride wasn’t too bad. He just didn’t want to do anything that twirled and spined. So no Twirl and Hurl for you, kid!
One thing I will say is that I loved that US allows you to walk through Gringotts and Hogwarts even if you don’t want o do the rides. You clearly don’t go in the main attraction, but can take your time ooogling goblins and standing in awe of Dumbledore’s office.
Also, butter beer is delicious and the person that can keep supplying me with cold (not frozen) butterbeer will have my affection forever.
The kids got wands while I watched in slight jealousy because the inner me is decked out with it all.

We spend Saturday with Grammie and Pappa again, while Shane spent a few hours trying to setup a printer. He had one shipped, only to have to ship it back. Sorry, Grammie!

We were supposed to get home late Sunday night. Well, airlines had other ideas. We made our first flight fine, except for it having an issue, which delayed us leaving. And then when we landed, another plane was blocking access to our gate, so that completely made us miss our connecting flight. The kids ended up getting a free day off of school, since there weren’t any more flights back to the Bay Area that night. As much as I hate long lay overs at least I see some value in them now. Though, frankly, direct flight seem like the better bet.

Earlier this month G’s class did a trip to San Francisco’s Legion of Honor. I’ve never been and it’s been on my list of field trips to chaperone. I ended up with a group of awesome kids and we had a fun ride.

I love their class shirts. Aside from the fact that they’re the most obnoxious color (which clearly is that way for the reason of easily spotting a class member) each kid got to draw a picture of themselves, and their class is all on their shirts. Seriously, best year-book idea!

I’ve been a fan of mummies since I was about G’s age, and was super thrilled to see their mummy exhibit. Amazing to see the MRI scans of the mummified bodies.

I gave the kids in my car a treasure hunt. They had to find paintings from an 1) European artist; 2) whose name starts with a G; 3) done in oil media. Amazingly found one that fit all three criteria.

Here are some pics from our trip. Warning: photo overload.

The very next week, his class did a trip to Chinatown, in observance of Chinese New Year. As much fun as I had in Legion of Honor, I regret not doing Chinatown. Oh well! Now I know better and know what to be signing up for come S2’s class 🙂

Ah… yes — the kids have been talking about the stuff the used to do while they were in my belly. Griffin insist he was able to watch TV through my belly button. Storm, meanwhile is pretty certain he used to ride a bike in there. He drew me a picture.

Note — I am apparently not only capable of baking a human from a small collection of cells, but also have (successfully) laid out road infrastructure AND manufactured a bicycle to keep him entertained. Am I good mom, or what?

They weren’t too happy when I told them that babies pee in-utero… and then drink their own pee. That then inspired this lovely contribution 🙂

When referring to his art in the future, I shall call this his “In utero” period.

This year was the latest we hit up Eucalyptus ever. We went on Christmas Eve. Given how late it was, I was hoping it would be pretty empty, thinking people would be either at church, or with family. But… nope. It was as crowded as can be. And cold. Probably the fastest walk we’ve done on that block. But we did it. And the kids enjoyed their Eucalyptus trip hot chocolate 🙂

Hey I even got a smile out of Griffin. I had to ask for his “Now, show me you don’t want me to take your picture” look. Which you know is like… all the time. But after I kept asking for his angsty/mom you’re embarrassing me look, he couldn’t help with a smile. Gotcha!

Kids slept pretty late today. I had told them “no gifts before 7:30”, but it was 8 when Storm came down… and we had to wake Griffin up.

Oh, also, today marks the day I took one of my all-time favorite photos of my parents. Oh there will be a Christmas card of this next year. This I promise!

My parents brought a gingerbread house to make with the kids while they were here. It’s Christmas Eve. We’re home. What else better to do?

I offered G the job of beating the egg. He practices on the boxing bag a bit fist. And then gave the egg a talking to. Given how long it took it to get stiff in the KitchenAid, and Griffin’s first inklings of “I’m bored”, I’d still say the egg won ;p

The house didn’t last long. Kids wanted to eat it as soon as it was assembled. Verdict on the gingerbread? Good. Verdict on the fondant peoples? Well, just check out Storm’s face below.

Also, getting a “sweet” picture of these two together today? Apparently not happening. But… it is who they are, so unadulterated expressions are it.

Griffin. You have to choose your words pretty carefully with him, because he’s REALLY good at finding the line between what you say and what you mean. This SO does not bode well for us. Let’s share a story.

I’m in the car with the kids driving to school.

Me: Hey guys. I have a challenge for you. Should you chose to accept it…
Griffin: What is it?
Me: Ok, you have TWO days to complete this. If you see a kid in your school that is feeling down or sad, I want you to make them feel better. You know… lift them up.
Griffin: (after some pause) Can it be ANY kid, from ANY grade?
Me: Sure!
Griffin: Good! Cuz it’s pretty easy to lift a kindergardener. You just go behind them and pick them up.
Me: (head smack). No! “Lift up!” as in “lift up their spirits”. Make them happy, if they’re sad. No feet, on the part of the recipients can leave the ground.

Here is now where I’m seeing I also need to be more explicit.

Me: You’re also NOT allowed to make them sad first so you can make them happy.

Meanwhile, I know kid is cackling in the back. Sigh!

Three years ago I heard about Bethlehem A.D. It’s a re-enactment, of sorts, of the nativity story… except on a super big scale. Missed it the first year. Missed it the second year. This year, I set a reminder for myself to check out the event schedule and I put it on the calendar. Mom and Dad came in last night, and given the rain prognosis for today, last night was it. We hit up Old Spaghetti factory in downtown RWC for dinner. Shane had Griffin convinced for a little while that they didn’t actually serve spaghetti there: it was just called that (like “One Hour” dry cleaners…. how they’re never done in an hour?). Also that if they DID have any spaghetti, it was from left-overs… hence the “old”. G was borderline believing it.
Part of our dinner program included a study of Roman Numerals. Also a massive cheating scandal on Squares, where Griffin volunteered to play on my behalf, but did not honestly represent me. I* ended up with four squares, while Storm appropriated over 30.
We headed to after. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. The long line was a bit of a surprise, but it moved quickly enough and it wasn’t too bad. The setup was really impressive. Clearly this is a massive production, with lots of community volunteers. I was very impressed. Storm was in awe of everything, and that just makes me happy: not too often to get a chance to show our kids genuinely different.

Oh, I will stop here and tell you that Storm did not pay his taxes. We are awaiting the Roman guard to come arrest him any minute.

I am also so impressed with the little kid that played Jesus. There was aa strong light pointed at it, so many people walking through, loud music…. and kid totally kept it together. It was even asleep at one point. Say whaaaat????

Note: Photos are barely edited… but these days, it’s how I roll. Better this than nothing ;p

G has been home for the past 3 days. He came home early on Mon complaining of a stomach ache. No fever. Then he came home yesterday because he decided that showing people the contents of his stomach while on the playground was a good idea. Ya, he yacked. So he stayed home today, observing the 24 hour rule. Can you tell he’s a sick kid?

I managed to keep him away from the screen time until after lunch. I’ll admit he was awesome about it: he helped me clean the room my parents will be staying in, rested a bit (ha!) and then helped build a robot.

Oh yeah, pretty sure this is not how you use boxing gloves ;p

Polina and Lidat came up for Thanksgiving. One of their requests was to spend the day in the city… specifically Pier 39, playing Pokemon Go! Griffin is into it, so I thought, “Why not?”
It was fun!
We went to the aquarium, had lunch, and the kids played until my battery went just about dead. Perfectly timed with my car parking spot meter in 4 hours 🙂

At the aquarium, I told the boys they could buy something under 10 dollars, but they had to share. They picked a shark tooth necklace, which I’m sure was inspired by seeing Moana just the day before. Also, they had to work out the purchase through photos — which makes all both happy: they get something they want; I get something *I* want ;p
Their bigger toys came as gifts from Polina and Lidat. They both took stuffies home to boot, and as you can tell, pretty stoked about it. Storm named his otter “Watery”.

We had tonnes of sugar yesterday too. Mini doughnuts for them (since I don’t eat anything that has “doughnut” in the name); a crepe for me, and the boys’ first exposure to funnel cake. It was greasy as hell, and Storm couldn’t put it down.

More than anything I’m super stoked about how we timed out the rain just right. It was fine walking to the aquarium — started raining as soon as we got it; ended right as we got out after lunch. Started drizzling right in time for funnel cake — ended as soon as we were done, with enough time to get back to the car. Back home we pulled up to the gas station to pump, ended right as we needed to get into the grocery store. Rain had my back, I tells ya’!

Storm caught 4 pokemon yesterday. Griffin took down a gym. I’d say a good time was had by all. And here’s a tonne of photos to keep my album book happy. They’re barely edited, but I figured I’d take that over eternity in write-up.

For Storm’s birthday my sister asked me if it would be OK to get him a robot model kit. It didn’t involve any gluing, so I was willing to give it a go.

She warned me that it was for a slightly older age group, and I’d likely need to help him out. It was 15+.
She warned me the instructions were in Japanese.
She was really selling me here… can you tell???

Since Storm and I were looking at an unexpected Sunday at home, we decided to go for it and build it. My job? Take the pieces apart and hand them to him: his job…. assemble said pieces. Honestly I was preparing for this to become a project he would get 2-3 steps into and then realize was too hard & quit. One the ultimately *I* would end up building.

I was wrong.

Storm built the whole thing. By himself, save 3 steps that required some specialized snapping. In 4 hours.
I’m super impressed. We have another kit of a larger model. I’m thinking Christmas break fun-time.

Zoe needed to get in on the building action, but then realized it wasn’t really her jam, so she retreated to her cat-tree for a nap, knowing her people were close by.