Vacation Pt 2

After Indio we went down to San Diego to spend a week at Husband's sisters house.  It's about a 2 hour drive, which was for the most part a piece of cake.  The van we rented was equipped with a GPS, which kept recalculating our route, "based on updated traffic info," so we took the scenic route down, through several towns (pretty sure the stop lights made our trip longer) and through some "mountains."

 

Family story time the first night.  Husband had another sister come back to the house as well so we got to hang with her and her kids as well.

The train at the zoo.  We didn't go to the San Diego Zoo, we did that just two years ago.  But the train was fun.  The train runs at night during the Christmas season and has bunches of lights.  We went back the last night it was running, to wait for 30 minutes because it had rained, and half the lights had shorted out.  Oh well, it was fun.  And the boys love trains, so two train rides = awesome for them!

We went to the beach twice.  The first time was to the awesome park to watch the sunset.  #1 LOVED this.  The sand goes through the holes and comes out of a spout at the back.

It's coming.  The water is coming!

Yum yum, have fun changing my diaper!

Fresh squeezed lemon juice.  I guess when you live in Southern California and your friend has a lemon tree, you can afford to do cool things with your kids like squeeze lemonade.

Sleep mom with sleep baby on the red eye.  We drove back to Palm Springs to fly home.  While waiting the three hours until check-in, we killed time going to the local air museum in Palm Springs, which was actually pretty cool.  Did you know that Bob Hope was from England?  And I'm pretty sure I read that he tried to join the military during WW2 and was turned down so that he could tour for the USO instead?  Who knew!

 

We had a great time and it was a nice break from the cold we had been having back home.  The beach was really nice, even in the middle of "winter."  If we lived there I'd be taking the boys everyday it wasn't raining.  They had such a great time.  We brought some small trucks so they dug trenches and made mud sinkholes.  It sort of sucked leaving.  If there was a downside to coming back to NP, it was the realization that life could be enjoyed EVERYDAY outdoors if we didn't live here.  :(

An Eye Update

 

So the patch is actually not going too bad.  Scratch that, I should say it's going fabulous.  We got back from vacation the middle of January and started the patch from the get go.  #2 wakes up in the morning and the patch is put on within 30 minutes of waking up.  It's off at nap time, and then back on again when he wakes up until bed.  It's worn between 7 and 8 hours a day.  There are days that are a little less, but I feel we are avoiding something that does have the potential to blow his pupil, and that's all I care about.  The first couple of weeks were a little rough.  I took a page from my Mom's playbook and very matter-of-factly stated that it's something that has to be done and there's no room for arguing or negotiating.  The only time he takes the patch off during waking hours is when he's sitting in the car bored; and really even that's stopped since I got smart and put a box of reserve patches in the van.  I do let him take the patch off when we are at someone else's house and there are a lot of people/commotion around.  Because he doesn't have peripheral vision in the patched eye, he has a tendency to run into walls and such.  Poor guy :( 

 

I was hopeful this would only take a month or so, but now I'm not so sure.  I spoke with a father whose daughter had a severe farsighted eye and they did the atropine drops for an ENTIRE YEAR.  So the last time I bought patches I bought the place out, cause I think we're in it for the long haul.  At the very least, if this doesn't work, we can tell him when he is grown that we, he, did all the necessary things and that it's something that just wasn't going to be correctable.  But, let's hope it doesn't come to that.  Please think happy well wishes for this little guy.  I hope he doesn't have any memories of everybody constantly asking what's wrong with his eye.  I think we've pretty much explained it to just about every body we know and now all that's left are strangers.  And really that's not a bad thing because it has given us the opportunity to educate other parents the importance of paying attention to their child's eyes and to get them in early for a vision check.

 

And just because I can, here they all are enjoying each other's company.  I'd say this never happens but in a blue moon, but that wouldn't be true.  We have one or two of these moments a day :)

Vacation Pt.1 Indio



The McGilvary family flew to Indio, California over Christmas vacation to celebrate Husband's parents 50th wedding anniversary.  The only flight leaving around the time we needed to get there left at 1:30am Christmas Day.  For those who don't know me, I HATE traveling overnight.  It's been my experience that it's much better for your kids to miss naps then to miss a whole night of sleep due to traveling.  We arrived in Indio at 11am on Christmas day, starving.  Luckily there was an "In and Out Burger" open.  I figured we were going to California so there should be at least one place open for business.  We stayed the night at Embassy Suites (best place ever in my experience) and checked into the WorldMark Resort on the 26th.  While we stayed we had our own two bedroom suite with full kitchen, two baths, and laundry.  A lot of family traveled down so it was wonderful to have our own space to retreat to for naps, bedtime, meal time, etc.  I think at final count there were around 60 people that had come through during the week stay.

 



ALL the immediate family.  Six children plus spouses, and 18 total grandchildren.  Ours are numbers 13, 17, 18.

 

A bunch of the younger cousins hanging out watching a movie.  There are probably a dozen or so missing.  Also, this peacefulness lasted about 10 minutes.  Then the boys decided to play pillow fight on the bed and the girls got all bossy.

 

 Our family portrait.

#1 LOVED the kiddy wading pool.  He won't put his face in the water so this was perfect.  There was also a "lazy river" that he went on everyday.  The pool was heated so it was awesome.  Totally should have gone in much more then we did.

This was really cool, it's a sky tram that goes up a mountain. On top there is a national park with trails.

On one of the trails (the only short one we did).  There was about 7 inches of snow and well, this was last minute and we of course didn't bring our winter gear to California, so it was a short walk.  Down below there are hundred of windmills, pretty amazing to see them all.

 

We stayed in Indio for a week.  It was a bit chilly (yeah yeah I know, it doesn't compare to here) but it was windy.  The resort was really nice.  They had two small parks that the cousins would meet at and play.  There was a welcome bbq and then a 50th celebration.  There was tie-dying shirts, a big family breakfast, and a boys day out.  (The women tried, but they couldn't come to a consensus what to do.)

 

After Indio we drove to San Diego to spend a week with one of Husband's sisters for a week at her house.  That will be pt 2!



Merry Christmas (albeit a little late)

Trying to get a decent picture in front of the tree.  Yeah right!

This year we celebrated Christmas a day early due to a family vacation, in which we were flying over Christmas Eve, into Christmas Day.  Luckily our kiddos are still young enough they don't know the details and don't mind!  They had a great time opening presents and playing with all their new toys.  #3 liked chewing and playing with the boxes, of course, don't all babies!

The small trucks.  These went on our trip with us (and to the beach!)

Professional unwrappers.

 

My First Born is 4!!!

Yes, I understand this is (several, whoops) months late...but better late then never they say. 

Happy Birthday #1, you are now 4!  Wowza!  It has been quite the ride.  It's been amazing to watch him grow into the person he will become.  This past year #3 has proven to be quite the big brother.  He has become quite the helper with both his brothers.  He wants to play with them.  He encourages them; whether it be learning to crawl, or building a tower, #1 is always there with cheers and claps for his brothers success. 

Also, can I just say that 4 is an awesome age?!?!  I guess growing up is like a fine wine, it gets better with age.  Each new milestone is incredible.  He has all of a sudden put so much together on his own; he can spell his name, count to 15, has number recognition to 10, and recognizes all of the letters of the alphabet.  Best thing, I had do hardly anything!  I mean, I'm sure that the books, and the conversations, and the play, and all that contributed, but it's crazy how kids pick up on all these things without having to sit down and do rote memorization!!!

So happy birthday to my first born!  While I'm saddened that I can't freeze our family in time, I can't wait to see what else this year has in store for you, and what you'll teach me.