4 Generations

Last year, some of you may remember that I flew to Oregon with Tanner to visit my only living grandparent. I hadn't seen her since my wedding day 4 years earlier and she can no longer travel. I really wanted to get a picture of my kids with their only living great-grandparent. The trip was hard - REALLY hard. Because my grandma lives in southern Oregon, the trip required us to fly from Maryland to San Francisco (with layovers), then drive from San Francisco to Medford, Oregon (6 1/2 hour drive) and then do the whole thing in reverse 2 days later. Tanner was a TERRIBLE traveler and it just about killed me to get through the weekend of travel, but in the end, I was thrilled I had introduced him to Grandma and had pictures for him to have after she is gone. I brought Tanner because we couldn't afford for all of us to go, and Tanner was free, so it only meant one plane ticket. But a year later (now), I began feeling like I really wanted Lacey to meet her too. Thus, Round 2 of the Oregon trip! Luckily, Lacey at 3 1/2 is a MUCH better traveler than T was at a week shy of his first birthday, so it was much easier on me. Here is Lacey very excited to get on the airplane!

We arrived in San Francisco on Friday night where we met up with my dad (who flew in from Chicago) and my sister, Maret (who lives there). The next morning, we drove up to Oregon and got there in time for a nice dinner. Lacey dressed up for dinner and to meet her Great-Grandma.

My dad has one sibling, who also lives in southern Oregon. My Uncle Jim is married with two kids, Tom and Jackson. I have only seen them once in the last 20 years. Maret hasn't seen them at all in 20 years. My aunt was pregnant with Jackson, now 20 years old, at our last family get-together, so this was a wonderful reunion for all of us.

The following day, we drove to Jacksonville, a charming town celebrating it's 100 year anniversary. It was a rainy day, but we made the most of it wandering into little shops and soaking in the atmosphere of this great little town.

Lacey with her Aunt Maret.

My dad with his mom.

After leaving Jacksonville, we drove to the Medford LDS Temple. It was beautiful.

It's challenging to find activities that suit the age range of 3 - 90. We decided on Crater Lake. It's a 4 hour round-trip drive from Medford, but Lacey's a pretty good traveler, it didn't require my grandma to walk and it allowed us to all be together and visit while we drove. Crater Lake is BEAUTIFUL!!! It also happens to be in my "1000 Places to See Before You Die" book, so I got to check off my 100th thing :) Only 900 to go!

I'm sure it would have been even more scenic on a nice, sunny day, but it was still a breathtaking view.

We ended the day by going back to my Grandma's and made sure to get a 4-Generation picture.

And the purpose of the trip..... to get a great picture of Lacey with her Great-Grandma!

And another - the trip is a success!

It was such a quick trip, but totally worth it. Monday morning, we headed back to San Francisco. Here I am saying good-bye to my grandma just before we left.

We got back to San Francisco around 3:30 and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. After being cooped up in cars and airplanes/airports for the past 4 days, we decided to walk around Stanford's campus and enjoy the beautiful weather and campus. And now, at 33 weeks pregnant, I'm going to stay home and wait for this baby to come!

I know......

I probably shouldn't post this on a blog, but I can't resist! Yesterday, Lacey was drawing pictures with colored chalk on our driveway, when she excitedly exclaimed, "Look, Mom! I drew a picture for Daddy! It's a picture of a bunch of people going pee!"

I'm sure he'll love it, Lacey. Where does she come up with these things?

At the Open!

So, Dave loves tennis, especially the Grand Slams. For those who don't know, there are four Grand Slam tournaments: Australia, French, Wimbledon, and the US Open. It's on Dave's bucket list to go to all four Slams. So far, he has only been to the US Open twice. Thanks to Dave's parents, we were able to go to NYC for a long weekend to spend time in the city as well as to go to the US Open. We also realized that with kid #3 coming in a couple of months, this will be one of the last opportunities we'll have to get away for awhile.

We decided to spend Friday afternoon at the Met. We went to the roof to check out the views and saw this bamboo structure there that was another piece of "art."

Here is Kerry with a Renoir painting. She loves Renoir.

This was the view of the city as well as Central Park on top of the Met. Great views and not a well known spot to go for great views.

So, here we are, at the US Open! The main reason for our trip. We had ground passes for the day which basically says you can see any match you want to that's not being played on the main stadium on a first come basis. We scored 4th row seats to watch our first match of the day.

We saw Venus out on the practice courts.

For our second match of the day, we went to a different stadium to watch American Mardy Fish pull out a 5 set victory! Another great match from the 10th row!

After the Fish match, we walked around the grounds, got some dinner, and went back to catch a mixed doubles match that featured one of the Bryan brothers and newcomers Melanie Oudin and Ryan Harrison. It was a 12 hour day at the Open and luckily for us we had beautiful weather and were able to see some great matches.

My Baby's First Day of School!

Here's my Lacey girl all ready for her first day of Pre-school. She was so excited!

And here she is with her teacher, "Mrs. M." She was as happy as could be. She just bopped right into her classroom, gave me a kiss and a hug and was on her way. No tears, no sadness, just excitement. And that is why I enrolled her. I've had several people say, "oh, it will be so nice for you to have a break" or similar comments. But actually, I didn't do it for that reason at all. First of all, I don't have a break because I still have a 2 year old and, come November, a brand new baby I'm taking care of, so it's not like I can run all my errands or relax during that time. And secondly, since I work Tuesdays and Thursdays, I really look forward to my Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when I can spend all day with my kids. And Lacey is at a really fun age. I enjoy being with her. So, this really wasn't an easy decision for me to make. But, Dave and I both felt it was the right decision for her. Lacey is a social butterfly. She loves "my friends" which everybody under the age of 15 falls into that category for her. She loves activities and all the things preschool offers. Further, although I'm pretty good about doing a ton of activities with the kids right now, I know that come November, I am not going to want to bundle up 3 little kids including a new infant in the middle of winter and take them out looking for things to do. In other words, I knew Lacey would be bored out of her mind during the winter months if I didn't do something along these lines, so there you have it. Decision made. Lacey's in Preschool!

Side note: Can I just tell you about the few minutes leading up to leaving for preschool? I had everything totally organized and ready to go. I wanted to make sure we were on time for her first day and that I didn't forget anything. So, as we're getting ready to leave, I notice Tanner's cheese stick sitting on the coffee table. "Tanner, don't forget to finish your cheese." He proceeds to pick up the cheese, stuff the entire thing in his mouth, resulting in a gag reflex which caused him to massively vomit - everywhere! All over him, over me and the couch. Thank heavens he missed Lacey! I hate, hate, hate vomit. I can do poop, pee, snot, blood, you name it. I hate vomit. I thought I was going to get sick right along with him. I picked him up, but he was DRENCHED in vomit, so I held him away from me and lost my grip on his wriggling wet body and accidentally dropped him. So now, he's soaked in vomit and sobbing. And I'm late for Preschool. I rush him upstairs, changed him as fast I could, realized there was no time to change myself, so I grabbed a baby wipe and was wiping vomit off myself as I threw the kids in the car and raced off. I pulled in the parking lot at 12:29 (school starts at 12:30). Tanner and I walked her to her classroom. We said good-bye and I braced myself for the inevitable meltdown. Not one from Lacey - I knew she'd be fine. But one from T. I knew he would see the toys, books, little kids and Lacey leaving and go ballistic when I walked him away from all of that. Sure enough, he SCREAMED all the way home, so I went right past our home and to the park. I whipped out a popsicle and some apple juice, got him settled on the bench next to me surrounded by slides and swings and such. The tears stopped. Calm settled in. He looked at me and said, "It's a nice day. I love you, Mom." Oh, Tanner. You keep me on my toes. You are such a bundle of energy. You are my non-stop, truck-loving, all-boy little man. So, as I got a fresh wif of vomit coming up from my clothes, I looked at him and smiled. "I love you too, Tanner."