Griswold Family Vacation--In other words: too much misadventure with a happy ending

It's been a year and a half since we returned from India and drove across the country while I (Legs) was six months pregnant and I have to say, our little family hasn't really been interested in spending much time in transit since then.  But, we decided to get back on the horse (literally) and take a trip in our own neck of the woods (it's relative) to experience the good old outdoors and soak up some sun.

Day One

We arrived at the Seattle airport and were told we booked four seats instead of three (Flipper is under two years old so is usually considered a lap baby with no seat cost) but (oh by the way no refunds) the aircraft changed and your four seats are all in different rows, talk to the people at the gate to fix it.

We are trusted travelers through the TSA pre-check program so we proceeded to security and were pulled into another line since we were a family...not the pre-check line.  The TSA agent swabbed our hands and Pancho alarmed for explosives (???).  He was separated and whisked away while me and the boys proceeded through security, removing everything we wouldn't need to remove had we been in the pre-check line.  The boys and I (worried of course) found Pancho, who was being felt all up and down, and listened as the TSA agent lectured him on going through the wrong line...because had we been in the pre-check line they wouldn't have tested his hands.  We never figured out what caused the problem and were freed to catch our flight.

At the gate.  The Alaska Air staff tried passenger after passenger on a fully booked flight asking if people would shift around so we could sit together.  We ended up getting three seats in a row and one somewhere else...so we sat with the lap baby even though we paid for four seats (mistakenly). 

Smooth flight, smooth rental car experience, beautiful San Jose sunshine, and we started our drive to the horse farm in Pescadero.  Flipper got my genes and got car sick.  Throw up in the rental car and all over the rented car seats.

Everyone back on track and we arrived at the farm.  It's a farm, we know that, it's a working farm, fine.  But it definitely lacked a clean up before paying guests arrived.  And the clown jack-in-the-box next to the giant horse leg in the shadow box window to the barn was a little creepy.  

Day Two

We explored the farm and headed to the beach!  Unlike San Jose, it was cold and rainy on the coast so the boys built a driftwood shelter and learned hard lessons after throwing sand in the air when the wind is blowing toward you.  Later in the day Thumper found a marshmallow gun (that shoots marshmallows) and decided to taste the rotten marshmallow that was stuck inside surrounded by black mold.  We thought we nipped that one in the bud with a stern warning about getting sick but later found him doing it again.

Day Three

Golden Gate Bridge

Streets of San Francisco

No trip to the Bay area is complete without a trip to San Francisco so we got up early and drove an hour North to experience the big city.  How strange, Thumper felt sick from the minute he got up.  He started to develop a fever.  We drove to San Francisco, walked to the beach at the South side of the Golden Gate Bridge, took a few pictures, and got back in the car to go home.  Back on the road and now it's Thumper's turn to christen the rented car seat in the rented car.  We made it back to BBQ for dinner with family who lives in the area and just before they arrived, Thumper threw up again and had a 103F fever.  

Day Four

We planned to meet our family for coffee and a trip to a nearby kids farm.  First thing in the morning while changing Flipper's diaper, I found a deer tick feeding off his skin in the folds of his leg.  Totally. Freaked. Out.  Thankfully, Pancho packed a first aid kit with tweezers and alcohol (swabs :-)) and thankfully my mother in-law is a nurse.  Only 27 more days until I can stop worrying about Lyme Disease.  We packed up everything and booked a hotel in Santa Clara.  We headed into town for coffee because really, it had been a long and not very relaxing trip so far.  Waiting for our coffee, I noticed movement in Flipper's hair.  A flea scurried across his scalp.  We headed to the kids farm and had a blast, knowing that we were headed to a clean hotel room at the end of the day.

Pozole, Horchata, Strawberry Water

Hotel in Santa Clara

We left Half Moon Bay and crossed the mountains into amazing weather, palm trees galore, and sun, sun sun!  The hotel room wasn't ready when we arrived so we headed to a nearby park that was FILLED with families having fun.  Minutes after we started to play, Thumper had a new friend and Flipper bolted off to drink out of someone else's red Solo cup.  I chased after him and found myself chatting with Gustavo, who was there with around 25 members of his family celebrating a baptism.  He offered to get Flipper his own cup of Horchata and came back with some strawberry water too.  Not five minutes later but he was back offering us some of their food.  He took me over to their picnic bench and handed me a bowl.  He filled my bowl with each ingredient, one at a time, of the best soup I've ever had: pozole. Gustavo filled a bowl for Pancho at the same time and heaped on the salsa!  We returned to our grass and enjoyed the heck out of that soup while the kids played.  We met another couple there with their grandchildren who were nice as could be.  About a half our later, Gustavo was back with cake!  And that was it, we were sold, Santa Clara was our favorite city of the trip and part of our daydreams for the future.

Day Five

Capybara

Lemurs

We visited another zoo and kids park in San Jose.  The weather was incredible.  I cried when both boys rode a ride alone together and Thumper went on his first roller coaster with Pancho.  We found a taqueria with amazing everything and enjoyed being able to drink the water at the hotel.  Later in the day we took a long drive from San Jose to Menlo Park through Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto to see what Silicon Valley is all about.  It was very cool.

Day Six

Back to Vancouver and back to work tomorrow!

It was a rough start to what ended up being a wonderful trip.  Sometimes you have to stick it out and sometimes you just have to throw in the towel and do something different.  This was one of those times we just needed to do something different and we were happy we did!  As Pancho said, sometimes you just have to leave the horse farm.  This was actually a particularly insightful revelation for us as a family right now.  We came back totally energized and excited for what the next year has to offer.  Our last summer in Vancouver begins!

The Giant Octopus in the Room

As usual, I took a break from all things creative because I work full-time and created two small humans who require most of my other time.  And, as previously mentioned, I'm slowly getting back small bits of 'creative' time (read: time not spent cleaning up poop, throwing away poop, or discouraging someone from eating poop).  True to our family style, I exhibit the 'go big or go home' tendency often.  This round hit me about a month or two ago, and a light bulb went off one day while I was feeling frustrated with and about time.  The giant octopus in the room was that being creative and having time to myself makes me happy and fun.  No one wants to tell you that you aren't fun, and I don't think that anyone but me really noticed, but at least in the room that is my thoughts, the giant octopus was the obvious fact that more fun has been necessary for a while.  Not family fun, I love spending time with our rag-tag bunch, but self-fun.

So I started doing fun things.  I bought a 3D printer (!!!YES!!), started substituting TED talks for the morning news a few days out of the week, began blogging again, started a new blog (not for public consumption yet), am still working on my book (it's actually in a Word document now), got all my photography up to date on Flickr (a few photos have been used under Creative Commons license on other websites), booked a family vacation at a horse farm, started getting more massages, started running again, and let the house be dirty, the laundry unfolded, the to-do list unfinished...because guess what?  Sometimes you just need to have FUN!

What do you do that is fun for YOU?  

Also, next time I will write in more detail about some of these fun things.  For now, this is all I could muster with the few minutes of energy I have left after Thumper and Flipper have gone to bed and the house is quiet.    

(Belated posting of 2014 entry) Just Another Day in Paradise--A Weekend of Nothing

After just posting about our new found alone time, I realized I never finished this post from last year as I was *interrupted* so forgive the abrupt ending.  Perhaps this demonstrates the difference a year makes as a parent of small beings.  I like to think this phase has passed.  I hope this brings a smile to your face!

Spring 2014: I don't have all that much to post about since we haven't done anything really exciting in the last few months but I am happy to report that life continues to be wonderful for Pancho, Legs, Thumper, Flipper, and Bambi.

Phil Vasser has some good ol' country lyrics that speak to me today :-)

"Just Another Day In Paradise"

The kids screaming, phone ringing

Dog barking at the mailman bringing

That stack of bills - overdue

Good morning baby, how are you?

Got a half hour, quick shower

Take a drink of milk but the milk's gone sour

My funny face makes you laugh

Twist the top on and I put it back

There goes the washing machine

Baby, don't kick it.

I promise I'll fix it

Long about a million other things

Well, it's ok. It's so nice

It's just another day in paradise

Well, there's no place that

I'd rather be

Well, it's two hearts

And one dream

I wouldn't trade it for anything

And I ask the lord every night

For just another day in paradise

Life with two kids and a dog sure is busy!  Even when we don't do anything it's busy!  Maybe this post will make you smile and reflect on the moments of silence in your own life, maybe it will help you understand just how much coffee you should probably have on-hand if we show up to visit :-)

Something is Shifting

Well here we are nearly one year later!  It seems that Pancho and I are having larger and larger bits of time to ourselves to pursue whatever we want.  Now, *larger* is relative.  Sometimes it's as big as fifteen minutes!  The universe is shifting or something big is happening which is contributing to a reawakening for the both of us.  Or, Flipper and Thumper are just growing up and Pancho and I (Legs) are getting in touch with our non-parent selves.

Over the past two months I have been a sponge for anything cool and interesting in the tech world.  I'm reading Fabricated about the prospects of 3D printing, sneaking in TED talks when I have the time, and pouring over articles discussing free expression online juxtaposed with national security and different realms of legality (i.e. should social media sites remove terrorism related content, who defines a terrorist group, should controversial content be removed at the request of a foreign government like "Daughters of India"?).  Every time I start my fifteen minutes of free time I go down the rabbit hole and pop my head up at the end to shout out to Pancho (who is down in his own rabbit hole creating an ap among other cool things), "Do you know they are 3D printing body parts out of human cells?  What did I do today?  I didn't build a new ear, I will tell you that!"

I am also writing my book.  The one I've been talking about writing for just about as long as I've been keeping journal entries about which I plan to write.  But one of these days, our fifteen minutes will turn in to thirty minutes and our creative spirits will soar!

My time is about up as Flipper is yelling "OUT!!" which means his nap is over and it's time get out my referee whistle and run laps around the house breaking up fights and picking up the same things over and over again until dinner.

In summary of the last year: we are still in Vancouver, we still love it here, we do not know where we are going next, and we won't find out until the fall.  Spring is here and we are enjoying the outdoors and our little family.  Until next time...

Best Reese's Pieces Cookies. Ever.

I experimented with my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe yesterday and made the best ever Reese's Pieces cookies!  I have my own recipe for the best ever chocolate chip cookies and basically just substituted Reese's Pieces for the chocolate chips so feel free to try both ways!

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (sometimes I do up to 2 teaspoons, depends on how you like it!)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups Reese's Pieces or chocolate chips (I vary this as well, usually 1/2-3/4 a bag)

COMBINE  white and whole wheat flour,  flax seed, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs and beat.  Gradually mix in flour mixture. Stir in Reese's Pieces or chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon (or any size spoon you like) onto ungreased baking sheets. 

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. I like them chewy so I usually do closer to 9 minutes.

Enjoy!  Not a usual blog post for Legs, but things so tasty must be shared.  

Good things come to those who wait...

The plane, the truck, and the diplomatic visas all came.  The snow was cleared, the sun was shining, and thinking-ahead-Legs brought plenty of cookies for an inter-country drive.  Pancho's brother hit a skunk on the way to get us the morning we moved but aside from the lingering smell, everything went as planned!

So here we are about a month and a half later still trying to get our heads on straight.  No matter what anyone ever tells you, moving to another country is hard work, even if it's just Canada!  There are very few posts in the Foreign Service that don't provide housing and this is one of them so our first monster task was to find a place to live.  The Vancouver rental market moves fast (as in people fighting to turn in rental applications with deposit checks in hand at the first showing of a unit) and we lost a few places due to the additional processes required by the Consulate but then we found a perfect condo, in a perfect location, with a perfect landlord who was willing to wait.

We moved two weeks ago in and slept on a blow-up mattress before the IKEA beds we ordered arrived and hopefully at the end of this week our shipment from India will bring us our couch, plates, bed sheets, pans, and everything else we need to make life work.  We have settled into our routines and are starting to love life in the city more each day.

This experience has been incredible both professionally and personally.  The professional culture of this post is completely different from what I've experienced thus far and the work I am doing here is the reason we joined the Foreign Service.  I feel passionate again about my career and supported by amazing leadership--levels of support equal to what I felt from leadership at FEMA and which I knew I'd be lucky to find again.  The bigger question is whether or not it is realistic to find subsequent assignments with a similar professional culture.  We found out that I will bid mid-level for our third tour which means that we will not have another directed assignment.  A group of Career Development Officers direct entry-level generalists to their first two posts and after that, officers apply for positions where they are interested in serving.  There is still a bid list that is released when it is our group's turn to bid but we get to put in applications and lobby for jobs we want in places we'd like to go.  This new process will help us end up in a place that is best for our family at this point in our lives and allow me to plan my career in order to progress in the organization.  We still have another year here before our bid list is released so for now it's time to just live in the moment and enjoy Vancouver.

Pancho, Thumper, and Flipper are all doing great.  Thumper recently spent his nap time wadding up toilet paper and stuffing it up his nose until it started to bleed a little and he escaped his room to get more tissue.  Pancho found him and had to use tweezers to get all the tissue out of his nose. Start of a new nose stuffing phase?  I sincerely hope not.

Flipper is close to rolling over and has developed quite the personality.  He prefers to be carried everywhere and makes it very clear when he is the slightest bit uncomfortable.  He has also started to giggle which makes us all smile.

Pancho is officially our Relocation Support Specialist and is the most amazing husband and father I could ever have imagined.  He even showed up outside my work with fresh flowers on Valentines Day and took me ice skating while Hippie Grandma was in town.

We just got back from our first hike and our first suspension bridge.  We went to the lesser-known but free Lee Canyon suspension bridge and hiked around some beautiful waterfalls.  The weather has been pretty rainy but spring is definitely here and the flowers are starting to bud!  Until next time...

Twin Falls at Lee Canyon

West End near Stanley Park

There's water everywhere in Vancouver!

Even the rocks are happy

The Waiting Game..or 'Just In Time' Traveling?

Thumper and I (Legs) went to the library tonight and the first book he picked was so incredibly appropriate, I just had to blog and write my own version.

Oh The Places You'll Go
Dr. Seuss

"You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting."

We have done more waiting in the last three months than I can remember doing in the last few years! After hours and hours of time spent getting things "in order," we still find ourselves waiting for things out of our control. On the eve of our supposed departure. So, I add this, Dr. Seuss:

Waiting for diplomatic visas to be done
Or a UPS plane to come
Or a delivery truck to load
Or the icy cold snow to be cleared from the road
Or housing to go through
Or to finally stop moving to a place that is new.
We are just waiting.

The few boxes we have are packed but we don't have our passports--they are en route from DC with our diplomatic visas. UPS overnight to arrive tomorrow, customer pick-up so we can get them quicker. Our housing can't be reserved until we have our visas in hand. Brother in-law is ready to help us move but only has the weekend. Post will change the reservation to Monday if the visas aren't here by noon tomorrow, but then we will have to leave all our things behind until someone can help. Maybe I can still fit the one pair of heels I found at Fred Meyer just today (from a selection of eight size nine women's shoes) in our car next to the two suits I bought the day we drove two hours to a mall only to have the trip cut short by the need to complete more *urgent* paperwork. Thanks to a Kinkos' printer and the copy shop's scanner.

So, if the winter storms across the nation don't affect the arrival of our visas, if post can change our housing to take us Friday or Saturday, and if there are no problems between, then we are moving tomorrow morning. But we are tired of waiting and wandering and I can't put my clothes in my suitcase yet for the sole reason that I like how it feels to have them hung in a closet and not knowing if we are leaving tomorrow, or next week, or never, makes me only a little crazy.

This is my rant. I hope to write from Vancouver tomorrow. And will eat more cookies and stare at my closet of clothes hanging nicely in hangers if our passports don't come.