A Birthday Lesson

My baby turns five today; and even though I have a six month-old sleeping soundly in the next room, I can't help but think of that little 5 year-old as "my baby". As I do with each child on every birthday, I've been reminiscing a lot, and doing a whole lot of "How did the time go so fast?" questioning. Somehow, his chubby little baby hands turned into hands that can swing a bat, roll out pizza dough, steer a bike, sweep the kitchen floor and yes, (I cringe to say it) even hit his brother from time to time. I've always thought it the sign of the end of baby and toddlerhood, when the five sweet dimples on the back of a child's hand are replaced by ruddy little knuckles. As I watched Connor dig in the sand today I noticed that the dimples on his hands have long since been replaced and he has become my little boy, no longer my baby. Though, if you ask him he'd wrinkle up his nose and tell you he's a big boy.

We celebrated Connor's birthday by taking him, his brother, and their two cousins to the beach. It was blistering hot and Husband and I were thrilled with the improvement in our boys' water confidence since we were last on the beach two years ago. Both of them had great success with the boogie boards; according to their cousin Chase, they were more successful than their dad! I spent a good amount of time trying to convince both Connor and Kirby that it is, in fact, okay to pee in the ocean. Neither one of them were quite sure whether or not to believe me. At one point, I even enlisted their older cousin asking him, " If you have to go to the bathroom when you're at the beach, where do you go?" Screwing up his face and giving me a look that clearly said "Duh!" he said, "The ocean!" The more I tried to convince them, the louder and more frantically Connor tried to piece the whole thing together:

"You mean I should just stand and pee into it?" he asked me.

"No, you don't actually pull your pants down, you just kind of pee while you're standing in the water," I said, realizing that the loooong walk to the bath house would probably be in my near future.

By this time, Connor's voice was at a fever pitch and the people around us were starting to check us out.

"You want me to pee in my pants?" Connor asked in utter disbelief.

I used my most hushed and urgent voice to explain to him that yes, you just pee straight through your pants right into the ocean and the water will wash it away. Appealing to his innermost quiet child (a child I'm not sure actually exists) I told him that everybody does it, but nobody talks about it because it just sounds nasty to talk about. Looking out at all of the people in the water, Connor's eyes got very wide as he asked me, "You mean all those people pee-d in the ocean?"

"Probably," I replied. "And if they say they haven't there's a 50/50 chance they're lying."

At about this time, Kirby strode toward us, threw down his boogie board, and announced that he had to go to the bathroom.

"Kirby!" Connor said in his very best soccer field yell. "Mom said we should just go pee in the ocean!".

It was a combination of the look of utter disgust on Kirby's face, and the fact that I realized how pathetic it was for a mother of boys to spend 10 whole minutes trying to convince them to pee in open water, when I just spent the last 5 years telling them not to pee anywhere besides the bathroom (we've all had our bushes watered by our little boys, haven't we?). I was beginning to sound like a desperate woman, so I steeled myself for the long walk across scalding hot sand, and said, "You know what, never mind. I'm sure one day you'll decide it's more convenient to pee in the ocean than to hike all the way to the bathroom. For now, I should be glad you two have such a strong urge to act civilized!"

"What's civilized mean Mom?"

"Never mind! Let's just go potty!"

And so it is that Connor's 5th birthday has apparently ushered in the dawn of a new age; an age of civility and manners. Perhaps even an age where there is never any pee outside the toilet? One can always dream!

Greetings from the Jersey Shore!

Hello from the northern tip of the Jersey Shore! Our fifth day of vacation found Stephen and I touring Long Beach Island with his parents and Gavin, as Kirby and Connor spent the day in Pennsylvania having fun with Auntie Chris and their cousins Zach and Chase. Today Husband and I climbed 217 steps to the top of a lighthouse for a breathtaking view. It's amazing to me how much beauty there is in this country. I happen to think Colorado and it's mountains are amazing, but I would put the view from the Barnegat Lighthouse up against the mountains any day! We capped off our drive with a fabulous seafood dinner in Point Pleasant and a walk along the boardwalk, where we assured Stephen's parents that if they'd just sell their house and move into one of the little houses on the boardwalk, we'll visit them every single year! (They didn't go for it)

We always come with our list of "musts" and we've actually made our way a few of them so far:

1) Day at the beach

2) Pizza at Pete and Elda's (best in the whole wide world!)

3) Hot dogs at the Windmill

We also got to spend a day with about 40 close friends and family members, when my mother- and father-in-law hosted a bbq on Saturday. This means so much to us, as it gives us a chance to catch up with a lot of people all at once. The boys had a blast playing baseball and having water fights with their cousins and friends.

Tomorrow will find us at Sesame Place. I'll be sure to say hi to Elmo for all of you. Can you believe the fuzzy little guy is 30 this year? It's hard enough to wake up one day and realize that you're older than almost every professional athlete and musician, and most popular actors, but to find out that I'm also older than Elmo is like adding insult to injury! I'm especially excited to walk around in my swimming suit all day tomorrow sporting my extra 20. Good times!

Returning

We've actually had two fun get-aways since I posted last (hard to believe it's been almost 2 weeks!). We enjoyed spending Fourth of July weekend with our good friends the Nelsons (and Gambinos) in Breckenridge for a few days, capped off by a wedding gig with the band for me. That's always a great artistic release for me - and those are few and far between these days!

We got back Sunday night from our week-long driving vacation through Jackson Hole, WY, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone, and Billings, MT, where we visited one of my good friends that I grew up with. It was a very relaxing and fun vacation. As Husband put it, it's one of the first vacations that didn't go fast. It felt just right. Very little on the agenda besides driving around the beautiful countryside and visiting friends. It was perfect - and I'll post photos as soon as I can find the cord to download them to the computer.

Now that we're home, I'm enjoying breaking out my rusty domestic maven skills. I think Husband is enjoying it too. Dinner on the table two nights in a row...now that's a streak!

Back to Reality

Well folks, we're back from the Garden State. We had a wonderful - and wonderfully busy - vacation. Husband saw to it that no minute was left unplanned, a vacation tactic that, fortunately, he only resorts to when he's visiting his home town. We spent a lot of our time out of doors, enjoying the beach, the boardwalk, crabbing, visiting Sesame Place (yes, it's a Sesame Street amusement/water park), going to the race track (horses, that is) and throwing water balloons for hours at a big family BBQ. My sister-in-law Chris made sure that we kicked off our vacation just right, by planning lots of fun for the boys and their cousins. And of course,

As always, I was tickled and fascinated by the difference in culture between the midwest (or west) and the East Coast. Other cultures have always excited me, and I think that's why I love being in New Jersey; they have so many things we don't have here and lots of fun words and expressions we don't use. For example, when I told a friend that we were looking forward to swimming in her doughboy pool, she said, "What? That's a pretzel!" What she calls an "above ground" pool is what I grew up calling a doughboy (after one of the makers of the pools). A few other observations:

1. In New Jersey, you can find a radio station playing Bruce Springstein at just about any given time or day. I find that "Born to Run" seems to be a favorite.

2. Heineken beer is the Budweiser of NJ.

3. Black & White cookies. Know what they are? Probably not because they're just about impossible to find when you leave the East Coast.

4. Don't be shocked when, at a pizza place, you see a couple order two large pizzas between the two of them. The crust is so thin, it's not uncommon for one person to eat a whole large. And have I mentioned, it is THE BEST pizza in the world?

5. Pork roll. Heard of it? Probably not because I've never seen it outside of NJ. It's not exactly health food, but it makes for a great breakfast sandwich.

6. Customer service on the East Coast has a much different feel than it does here in the center of the U.S. I say no more.

7. You've never tasted sweet corn so sweet and creamy.

8. Mazel Tov is a commonly used salutation. Who knew?

9. You will not be able to find a Starbucks as easily as you can here, but you will trip over all the Dunkin' Donuts.

10. The Jersey Shore. It's worth all the hype it gets. Also, every time I say that, I think of Billy Joel's song Allentown.

Yes, you probably get the idea that I really enjoy going to visit where my husband grew up. I do, but don't look for me to be moving there any time soon. I really love Colorado. However, it makes me realize that it's not just the geography of a state that makes it worth living in, it's the people who surround you; and when I'm in New Jersey I am very aware of how blessed we are to have such wonderful family and friends on both coasts (my Dad is on the West Coast with a lot of other family) and right in the middle of the U.S.!

Some Memories From Our Trip

Here is a photo of the results of our day of crabbing:

Motor boat rental: $78.

Bait: $4.

Time spent crabbing: 4.5 hours
Catch: one crab yielding about 2 oz. of meat
Cost per pound of our Blue Crab: $656
The cost of Husband reliving his youth: Priceless!

Who would ever guess that the boys are rookie boogie-boarders?

The Great-Grandkids (on my mother-in-law's side)


Captain Connor at the Helm


A ride on the ferry from Philadelphia to Camden, NJ's aquarium with
cousins Chase and Zach, and good friend Emily.

Our Trip to Sanity

Thursday we leave for vacation. We're heading to New Jersey to visit Stephen's family. We haven't been "home" since Thanksgiving of 2005, when Connor was just 5 months old. Suffice it to say, Husband is excited. He has been scheming and planning for months, and somehow our trip that started out as 10 days of "nothing but relaxing", looks to be chok full of beach time, crabbing, deep sea fishing, a trip to Atlantic City, and of course visiting our favorite restaurants for the world's best pizza (seriously, I've had the pizza in Rome, and this is even better!) and hot dogs. Husband has been checking the fishing reports almost daily to let us know what the water temperature should be when we get there. Is this a guy in need of a vacation or what?

Actually, I think all four of us really need this vacation. We are all wiped out. It's not like the past year has been a tragedy or anything; it's been a genuinely blessed year. But, it's been intense. It's been a year of far too little sleep for me, far too much "shuttling around" for the boys, and far too much time alone for Stephen. Not to mention, the stress of his job (tip to readers: avoid 100% commission jobs like the plague). We are ready for some r&r with close family and friends. We are ready to play with our big cousins and swim in the ocean. We are ready to just have each other to think about. We are ready to wake up in Gramma and Pop-Pop's house, where the pace of life is just more tolerable and the tea is already steeping on the counter right when you think "I could use a cup of tea".

A trip to New Jersey is just what the doctor ordered for us, and we can't wait!