So Once Upon a Time there was a girl that thought she would have a job by now - since she has been laid off since November. Yes, true, she really didn't start judiciously looking until late January, but apparently she thinks she is all that. Having a teeny little breakdown, she talked to several friends in LA who said HELLO, this is the time to visit! Knowing this girl, and the fact that she is a little bit vacation-addicted (see corroborating Parents on Month-Long Vacation to France evidence) she acquiesced and planned a spur of the moment roadtrip to LA. WOOHOO!
(PS - after I planned out our itinerary I got four phone interviews.)
I bundled the kids up on a Tuesday morning (it was a little cold) and packed them into the car. Nikos was really excited and kept naming all the friends that we were going to visit (that he remembered from previous trips) which I thought was super cute.
LOOK. The dreaded pacifier. I know, I totally bowed down to the pacifier and just let Olive have it on the drive down (and back).
We had a pretty uneventful trip down - thanks to the car dvd players and a few stops. We experienced snow on the grapevine (thank goodness it wasn't closed like it was a day later.)
Our first stop (thank you thank you to all of my friends who offered room and board!) was to my high school friend Jennie's house. Conveniently, she lives not too far from the grapevine, so all told the trip down only took 6 hours (4.5 in the car and the other 1.5 at 3 stops.) Not too bad with kids, although I am still a little shell-shocked from stop #3 where Nikos screeched I have to p**p as we were mid-desolate-grapevine.Once at Jennie's house we all had a great time. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and my kids got to play with the twins (Dylan and Trevor - they'll be 2 in July) until Zach got home from preschool. Zach is only a few months older than Nikos and all the kids got along really well.
That night Jennie decided to give the older two a bath by themselves (the plan to then do the younger three next) but the the younger three demanded to be let in on the action.
Photographic evidence of the demand - the twins were a little more vocal but as you can see Olive had their back(s).
The best part of the bath - it was too packed for anyone to fall over - ha! From left: Dylan, Zach, Trevor, Nikos and Olive.
The next day Jennie and I decided to take the kids to a jumpy house place to let them burn off some energy. Before we left the younger kids waited patiently...
Once at Scooter Jungle all the kids had a blast!
The one large room we were in was packed (Jen said it's where all the SAHM's from Valencia take their kids on rainy days) so they opened up a second room. Jennie offered to take the two older kids to the other room while I watched the three younger ones. What?! I nearly had a heart attack watching all three kids, especially three so close in age. The twins are BOYS and we very busy testing their climbing skills on everything. I know this is normal boy stuff, but as my loyal blog readers know Nikos has never been that big of a climber (never tried to climb out of his crib) or even that skilled of a jumper so I honestly felt completely out of my element. I felt like I was a little bit of a fake mom since I was so panicky. Ha.Some mellow moments.
Trevor
Dylan
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Yes, even in my panicked state I remembered to take pictures so I guess I wasn't too bad. Honestly, I was just trying to make sure I could see all three of them at once - and we all survived without any injuries. Phew! I gave Jennie a hard time later and told her next time I would take the two self sufficient older kids and she could have the younger ones!Back with just my two I captured the them cracking up at the funhouse mirrors. I mean, they were did this for about 10 minutes. Of course, I am a huge fan of funhouse mirrors myself so I see where they get it from.
Obviously Olive needs to work on her dismount.Later that night Jennie and I enjoyed a beer while the older kids worked on crafts and made little bracelets (hello Jennie Pro Mom!)
Jennie took this pic of me to text to my parents since they had just sent me one of them enjoying Starbucks in the airport on the way to FRANCE.
That night Jennie's awesome husband watched all five kids while Jennie and I met up with some other high school friends (Tsan, Fergal and Irene) in Santa Monica for dinner and drinks. We had such a great time and lots of laughs.We bid adieu to Jennie and family on Thursday morning and continued on our second leg - Long Beach to see college friends!
1 comment:
That Olive, taking a bath with four boys... something to remind her of in high school :)
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