Memorial Day was a perfect day for me. The babies only woke up once in the night and stayed on a fairly good schedule the whole day. We went for a hike to a waterfall as a family. Our first family hike!! Then we came home and Jim and I worked in the yard together while the babies took their afternoon nap. I got all the yard work stuff done that has been bothering me. And then I cleaned the whole house at the same time. I can get so much done when baby nap time is at the same time!! Amazing. In the evening I played with the babies on the lawn while Jim worked on the shed. It was a great combination of getting out of the house, being together as a family and being productive. The weather was perfect, too.
The rest of the week was preparing to be gone for 10 days. The day before we left, someone turned on the summer light switch. It went from being 70 degrees in the day to 93 degrees. We didn't turn on the airconditioning because by the afternoon, we knew we would be gone in 12 hours. That turned out to be a mistake. Jim figured out that the babies must not have slept well (they woke up 3 times in 4 hours) because they were hot, but we were so tired and hot ourselves that Jim didn't think of it until 3 am when we both got up to leave for our trips. It was ok, though. My really awesome neighbor brought over some apple zuchinni bread and that totally made my night (and my breakfast the next morning) after the babies had finished their screaming fest for the night.
Jim's rafting trip in Colorado with the scouts turned out well. Everyone made it back safely and alive. They flipped the raft the first day after running on the river at record high water, but after that, they learned. The last day everyone except one guy got bucked out of the raft several occasions. They got done earlier than anticipated and decided to drive back that night instead of the next day. Jim was only gone 3 nights!! I guess it wouldn't have been a big deal for me to stay home anyway, but our trip was worth it. Jim didn't go with the Scouts to build the house on the Indian reservation, but it turned out well and Jim still had a part in it in that the Scouts practiced building skills on our shed. We were glad the house building project turned out well.
The babies did really well on the drive out. We left at 3:30 am and drove until 4:30 california time. We stopped twice to bounce the babies and let Sara's son run around on the playground. The babies didn't start crying until we got to I 80 and Sunrise when we hit a bit of slower traffic. The same was true on the way back except the traffic was longer when we hit I 80 and 215. The babies didn't like being in their carseats in slow moving traffic for 1.5 hours. Whoops. The trip was good mostly because my driving buddy or I fed the babies in the car in their carseats. That saved a lot of time instead of stopping a ton. I got pulled over in Salt Lake on the way out for going 73 mph in a 75 mph zone. We can't for the life of us figure out why the cop pulled us over. Maybe he just wanted to see for himself that we fit three kids and two adults safely in a Saturn sedan.
We were able to visit with all the grandparents and great grandparents. My sister was also able to meet the babies. The highlights of the trip were going in Grandma Cindy's pool and Grandma Kim's spa. The babies loved playing in the water. I loved how the siblings loved playing with the babies. Erik was a little wild with Tucker, but I think Tucker liked it. He never complained, just had a look of concentration to make sure the next thing Erik did was ok.
Tucker started teething half way through the trip. That meant he was up in the night more often, crying. Except for that one night he was up from 1:30 to 4 wanting to play. And Whitney took a turn being up for an hour and a half in the middle of the night wanting to play. She played with the bunny in Grandma Kim's bathroom for that time. Oh yeah. Tucker had a night that he woke up and played with Grandpa Anderson for 2 hours. Thank heavens for the help at night. I was able to get a little more sleep and be less grumpy. Now that we are home and in a better routine, they are sleeping a little better at night (although Tucker is still waking up 2-3 times because of gum pain, he settles down more rapidly) and both are taking better naps.
Some other trip highlights were gardening with Hannah and Erik, going to See's with the whole gang, walking to do errands with Grandma Anderson, going to breakfast with Grandma in the Attic and watching the shed get re- arranged. It was really fun to see everyone and just have company all day.
When we got back, we had a day of cleaning up from the trip and then I went to a continuing education course from 7:30 to 6 that Saturday. Jim took care of the babies that day. He made me look bad. He told me that he poop scooped the back yard, hosed off the front porch, went grocery shopping, put away the groceries and made a dutch oven dinner, all while I was gone and in between naps and feedings. Oh yeah. He also went to the doctor about his bug bites. I asked him how on earth he managed to do all that. He said he put the babies down for their naps by walking around poop scooping with them in the front pack and back pack. Yeah. He was tired by the end of the day. I'd believe that. I only tried that trick once and thought I was going to fall over with the weight of it after only 5 minutes! He also said they didn't nap longer than 45 minutes at a time and didn't eat really well, only 2-3 ounces every 2 hours or so. So that's when I decided I do ok, even though I don't get as much done in a day.
For baby news, Whitney had a great time at Grandma Ann's. She learned to roll for the first time in front of Aunt Hannah. She also figured out that bananas are really yummy. She was watching me eat a banana with great interest. I smashed it up in a bowl and fed it to her with a spoon. She totally got it. She would get really excited when she saw the spoon go in the bowl and tried to help me with the spoon to get the banana in her mouth. Her body went still with concentration when the spoon got close to her mouth.
We had a great first father's day. Whitney helped me get the cards and books ready for Jim in the morning and Jim cooked fajitas for himself with spanish rice and pico de gallo. Dave and Jill came over to enjoy the meal. We sat on the front porch to talk afterwards while we snuggled babies to sleep.
Anyway, there are lots of cute pictures out there, mostly not with my camera, but here are a few. The first is Grandma Cindy holding Whitney and me holding Tucker before their first swim in a pool. The next is Whitney helping Grandma An sew. The next is Whitney swimming with Aunt Hannah. There is a picture of them doing tummy time in a park at Battle Mountain, NV. Tucker is being cool with Erik's glasses on the walk to See's. Grandma Wilma holds Whitney. Grandpa holds Whitney in the front pack and Tucker supervises Erik and Hannah weeding while rocking out to country music. Whitney in the stroller on the way over to swimming at Grandma Cindy's. Whitney and Aunt Brit on the back porch. Ryan holding Tucker on the air mattress after sleeping on the back porch. All of us before bed in the shed once it got organized.