Easter Sunday

(I'm sorry, Gretchan, if it freaks you out that my posts aren't in order ha ha!)

Easter was beautiful, even if it poured rain all day.

My mom took the girls to church. I think it was the first Easter ever that I didn't go to church, but Henry really needed a nap, and I had to do a little stealth business back at the house. Then my brother, sister in law, and Babynate came for lunch and egg/basket hunting.

Ah sweet baby! I miss him already!!

My mom is moving, this was our last visit to her house in the woods in Big Sur with the ocean view and the smell of eucalyptus in the air. A little magical place that has been home for about twenty years, and we'll miss it. I'm excited to have her in town, close to my brother and in walking distance of everything, and safer too (you know, with Highway 1 falling into the ocean every now and then). But I'm sad that my kids won't grow up knowing the place down the coast. I'm so glad we got this last, special visit.

Saga

I have some sweeeet Easter pictures to share, and a few others from the rest of our trip, but first I have to blog this insanity, before it fades away like all bad memories do. I want to say, though, that my children are AMAZING and it really wasn't as crazy traveling across the country alone with them (while pregnant) as I thought it would be. Until.

Henry woke up at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning (wee!) because he was still confused about the West Coast time. I did some laundry and finished packing, watched the sunrise, then the kids and Mom and I ate a leisurely breakfast. I am NOT a morning person, but I have to admit, it's a little satisfying to do laundry, finish packing, watch the sunrise, have a leisurely breakfast, and then look at the clock and see 7:00 a.m.

We left Mom's house at 9:30 a.m. to head up the coast to San Jose, where we fought for a gate pass (again) and she helped me through security. Our plane was about an hour delayed, because of weather in Dallas. No biggie. Mom had to run to a meeting, so the kids and I hung out, ate some airport food, watched a guy bust through a secured door and completely FREAK OUT until the cops showed up.

We got on the plane and sat on the tarmac for an hour, but it was still okay. We had Sprite and jelly beans (thanks, Easter Bunny!) to keep us happy.

As soon as the plane was in the air, the girls watched a movie and Henry took a nap. It's about a 3.5 hour flight, and Henry got a little cranky (I think it was his ears), but mostly it was all good.

When we got to Dallas, our flight to Little Rock was not on the monitors. Not good.

We found out at 7:30 p.m. that due to some weather delays, our flight was now scheduled to leave at 12:24 a.m. I really debated just spending the night at a hotel or with some of our friends in Fort Worth (who very sweetly swooped in and volunteered to take us in). But the hotel in the airport was all booked, and I didn't have any car seats. I was also worried about going through DFW security (=nightmare) alone with the kids in the morning. And more storms were expected the next day. The gate agent assured me that no matter what, we WOULD be leaving that night, so I decided to stick it out.

Really the worst thing was that, because of all the delays, DFW was so crowded. I had to literally hold onto the kids to keep from losing them. We couldn't really walk around the terminal, because there were too many people milling around. It was hard to find seating anywhere, especially the food court for dinner. But the kids were being troopers even when I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts and got milk but wouldn't let them get donuts (too much sugar already!) We found a little corner somewhere and sat on the disgusting carpet until the terminal cleared out a bit.

Then around 11 p.m., everyone was really, really tired. The dumb benches at the airport have small seats with very hard armrests, so there was no way for the kids to lie down on them. They brought out cots for everyone, but mean people swooped in and got them all - people were just grabbing several to stack next to themselves or use as foot rests. They were very possessive and rude about it, and I couldn't move fast enough to snag some for the kids. That was the only part of the day I couldn't handle. I walked up the counter to ask if there were more cots somewhere and burst into tears. Luckily, the agent flagged down a cart and said "get this woman some cots NOW!" A couple of other moms with babies overheard her, and came over to see if they could get some cots when mine came. We set up our cots like a little nursery, and kept each other company. It was wonderful - that instant mommybond. I held a sweet 2 month old while her mother dug out diaper changing supplies. She watched another mother's bags while she went to the bathroom. Mostly, we just talked about our kids and being moms, and everything was good again. Sisterhood. I love it.

Amelia passed out immediately.

Sophia couldn't sleep with all the excitement and noise, but she rested and rested while listening to the iPod.

Henry, oh that stinker! At MIDNIGHT, having not slept since about 1 p.m., was NOT going to sleep. In fact, he was bouncing on the cot like a trampoline! At MIDNIGHT!

It was pretty funny.

Our flight kept being pushed back, a few minutes at a time, until finally at 1 a.m., our plane arrived. Everyone at the gate started clapping. They got everyone off the plane, and started lining us up to board. And then, all of a sudden, the announcement: This airplane is out of commission due to maintenance and will not be flying today. Please stay tuned as we try to find another aircraft.

Seriously. People were FREAKING OUT. The moms and I were just looking at each other with weary eyes. One of the pilots told Sophia, "you're doing better than most of the big people!" He was right - she was so great. Davis was telling his mom yesterday that she knows she's the oldest, and she just always rises to the occasion, and he's right. I promised her the two of us would go on a spaghetti dinner date one night this week.

At 2 a.m., we had a new plane and had to run down the concourse to a new gate. The only problem was that Amelia would NOT wake up. I would stand her up, and she would crumple to the floor. I couldn't get her to wake up no matter what (that's Amelia for you - the kid loves her sleep!) I asked for a cart to take us to the new gate, but was told there were no more carts at this hour. They gave me a wheelchair, though, so I pushed her in the wheelchair

while Sophia pushed Henry RUNNING (15 gates at 2 a.m., I am telling you, this girl ROCKS!) and Henry actually fell asleep

I managed to get everyone on the plane, where all three immediately fell asleep on top of me. That's when my feet started hurting, my head was itching, my back was sore, but I was NOT going to move and risk waking anyone up! It was an insanely uncomfortable hour, but we flew HOME!

We actually shared the flight with a family friend, who is visiting from Austria for cancer treatment here, and had agreed to take him to his hotel. After dealing with both my and his bag being lost (the airlines were being completely unreasonable on the phone when I was trying to make sure his bags got delivered to his hotel in the morning), we took him to the hotel. We got to our house at 3:45 a.m.

*yawn*

We kept Sophia home from school Tuesday, and I took the morning off work and then worked from home in the afternoon - I was really sore and crampy, plus all of my make up was in the lost bag, I just couldn't face leaving the house. It was okay, though, because I got caught up on all my emails, which made today a MUCH better day at work! Everyone is still jetlagged and crabby, but my bag finally arrived this afternoon and we are all looking forward to the weekend!

Tom Tom Tom Tom...

TOMATOES!!!!!!

Can you feel the enthusiasm?! Do I have to try to convince you that tomatoes are aaaaamazing? Because at my house, Henry and I are the only ones who will eat them raw. It's so sad, I feel like the rest don't know what they are missing out on. There are few things more disappointing than a bad, tasteless tomato (and there are LOTS of those out there!), but there are few things better than a ripe, flavorful one!

These gorgeous heirloom tomatoes were so good, I ate one like an apple with just some salt sprinkled on it. When I find good tomatoes, that is my favorite way to eat them. Or a tomato sandwich - good bread, butter, tomato slices, salt. My mom used to make those for me when I was kid. Before Sophia decided to shun tomatoes, I would keep washed grape tomatoes in a bowl in the fridge, and she ate them by the handful as a snack.

The salad above was just iceberg, tomatoes, avocado, good blue cheese, and a dressing made with Greek yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and sea salt.

Oh and fried green tomatoes - yum yum! If you are in Central Arkansas, you must go to Cotham's (the original, way out in the country, not the city one) and have some fried green tomatoes!

Really, tomatoes are so versatile - tomato soup (with grilled cheese sandwiches of course), tomato sauce, roasted tomatoes (see my recipe from just last week), chopped into salads or salsas... even pureed and make into Bloody Mary's!

Tomatoes are another vegetable that is actually a fruit. There are over 7,500 variations of tomatoes, according to Wikipedia. Crazy. And yet there are so many gross, flavorless ones at Kroger - why? They are an excellent source of Vitamins C and A. They also contain the antioxidant lycopene, which is great for heart health and the prevention of cancer. Don't refrigerate tomatoes. Like avocados, you can leave them out to finish ripening.

What's your favorite way to enjoy tomatoes? I have this recipe bookmarked for the next good tomato I meet.

This Says It All

California Day Two

I know these posts have way too many pictures in them, but really, I am taking on average 300 pictures a day, so...



Today we had a mellow morning at my mom's house. The kids managed to sleep until 5 a.m., and even though that is an improvement, I'm still too tired to remember what we did at the beginning of the day. I do know Mom and the girls went for a walk to pick flowers, allowing Henry and I to take a wonderful nap! AND when I woke up and was just lying there quietly - I felt the baby move!! Considering he (she?) is measuring about 14 weeks, that is just about when I started feeling Henry too. What a reassuring feeling! And another little "hey there" from God this morning



It was SO beautiful!

The girls also drew and painted on their new easel.







And after lunch, Amelia napped while Sophia and Henry played





and Sophia swung on trees. That girl really is a monkey.



Henry busted his lip on a coffee table this morning. I told Sophia she better watch out - yesterday it was Amelia, today it was Henry, tomorrow it might be her!

Then we headed to the beach.



The clouds had cleared and it was beautiful, though still a tad chilly. Especially for this girl who got caught in a wave and soaked from head to toe!



I told my brother that he is going to have to teach her to surf one day - she'll be good, because she has NO fear when it comes to water! Sophia would have been traumatized for life and never gone near water again - Amelia cried for a second and then started laughing like "woah! did you see that?!" And she was right back out there.



And the rest of the day, she would tell everyone about how a wave got her - with pride.



Henry tasted every piece of seaweed



always with regret.

But mostly he just played with the sand - he was SO happy at the beach (until the end, when he was hungry and tired).



Sophia ran in and out of the surf too



and played with Uncle Victor - he hung the moon in their eyes!





It was a little windy sometimes ha ha!



Sophia and my mom played frisbee - but Sophia said they each scored zero points,



while Henry and Amelia played with sand toys





and my brother built an awesome fire



Then it was weenie roasting time!



Yesterday Henry kept trying to crawl into the ocean, today he kept trying to crawl into the fire.



Crazy kid!

This was so sweet - Sophia found a piece of coal and wrote a note for her Daddy on a rock.



We ran into my old principal, Mr. Pallistrini, at the beach. It's one of my favorite things about coming back to this small town - I always run into people who have been here all this time. I don't even like to think about how long "all this time" has been, since I had Mr. Pallistrini for a principal - WAY too long!

And I think the biggest hit of the day, Uncle Victor made s'mores for everyone!





Is there anything better than gooey marshmallows that are a little burned on the outside? I don't think so.



Look - I was there too! It's so hard for me to remember to (or want to) get in front of the camera, but then I am always mad at myself for having no vacation pictures with ME in them.



We came home and I think everyone was just barely making it. Mom gave the girls a bath in the tub while Henry got a quick rinse-off in the sink, and then it was straight to bed



which is where I am headed as soon as I switch out some sandy laundry.