Girls Trip!

Yay! Girls trip! Just really
cold, though...

I've often told my girls that there are few friends closer than a sister. Aw. Naturally, I'm hoping that this will inspire them to always get along, in the big things as well as the little (and really, who can determine whether it's a big thing or a little thing if "she took the pencil that I was using like three minutes ago?" Which is one of our most common arguments.). 

But I've had an ulterior motive, and that has traditionally been to pave a smooth-ish path to my somewhat annual visit to my sister's. The girls have, historically, been able to somewhat understand, or at least not argue against too much, my desire to visit my sister when I mention to them that someday, if they live far apart, they'll probably want to visit each other, too. Unless someone nabs one pencil too many, of course.

Fudge and cheese!

It's been tough leaving little ones in tears over the years, but we have all survived, and I've had some pretty great times visiting my sister. We left off for a bit after the move to Kansas in favor of other adventures together, but last year, as the pandemic seemed to be slightly more under control than it had been previously, we decided a visit would be in order. We scheduled it for the migration in March, because Nancy always has the best birdwatching stories and I like birds, too. Yay! 

In the month or two leading up to the trip, airfare costs skyrocketed. I'd been on the fence about whether to fly or drive, but high prices sealed the deal. As it dawned on me that the minivan holds more than 1 person (plus luggage), I looked at my amazing, somewhat mature (except for the pencil issues) and fun girls, and I realized the sister trip needed to get a lot bigger--three more sisters needed to be included as well. We figured out that travel and sleeping arrangements at Aunt Nancy's would all work, and set the plan in stone by officially inviting the girls.  

Thanks for the brownies,
Aunt Debbie!

Girls trip! Woohoo! I stocked up on snacks and audio books, and we dug out some fidget toys and all the best stuffed animals (Naomi). Then we packed ALL the bedding we wanted, because we had plenty of room for once and could travel in comfort. Naomi had: a pillow, a sleeping bag, another sleeping bag, a small comforter, and a giant dog, plus her beloved stuffies. The other girls didn't need quite that much comfort, but we did stick in several air mattresses.

Since it wouldn't be as much fun for Kalina if she had to miss her orchestra rehearsal, we left right after. An easy, 3 1/2-hour drive later, and we were meeting Uncle David and Aunt Debbie for Culvers, and they were spoiling us with all we wanted to eat, even frozen custard even though there was plenty of dessert back at their home. Girls trip!

Aunt Debbie had a few crafts ready for us, so we crafted, snacked, and chatted until bedtime. After breakfast in the morning, we enjoyed some more time together before making our way northeast toward Nancy's.

It did seem ironic that we left behind relatively nice spring weather to travel in potentially freezing rain and weather that would hopefully get "up to the 40s or maybe 50s." Fortunately, our drive ended up relatively uneventful, and we listened to a great audio book pretty much the whole way. 

Easy-peasy, until my phone's GPS just stopped working, leading up to pretty much the only major-ish city (more like a major town) along our drive. At first, I admit, I believed Kalina's poor technology/navigation skills were to blame, but we soon cleared her name. The kerfuffle cost us 20-30 minutes, but in the end, McDonald's in hand, we were again on our way. As a bonus, I got to reminisce about my college internship days, which were spent in part of the area we were driving through.

As an added bonus, Nancy had been sick the past couple days! Which meant that she was sick enough to call in sick to work, but not so sick that she wasn't super fun to be with. Case in point: as soon as we arrived, we headed out to a cheese/fudge store, because that's what you do in her state. Let the party begin!

The cheese/fudge store was amazing, naturally. We stocked up on curds and blocks. Naomi found her requisite stuffed animal of the trip, and we each got to choose a flavor of fudge (plus an extra for the group). Could not be better.

Then, we were able to head straight to a favorite birdwatching area, where we checked a few species off our previously non-existent list, despite chilly, rainy weather, thanks to a warm car and a couple sets of binoculars. We also saw a bald eagle nest. Amazing! 

Of course we had to play
Wingspan!

After a QT dinner, we played a few board games (how did Naomi and Elise pound me and Nancy so soundly at Pass the Pigs, a game of chance??), made plans for the next day, and headed to bed to be ready for it. 

Sometime on the drive, while staring at a map, the girls had gotten wind that we'd be relatively close to Lake Michigan at Aunt Nancy's place, and were excited enough about the prospect of spending a cold day trying to birdwatch there that they deemed the extra drive worth it. So in the morning, after breakfast and a few more board games (we really tried to cram them in!), we hopped in the car and headed even further east. 

Birdwatching!

First, pizza. We found a riverfront place and spotted a few waterfowl as we waited for our food. Then, birdwatching on Lake Michigan! The only problem was the temperature. And the drizzle. We saw an adorable grebe and a few other cuties before taking refuge in the car. Fortunately, we had brought some brownies, courtesy of Aunt Debbie.

Back out again, we wandered along an actual beach, enjoying the experience of sand despite the unfriendly climate. And that was actually enough for all of us. We checked the box on Lake Michigan birdwatching.

Naomi amused and
warmed herself by
jumping and having
me try to get pictures
of her in mid-flight.

But we weren't yet done with Lake Michigan! In a lovely neighborhood perched on something of a cliff overlooking the lake stood a (small) lighthouse that we were able to visit. A tour guide told us about some of the history of the lighthouse, which included a woman lighthouse keeper who climbed all those stairs many times day and night, while raising kids and presumably doing all the cooking and laundry and wiping noses and getting everyone to the dentist on time. But...she earned as much...as a man!! Plus bragging rights. A true triumph. 

And then it was time to climb. Kalina and Elise were old pros, having climbed one in North Carolina. Sweet Naomi? Not so much. Fortunately, this one had two things going for it: it was only about half as high as the North Carolina lighthouses, and she could hold my hand all the way up.

She did actually make it higher,
but that landing was too
crowded for a picture. Go
Naomi! You're unstoppable!

Did I mention I'm afraid of heights, too? But through Naomi's tears, and pleas of "I can't," we both just kept following Aunt Nancy and Kalina and Elise, slowly and steadily with plenty of stops, never stopping to peek out the windows to see the view. In time, Naomi had made it to the top of the actual stairs--a landing where a super-scary ladder that would take us to the very, very top, where the light was. No one blamed her one bit for not wanting to climb that ladder. And we counted it.

Fortunately, so did the lady at the front desk when we arrived back down (a trip that was, if anything, scarier than our ascent because you have to look down all the way--although we did peek out a few windows this time). She wrote out a certificate that Naomi still proudly displays in her room today, certifying that Naomi had, indeed, climbed all 84 stairs. Which she totally did. Ladders aren't stairs.

The top!

Next we walked the grounds a bit in the chilly drizzle. Naomi enjoyed the big stone lions, but to be honest, after enjoying the view for a bit longer, we decided we'd had enough fun for one day and headed home. On the way back, we were all pretty tired, but managed to play a word game and not end up annoyed with each other, for a win.

Fudge, board games, showers, bed.

The next day, the girls and I would need to make it back to Des Moines, so we only had the morning to spend with Aunt Nancy. We decided on the nearby zoo, with a side order of fried cheese curds, without which our Wisconsin trip would not be complete.

I figured if we really pushed it, we could have as many as 3 1/2 hours at the zoo and still make it back to DM at a reasonable time. Nancy assured me that would be beyond enough, and that I should potentially adjust my expectations. It was, after all, a free zoo in a somewhat underwhelming city. She was betting that 2 would cover it.

The tiger comes in for a
snuzzle! Just like a certain
cat we know!

The first (significant) thing we saw after entering the gates was a tiger getting his breakfast to-go, in a paper bag, hung in a tree. He had to rip it open in order to devour the raw meat inside. We enjoyed not only this sorta-realistic scene, but then the cat-like behaviors afterwards, that even made us miss our own cats. We texted photos to Matt, and then Nancy and I remarked how pleasantly surprised we were, so far.

Next was the primate house (it was chilly out, and the house was warm). Here, we watched lemurs and monkeys performing their early-morning acrobatics. More pictures were texted to Matt.

Nearly indistinguishable from
the logs, you can see a pre-
wrestling polar bear.

"Wow!" he commented. "Looks like an amazing zoo!" And he was right. We dined on cheese curds in front of wrestling polar bears, watched an aardvark that reminded us of the armadillo we'd seen at home, saw the zoo's signature badgers, watched flamingos sleep and occasionally itch themselves, and so much more. This was the coolest zoo ever, plus you didn't have to walk far to see anything. We ended up using the full 3 1/2 hours--the perfect amount of time. Nancy was fine being wrong.

We were super sad to leave Aunt Nancy. Just, very sad. :( Thank goodness for a good audio book. Plus we stopped for ice cream.

Me: Who wants ice cream?

Girls: Me! Me! Me!

Me: Great! Here's a McDonald's! Although of course there's always the chance they'll be out of ice cream or their machine will be broken or something!

[The light, good-natured laughter of girls who are getting ice cream and will laugh at any of Mom's jokes because of it.]

Me, to the drive-through thing: We'd like ice cream (listing all of our choices)

Person taking our order: I'm sorry, our machine is broken.

Stunned silence.

Fortunately, there was a Dairy Queen across the street. And they had not run out of ice cream. 

[Relieved laughter]

Later, we pulled into my friend's house in Des Moines shortly after she'd returned home from her symphony performance. Her family was starving, and we were excited about a second shot at supper, as our gas station fare had left more longing than satisfaction. We ate at a restaurant together (mac and cheese all around for my girls, and I got something real and healthy), and then enjoyed just a few minutes back at her house before her girls had to hit the sack, with the Monday after spring break ahead of them. I sent mine to bed, too, so Allison and I could chat.

The next morning, we were banned from going upstairs until after 7:30, which I totally get, as we would've added a lot of chaos to an already tricky morning. Then we basically ate and left. And then arrived home. In time for piano lessons that afternoon. Party's over, girls. But it was a great one!

PS: Piano lessons ended up canceled. No tears were shed on our end, but I did make them unpack right away instead of leaving it for days.

New Year, New Rooms

A sleepover in Naomi's new
room!

 So this is definitely a milestone, right? For all four and a half years we've lived here, the girls have shared a room! Of our 5 bedrooms, they have occupied one. Our pet bunny has another. Guests, wrapping paper and our sewing/yarn/felt crafting things share another and Matt has one for his office and weight lifting equipment (and school/craft things inhabit the closet). That leaves one for Matt and I--perfect for our eclectic life.

Except then Elise. Who, rather vocally, needed a little space. [To be honest, I can totally relate. We're all here, all the time, all together, 24/7. We love each other and have fun together and generally get along really well...but who wouldn't need a little space? But don't tell her I said that...]

I admit that it's a little unconventional for the girls to share in the first place, but it's totally made sense for us. Kalina and Elise began bunking together one weekend when I was off visiting my sister, and Matt moved Elise's bed into Kalina's room. Normally, this would've kinda irked me--that's a big decision to just go ahead and make. But to be honest, room cleaning and mess organization for me are in the same category as watching my kids get teeth pulled. I'd rather pretty much anyone but me do it, so if it was going to happen, I realized I was kind of okay missing out on this one. 

Not only did the girls actually sleep just fine in a room together (although it made "downtime" much more complicated), but Kalina, who had wrestled with night terrors for years, actually slept peacefully. I think I can count on one hand the number of night terrors she had after Elise moved in. 

Naomi, being a baby, received her own room in an effort to try to limit the number of people awake in the middle of the night at once (although we totally still had our back-to-back midnight parties at times). By the time we were preparing for our move, however, and as Matt was commuting back and forth to his job in Kansas City, Naomi had developed some nighttime anxieties. Our move was the perfect chance to plunk her in with a sister. Or better yet, both sisters! And they've shared quite happily and harmoniously ever since, until Elise got other ideas.

One of my favorite moments from the room-sharing time period was one morning when Kalina and Elise were griping about how they'd had to comfort Naomi and find her stuffed animal in the middle of the night. I never heard a peep, and realized that possibly all the comforting, finding of stuffed animals, and general fixing I did when they were littler had paid off by nurturing sweet sisters who found that they, too, could take care of littler people. Sometimes they even asked me for advice: "What should I do if she wakes up and needs a drink?" ("Whatever you do, don't get me," I kinda wanted to reply.) To be honest, since they've shared a room, I've pretty much only had to go in at night for the occasional honest-to-goodness illness.

Unless you count hushing them up to go to sleep when they are telling stories to each other after bedtime. Because that has happened a lot. 

We enjoyed a Chinese dinner
to celebrate a couple
birthdays!

It's not just because Elise started to complain that we're giving them their own rooms. After all, she's been pestering for a lot of things, a lot of times, a lot of years, that she's never received (yet). To be purple. Skiing every weekend. Moving to the beach/mountains. Not doing math ever again. Various pets (yes, there are a few we actually don't own--yet).

To be honest, though, moving into their own rooms started to sound like a good idea, as we've wrestled with everything from different bedtimes, to all the "stuff" that needs to be crammed into one room, to the fact that sometimes a little space can do everyone a little good.

This wasn't the first time the idea had come up. A year or so ago, when Elise began wanting her own room, and Kalina also thought that might be nice (for her to have her own room, too, not just for Elise), we discussed it a bit in the car while Naomi was at home. Sweet girls that they are, they very thoughtfully decided that while, yes, they did want their own rooms, they knew Naomi would have trouble with it. They generously decided to give her a while longer.

And it's really made a difference! Although Naomi still doesn't want her own room, especially for sleeping, I feel like she's at least able to manage the idea of the possibility without becoming too anxious. It's helped that we've assured her (and we've insisted suggested her sisters assure her) that we'll do a lot of slumber parties for a long while.

Matt and I spent a long time determining whether to just move Elise out, seeing as she was really the only one complaining. (But would that be fair to Kalina?) And we did some problem-solving with the older girls, keeping the idea from Naomi at first so she wouldn't worry. And we began to figure out how it could, in fact, actually work (because, somehow, other families with 5 bedrooms manage for their kids to each have their own room).

But oh my word, the work that would need to be done. I remember moving out of our St. Louis house, and realizing that now, the next owner would get to find all the tiny Perler beads, and rainbow loops, and itty bitty stickers that we had, despite all our vacuuming, inadvertently left behind. I remember that that was one of the only things I was glad to leave in that house: all the tiny objects crushed into the carpet.

Now, we've filled our carpet again, at least in the girls' room (and the bunny room). Sometimes I don't know if one giant under-the-bed monster is as scary as a million teensy, colorful, plastic ones.

Plus, as Naomi was still pretty little when we moved here from St. Louis, and movers would do the lion's share of the work, we didn't really pare down our possessions much as we settled into our new home. Clearly, we would need to now.

And Matt would probably need to disassemble the beds. And find a new spot for the guest bed he'd assembled. And I'd have to find space for my sewing things. And so on.

So we made a plan: This fall, 2021, we'll bite the bullet, and everyone will move into their own rooms. 

We soon realized the flaw in our plan: fall is beautiful, and we want to be outside. Then comes Christmas, when top priorities change really quickly (yay!). But given a few days of Christmas break covid-exposure quarantine, we were all set to go!

Elise had stopped complaining about room-sharing the second she came to know we actually did intend to move everyone around. And once we began finding bins and making keep-store-toss piles, allllll those little gripes we'd heard over the past year  magically transformed into a solid stream of cheerful, can-do fortitude, even as we spent, like, 6 straight hours digging, shuffling, transporting, organizing, and lifting bulky objects. (Her sisters did awesome, too. Sometimes the transformations in Elise are just a little more obvious.)

The girls and I took a
trip to the
Cosmosphere with
AHG!

Actually, as I look back, I spent those 6 hours doing all those things. As I made trip after trip in and out of her room, Elise was ploughing through 4 1/2 years worth of carefully stowed trash treasures, many of them smaller than her fingernail. Although she may have sorted 100 items, the volume of items she actually moved and dealt with could probably have fit in a milk jug. She did an awesome job--she even collected a whole baggie full of beads to reuse--but this kind of attention to detail did not fit into my schedule. 

"Let's get your bookshelf situated!" I'd suggest. And Elise would cheerfully and energetically clear off her shelf so we could move it. And then go right back to her sorting. Actually, this kind of dedication was amazing to see and I was so proud of her...the problem was probably me. 

Meanwhile, Kalina, with the advantage of a room that had already been cleaned out (by me), except some gift-wrapping supplies in the closet (no one gets their own full closet--that would be impossible) was doing the same thing with her rock collection. Even as I was suggesting, "Why don't you lend me a hand moving all these books," she was organizing her entire set of shelves by fossil/rock type and, potentially, value. Occasionally I was able to drag her away, but it was clear that until her rocks were settled, she would not be. Enjoying the clean, open space of an underused room, away from the uprooting of 4 1/2 years of clutter, she had little motivation to move.

Naomi started
violin!

Naomi, however, was my right-hand girl, wanting to actively help, despite not actually looking forward to the change, but not knowing quite what to do (who could blame her--I barely did!). So part of my job was to look for small, manageable jobs for her to help with. We soon discovered that she was great with moving piles of books, rocks, and whatnot wherever they need to go. She could do it thoroughly, And efficiently. And completely without stopping to sort tiny, irrelevant items. So Naomi quite literally pulled her weight, and helped save my sanity as we sorted out picture books that we probably didn't need upstairs any longer. *sniff*

The long and short of it is that pretty soon, the girls' bedroom and bunny room had been half emptied into the hallway and/or basement, Kalina's new room had been emptied of all the sewing things into the master bedroom and its closet, and we could finally shift some things to where they needed to actually be, sliding-puzzle style. 

And this is where we had to stop, because by this time, the week was over. 

The next weekend, we did actually finish the job. The girls celebrated with three slumber parties in a row--one in each girl's new room. Naomi has kept it going, always opting to sleep in someone else's room instead of her own. I'm wondering how long this will last--but fortunately, it's not much of a problem and the older girls know they can't complain too loudly or we will remind them that just a short time ago they were sharing and that can totally happen again. 

The cats' new bean
bag chair.

We allowed each girl a budget for new accessories (some needed clocks, lamps, adorable wall stickers, etc.), and Elise pitched in for an extra or two (like a giant bean bag chair that the cats claim as often as they can).

I meant to post this months ago, but at least the delay will allow me to give you an update.

Naomi, more than two months later, is still opting to bunk with someone every night. The older girls are holding their good attitudes fairly intact, but if you ask them how they really feel (out of earshot, of course), you'd probably find they have actual opinions about the situation. Matt and I have a permanent cot for her in our room, but she rotates around. She says her new room doesn't quite feel like hers, and despite having 3 mice and a bunny in there to keep her company, would still feel alone. However, she does enjoy hanging out on her bed, reading, in the daytime. 

Elise is making use of the privilege of spreading her things out across the entire room, and not just one section. Not that that stopped her much before... At the same time, a lot of thought goes into the arrangement of shells, books, and a variety of knick knacks, so she's not entirely disorderly. 

Kalina's room is always clean and orderly. I should give her credit, but I really think it boils down to genetics. She can also fall asleep effortlessly and doesn't have a sugar craving to fight constantly. I'm super jealous, and Elise probably will be when she's older.

Are we glad we made the switch? Eh. I'm bummed for Naomi--I was hopeful she'd adjust a bit quicker. I'm glad Elise has her space. And I'm glad Kalina has a peaceful place she can relax and do her schoolwork without having to stare at her sisters' clutter. Do we call it a win-win-lose? Or maybe it's a win-win-win-win-win, because it's actually super sweet to wake up next to Naomi a couple times a week!

P.S. I've been meaning to post this forever! Busy spring, I guess!

The mysteries of another pandemic Christmas!

More normal--but this
ornament, made last year, still
seems to fit. Plus it's
adorable.

Christmas felt more normal this year! Not entirely normal, as we again said no to a couple events and activities we would've loved to attend (our beloved Nutcracker, for one!). But it was nice to at least not feel the need to pre-check with the neighbors to make sure it would be okay for us to bake cookies for them.

Also, there was no astronaut when we picked out our Christmas tree.

The first major change was the major rush to Christmas shop. I usually prefer to begin my shopping the day after Thanksgiving, lest I get too caught up too early. And also since young kids have a way of changing their interests about 2 weeks before Christmas anyway (although mine are starting to level out, at least). But this year, having been warned about shortages and shipping issues, I started passing around the Christmas catalogs nearly as soon as they arrived after Halloween, and warning the girls that even Santa couldn't make guarantees this year. By mid-November, I'd even made a purchase! 

As would happen, the gift Elise HAD to have, and that I ordered promptly, and that was too big to comfortably send back, she tried at a friend's house and decided she didn't want after all. As it was already wrapped, I mentally determined she would make it work. Because that's what Elise does. But would she this time?!? Christmas mystery #1. 

The second major change from last year was the potential to see family! People were available! And not in quarantine! We made actual, concrete plans! But would it actually work?!? Christmas mystery #2.

And the third was that we put some of our Christmas lights in the backyard this year, in hopes that other neighbors would follow suit and we could have our own neighborhood luminary walk along the trail. We thought the idea was so good, we even put up posters! But would anyone participate?!?

Other than that, we baked our usual cookies, made and shopped for gifts, watched the performances, saw the people, created the crafts, read the books, sang along to the music, and generally celebrated the season. Here's what that looked like:

Christmas often starts with Thanksgiving in our house! Here are the lovely plates, bowls, etc. that all of the ladies/girls painted the day after Thanksgiving.

We bought our tree at a different tree farm this year (no reason, other than it was closer), and we LOVED the selection of white pines--Matt's and my personal favorite. We found one we could literally hug, that was the perfect shape and size, and that was not already chopped down, because we did the right thing and shopped before Thanksgiving (thanks to me for shoving us all out the door!). We also saw an amazing flock of white pelicans, possibly, flying super high in cool formations.

What wasn't our favorite: trying to decorate this tree. The ornaments kept sliding off, and you can see what's happening with the star. Plus, less piney scent than other varieties. But it's still beautiful, a month and a half later!

In the above photo, Elise attempts to get the star to stand up on our floppy, yet soft and huggable, tree. The first few attempts ended up looking like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

I was so excited to have a second tree so that all our lovely handmade ornaments would be displayed! Unfortunately, so were the cats. Every morning for a while, we'd come downstairs to something like this scene. Amazingly, it all happened in the span of time between Matt getting up and the rest of us. The worst part was when the cats destroyed Grandma Jan's beautiful handmade wool ornaments... I think the only time any of us briefly reconsidered our kitten purchase a year and a half prior.

Our contribution to the trail luminary walk (the lights around the trees are a bit dim in this photo)! The girls created a poster, and then spent an hour or so taping them up on mailboxes around the neighborhood, often via scooter. Did anyone else decorate? YES! A couple friends, a couple people who looked like they might have done it anyway, and one neighbor who put lights on all the pine trees in their backyard--beautiful! Did it actually look like a luminary walk? Not so much. But we're hoping that we're starting a trend. Which would probably actually be the first trend I've ever set, in my life.

This idea was initiated, by the way, by a conversation the girls had with a nice neighbor lady on the trails. She suggested we do an event with hot cocoa and carolers and such. She got the girls all excited! And then it became my project, as many projects do if they have any hope of survival.

Alas, this one was lost. Although we nearly had interest from the HOA for the neighborhood that begins across the street from us, an event never happened. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a few after-dark walks on the trails to check out a few, widely spread light displays!

Kalina at her beautiful early December orchestra concert! While not a Christmas concert per se, it was still lovely to hear her play her music, and to see her glow.

Having sold coffee and tea to the neighbors to raise money for AHG, we thought it only right to deliver their purchases with a box of cookies and, my personal favorite, gingerbread cake (with orange-cream cheese frosting this year!). On roller blades.

We made a few cookies for ourselves, too. 

Unrelated, but possibly due to Christmas spirit, Kalina made crepes for us one morning, which was pretty noteworthy. We happened to have Nutella in the pantry and bananas on hand, soooo....

We love preparing and sending our Christmas cards! We do it assembly line style. This year, no one complained too much about signing the cards--even Matt! I think when even Naomi and Elise, who have yet to learn how to bottle up their whine well unless highly motivated, were trying to convince him it was really no big deal to sign 65 letters, he decided he could probably shoulder the burden as well.

Mandatory crocheting in the evenings as the girls made Christmas gifts for family (and a few teachers). They made dishcloths--even Naomi, for whom they were quite a challenge. She was frustrated watching her older sisters rush through them, but kept at it even when she really wanted to quit. And she's still crocheting every evening during storytime! So proud of her!

We really picked and chose our indoor events, but we were able to say yes to the luminary walk without much trouble! Almost better than the lights was the bagpiper, whose music we had to just about peel Kalina away from. Not as great: the Elvis impersonator, who was fun for about 5 minutes before just...not...being...that...great. And needing some new dance moves. And he had maybe one Christmas song, which to me is worse than being quite mediocre. 

Other covid-friendly attractions included the Christmas movies. I always feel like there should be some truly great Christmas movies out there--and there are. We've just seen them all already. Matt and I watched a couple pretty dumb ones before settling on one made in the 1940s that actually was pretty clever. The girls and I also watched some dumb ones, and I believe my credibility as a good movie-picker even slipped a bit.

It was a good thing we kept things low-key, as although Naomi developed a cold and laryngitis just in time to nearly ruin our plans, nobody got covid. The trek to Minnesota felt tenuous, but it happened. We couldn't wait to see everyone!

  

Although the snow wasn't packable at first, it was sled-able, and we took full advantage. Naomi loved doubling up with Julie, who was a adorable mix of slightly afraid and delighted at the same time. Another day, we were able to do some snow packing to make a snow alien, and Dean and Naomi had fun sled-racing. 

Gingerbread houses were fun to create! Amazingly, most of the candy actually ended up on the houses!

Matching jammies is such a fun tradition! 

Not pictured: Our amazing movie night, lots of great meals, board games, random cute things that both Julie and Dean said, and all the fun catching up with everyone.

A little Christmas morning silliness, back on our own turf! 

What do you have for Christmas breakfast when you haven't been home to buy groceries or make anything particularly yummy? Christmas toast! Using sprinkles. It worked, plus Kalina had a new cat mug for her hot cocoa.

From Naomi, Elise receives stuffed copepods to go along with her stuffed tardigrade. I'm not sure she needed anything else. But did she like the early-purchased gift for her Ninja Line?!? Maybe it was the joy of Christmas, but she very quickly decided it would work. And seemed to like using it. And has enjoyed it quite a bit since. I think we're in the clear. Thanks, Elise, for your amazing attitude, and for not making me try to return it.

Kalina asked for a dark medium-sized trilobite bent over a rock. Thanks, ebay! And Naomi hugs her Christmas puppy--a mini Holly that will travel easier than mommy Holly. She named it, appropriately, Minny.

The kitties got new bowls, with treats wrapped inside them! No one managed to open theirs until Christmas night, at which point it's entirely possible one cat opened both and devoured all 20-ish treats. Oops!

We had fun actually getting to see Grandpa and Marianne on Christmas this year! We enjoyed a lovely day together, and then two additional evenings of attempting to do a Zoom gift exchange with extended family (and eat the delicious buche de noel cake we'd made and decorated).

Unfortunately, that was close to the end of the fun, as a covid exposure kept us home, and visitors away, until after New Years. But that was okay--we'd already had a lovely holiday season. And stay tuned for our covid-exposure project....

Back to the beginning: Our trip to North Carolina

A sailboat ride in the sound!
Amazingly, we saw dolphins,
but the water was too shallow
for them to jump.

Last April, when Covid numbers were quite low, and our family was eagerly anticipating another summer adventure, and Elise, in her own Elise way, suggested North Carolina so she could see where she was born, we booked a trip! Assuming we could be a bit flexible once we got closer to the date.

Turns out, not everything we booked was super flexible. Plus, vaccines happened. Plus, the kids aren't getting any younger. Plus (and I hate to admit this may have factored in, but I think Matt could see the desperation in my eyes), I knew I would never stop working if I didn't leave the house. For a long time. Far away.

So we threw caution and unanswered emails to the wind, invested in some better masks than the ones I could sew, and took our trip.

Good choice? We may never know... seems like it, though.

I like how nearly every event starts really, really early in the morning. And I only just found out from Kalina that this one actually started at 12:04 a.m., when she snapped awake, assumed the clock was wrong, dressed in the bathroom among drowsy and confused cats, and nearly woke her sisters before realizing that, actually, the clock was right after all and slept the rest of the night in her clothes. Hah! It can happen to any of us, right?

Fortunately, we were able to truly start our day at a more normal time, but were heading out the door by about 7:30 in the morning. We were grateful to Grandpa and Marianne for driving us, but I admit, considering we hadn't known for sure even a week in advance that we were actually going to make the trip, I still didn't quite believe it would actually happen. It became more real when they drove away, and we were left at the airport with only our suitcases and other odd items we wanted to bring along (an empty cooler, a fishing rod).

And what an empty airport it was! Security was waiting for us for a change! And the flight had quite a few empty seats! In fact, the only hitch was that Naomi had developed a fear of flying since our last airplane ride. Even the Takeoff M&Ms (yes, they're a thing now in our family, harkening back to Kalina's first flight at age nearly 4) didn't help. Naomi cowered close to me while Elise talked plankton with Matt behind us and Kalina listened in, amused. 

What ended up working for Naomi was simply losing herself in her book (a hand-me-down dolphin book from Elise) so she almost forgot she was on an airplane. I swear this girl is more like me every day. Flying never became easy for Naomi, but she managed to sit with her sisters on our second flight while Matt and I kicked back in front of them. Elise: "I'm not a very good comforter, I'm not sure this is a good idea." They all survived.

Amazingly, our flights were on time, our rental van was ready, our hotel room hadn't been given away, and we did, in fact, find ourselves in a beachfront hotel by about 9:20 that night. Ready to drop, but equally ready to wake up to a beach day the next day. The only thing that didn't seem to work was the bluetooth in the van, so the girls had to listen to us reminisce about our early days in North Carolina for a large portion of the journey. They bore it well: after all, we were taking them to the beach.

First thing the next morning, after Matt did a grocery run that left me eerily uncomfortable because I  hadn't done it (and it was missing some of the things I'd had on my mental list--can he not read my mind?!?), Elise opened an early birthday present, as she'd requested: a new, intact net and a beach aquarium, both of which have become a near-yearly tradition since they actually do seem to wear out. 

And then beach!!! The beach makes everyone happy: Matt for the fishing, Naomi for the sand, Elise for the water and critters, Kalina for pretty much all of it (and shells!), and me because occasionally someone will take a long walk along it with me. 

In the afternoon, and after my own somewhat harrowing Wal-Mart run, everyone cleaned up so we could head out for a large highlight of the trip: a sailboat ride Matt had lined up! Naomi, in accordance with her distrust of any vehicle that isn't a car/van, was hoisted onto the boat rather reluctantly--but that all cleared up as soon as she found out she could go into the cabin and pet a friendly dog and cat the whole time. To each her own. Elise, on the other hand, amused herself simply by proving how much of a natural she was on a boat, even after only a few minutes! She also tried to spend time in the highest and lowest positions she could get to. Fortunately, the boat owner didn't freak out about our monkey child, and reassured us that in many places, the water was actually only a few feet deep.

Kalina, not being a very extreme person, enjoyed the beautiful water, clouds, sunset, breeze, etc., and simply had a lovely time. Not as good as Elise's, Elise would want to remind everyone. But still a lovely time. Just not as good as Elise's. ;)

The next day, I annoyed pretty much everyone by insisting that we visit the Wright Brothers' Memorial (it's right across the street and we could see the tower from our hotel window, for goodness sake!) and the Atlantic's largest sand dune state park, just down the road a little, instead of spending another day entirely on the beach. Sorry (not sorry).

The coolest thing was that we got to use Elise's 4th-grade national parks pass one last time, as we arrived on August 30, which still counted as her 4th-grade year. (We tried to use it on August 31, but there was no entry fee into the historic site we visited. Bummer.)

Actually, the giant memorial was also pretty cool. Even better, we all thought, was the flight path that was marked out with large stone memorials. Kalina ran the whole thing, actually faster than the original flight (she was proud). 

The North Carolina heat was creeping up to the point that the girls started to actually believe my stories about how hot North Carolina can get in the summer, and the time was nearly 11:00 when we reached the sand dune. So we took the path that looked like it might offer tiny bits of shade, watching hang-gliders take lessons along the way, and made our way down to a little cove for some wading. Matt hates sand and just wanted to fish (but was a good sport anyway), but the girls all agreed it had been a good idea to come. 

We didn't spend long, and were heading back around 11:30 or so, ignoring a directional sign since we were both pretty sure the trail curved farther left, and we knew a less optimal trail wound around to the right. Soon the footprints ahead of us began to look older and more weathered, and the signs we had expected to see had not appeared. We guessed too far left, apparently.

Technically, we didn't know where we were, the sun was only getting hotter, shade was scarce, we were surrounded by sand, there were no people, and our water would run out within the next hour or less if we all continued to drink it, which we needed to. Not really an optimal situation if you look at it that way.

Fortunately, however, we could backtrack if we needed to (although that sounded like an arduous, hot option at this point), we knew there were a few buildings and trees farther to our left, and if we just walked right we'd eventually hit a trail. Plus our phones still had signals, so....

So our adventure was right-sized when, with our phones, we quickly determined that a rough trail up ahead would take us back to our parking lot. We took the trail and made it back to the parking lot. 

A real flounder! Two
eyes on the same side
and all!

And back to the beach! Matt enjoyed the best beach fishing he's ever had, catching several varieties of fish, and the girls and I went looking for sea turtle nests (carefully roped off by park rangers, but still exciting!). That evening, after a long, long beach walk, we did find a sea turtle nest that they had just finished excavating (bummer!), and that had been laid on Kalina's birthday!

The next day could possibly be considered the highlight of my homeschool career so far, as we were able to visit the super-cool historic site within a few weeks of reading that chapter in our history book (within a series that covers history from hunter-gatherers to modern times over the course of 4 years, no less!). Compare it to getting a football signed by the winning Super-Bowl quarterback for your home-town team. 

A replica of the ship that sailed
to Roanoke Island. Fun for 30
minutes. Not for like 2 months.

The weather was hot, and either covid or end-of-season reductions had closed some of the fun kids' activities at the Roanoke Island living-history park, so my elation was kept in check. However, thanks to some fantastic interpreters, one of whom eloquently, and at great length, warned us of the trepidations of trying to bring the nail he'd blacksmithed for us back home in our carryon luggage, we greatly enjoyed our visit. We each got a chance to turn chair posts, shave wood, and stand in the stocks (the kids opted out), plus spend some time on a replica ship that felt waaayyyy too small to carry the 100 people it apparently did. And canons. 

We followed this up with a mediocre seafood lunch, and then a visit to the actual Roanoke Island site, with an informative tour, during which we all nearly melted. We were ready to move on.

A hot, humid, steep
climb in a mask!

Bodie Island
Lighthouse!

This time, moving on meant heading south on Hatteras National Seashore to our next location. We began with a pre-arranged climb up the Bodie Island lighthouse. We'd had to order tickets first thing in the morning (like, I set my alarm). Elise desperately wanted to climb it (surprise!), Kalina was fairly willing to be convinced, and we ordered one adult ticket as well, that I knew would go to Matt most likely because although I was pushing the lighthouse climb (how often do you get to climb a lighthouse, honestly?), I get really shaky with heights. Then Naomi astonished us all by saying she wanted to try it, so I booked an extra 2 tickets, because if there was even a chance a climb could happen, I wanted to enable it, and purchasing a ticket was the only way to even go inside.

As soon as Naomi actually looked up at the towering spiral of stairs, however, her courage failed her--especially when we were told only one person could climb each flight of steps at a time. I convinced her to climb about half a flight, then I climbed a flight, and then we headed back outside, where a nice ranger gave Naomi a junior ranger booklet, which she enjoyed far more than a lighthouse climb. It had a word search, after all.

This actually worked out really well, because Kalina scoffs at junior ranger booklets, and Elise does as well, though not as loudly. So although Naomi completed a couple when she was really too young (when her sisters weren't scoffing), she had yet to complete a booklet while being the right age to enjoy it. Sometimes it's nice to get Naomi away from her sisters for a bit...

We unfortunately missed seeing Matt and the girls at the top of the lighthouse (I guess they didn't think to wave?), but were happy to share stories once they'd made it back to solid ground again. The biggest surprise was how much Kalina enjoyed an activity she'd had to be talked into. We all already knew Elise would have fun. This ended up being such a highlight of our trip, totally worth the early wakeup (and the donation of two virtually unused tickets!).

Next, we made the trip down the skinny, less densely inhabited, windblown island to the spot near the tip where we'd be staying for the next four nights. The room was beautiful (think mini-apartment!), and soon we were all out on the beach finding the best shells of the trip, and catching a fish or two. Elise verified that the hotel was, indeed, mere steps from the beach, just as the advertisement promised. (Actually, she verified that it was exactly one jump from the steps to the sand.) 

We also verified that several kittens lived on the premises! Kalina enjoyed watching as one kitten stalked a littermate, while another brother or sister stalked it. We noted that on a beach, the world is your litterbox. 

In this wilder part of the island, we found a lot more sea turtle nests! On a walk one evening, we were able to speak with a couple who were watching the nest to keep it safe from all types of dangers, since it was getting close to hatching. We thoroughly enjoyed learning from them...until the skies opened and rain poured down, sending us on a 10-minute, harrowing run back to our hotel. Eek!

Our favorite sea turtle nest.

We checked back on the turtles each night and each morning, always making sure to fill all the ghost crab holes with sand to help keep the crabs too busy to catch turtles. The evening after it rained, we decided not to stick around as long, watching the sky. It didn't rain that evening--but the baby sea turtles hatched just 30 minutes or so after we'd been there, as we found out the next day. Ouch!!! I remember asking Kalina if we should turn back and just go check back one more time on the turtles, but trying to convince myself there was absolutely no chance, and we were crazy for considering it. Turns out, I wasn't crazy, and next time I will probably be more likely to convince Matt to stay and risk another drenching. (To be honest, though, our clothes took nearly 2 days to dry, so....)

To finish out the sea turtle saga, the following night was our last one, and we stayed until the couple watching the nest left, just in case more baby turtles would follow, as they often do. No luck. We still learned a ton and enjoyed being caught up in the excitement of it all. 

Elise loved riding the waves!

Over the next couple days, the weather varied from, at first, quite hot, to, by the end of the week, quite chilly! We enjoyed some lovely beach time, and the older girls became braver in the water and on the boogie board. Elise got completely drenched by waves at least once, but she was totally fine with that. Kalina and Naomi built some pretty cool structures in the sand, we gathered tons more shells, and we even flew a kite. Along the beach, we found a puffer fish (past rescuing), jellyfish, and plenty of crabs.

We liked this ice-cream store,
but the heat made the cones
really drippy. Like, really,
really drippy.

Off the beach (because we did leave, sometimes a bit too much for Matt's liking--but there's so much to see in the area!), we visited the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, spent a rainy and very chilly morning in a pretty cool shipwreck museum, stocked up at the grocery store, visited a toy/candy store where Naomi found a souvenir, and visited one of the typical beach shops, where we bought a second boogie board that ended up being our only one, as apparently our first one had blown away in the night. Bummer! In the room, Naomi diligently worked on her junior ranger book, and we enjoyed a few meals in front of the TV--a complete novelty to us.

On our last day, we took the ferry to Ocracoke Island, a pretty exciting trip. Because it's a ferry. I'd heard that the shells on a particular beach near Ocracoke were nearly so plentiful that "a perfect conch could wash up right at your feet." Matt, reluctant to leave his fishing pole, mocked the ad that told me this, but the girls and I convinced him to go with us anyway. Thank goodness, because there's no way I wanted to drive onto a ferry... :)

Matt was right--although each girl found a special shell, our haul was overall disappointing Trying to keep moving so that we'd be able to get back to the hotel in decent time for more swimming later that afternoon, we only stayed for 20 minutes or so. We weren't in our swimming gear anyway.

The pony pen was a bit disappointing (why are the "wild ponies" cooped up in a pen???), but Matt had found an amazing restaurant right on the dock--the best in outdoor dining! They actually were serving 3 different foods on the older girls' seafood bucket list: calamari, shrimp, and crab cakes. So we ordered them all, ate approximately half, and spent way too much. But totally got what we came for.

Afterward, we went to go get Naomi's junior ranger badge, as she'd completed all the necessary requirements and was quite proud/fulfilled. Unfortunately, the only park ranger was leaving for lunch, but she very kindly did the whole junior ranger thing with Naomi, and Naomi wore her badge for weeks afterward, creating small, but unfixable, holes in all her summer dresses. Fortunately, she'll be too tall for most of them next summer, anyway.

Our last stop was a hike (so, not really a stop) out to the location of Blackbeard's last stand. We liked it for the cool hermit crabs and water to play in.

The last morning, we took a long walk on the beach before reluctantly heading inland to our kayak tour of and Alligator River trail. Nobody wanted to leave, and let the powerful serenity of unspoiled beach recede with the waves. Fortunately, the waves had one last gift for us. A perfect conch washed up nearly at our feet, just as the advertisement had promised could happen. I was gratified to see that Matt was the one to find it. Hah! He got to claim the perfect conch, and I got the last laugh. It now sits proudly on our mantle, except for when the girls are holding it up to their ears. 

Sad to leave such a nice spot, we picked up some breakfast ice cream on the way out of town. In cups this time, not cones. We also stopped at a sound-side inlet to try to find some cool microorganisms and plankton for Elise to view in her pocket microscope. She found one cool little guy, but not the hoards of crab larvae she was really hoping for.

Our adventures certainly weren't over, because the kayak tour turned out to be incredibly awesome. Winding through narrow water trails and spotting a couple gators was pretty cool, but the best part was when, paraphrasing Kalina, "I was paddling at the front of the group, and a big strong guy started paddling up towards me, looking like he wanted to pass me. I just kept going. Eventually he got really interested in a tree off to the side and dropped back to look at it." Probably for a whole host of reasons, Kalina and Elise were better paddlers than most of the rest of the group. Yay! Naomi survived, by the way. She's becoming a good sport (or at least a really resigned one).

We then drove the rest of the way to Raleigh/Durham, and pulled into Matt's aunt and uncle's house for a quick visit (unfortunately, Aunt Ruth, and cousin Lynn and her family were at the beach). The girls were a bit nervous about meeting Uncle Peter for the first time in their memories, but within 30 seconds he'd charmed them all with his gregarious personality, funny stories, and kind and hilarious insights. We didn't want to leave, but knew we had a big day the next day and figured we would probably want to have slept. 

In a sad turn of events, Elise dropped a bag of shells she was bringing home and most of them broke. In an Elise-like about-face, however, she decided some of the pieces could be glued together to make a sea turtle, so that's good.

In the morning, we packed everything tightly (and more securely) to be ready for our flight, and set out to do the best we could at showing the girls Durham. Of the sites we wanted to see, Duke Gardens was the only one that was open, didn't need advance reservations at an inconvenient time, didn't cost a fortune for the short time we'd be able to spend, and provided some nostalgia. Seriously, like the only one. 

The gardens were appropriately beautiful, and I had fun telling Kalina a few of the things she used to do there (chase the geese and ducks, hang out on a bridge, etc.). We greatly missed the giant lily pads, but did enjoy taking the path up to Duke's campus to see the cathedral, and reminiscing a bit more about the time we spent in Durham.

There were so many places we wanted to eat at for lunch, so we turned to the most convenient option: the Mellow Mushroom in the tobacco warehouse district, which was pretty cool since the area's transformation began when we lived in Durham. We loved the pizza, too. Ironically, we hardly ever spent time in the tobacco district when we lived in Durham, and had eaten much more frequently at a number of other restaurants, but, whatever. The store we wanted to look into was closed, so we just did a quick lap and headed south to our old home, driving past a historic church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached once.

Elise seemed very concerned that we'd zoom past our house and she'd blink and miss it, but with our tiny, twisty neighborhood, that would've been nearly impossible. The house was still cute (although yellow now!), and Matt was interested to see that no one had fixed the front steps, which had needed fixing even when we lived there. 

But how much would Kalina remember? She had told of us a few memories at our house. Not too surprisingly, though, it looked quite different to her, even the mailbox area she seemed to remember fairly well. I was hoping we'd jog a few more memories, but we simply didn't.

Next, we drove to an old favorite park, where we unloaded the contents of the rest of our cooler since we couldn't bring it on the airplane. We walked a bit around Woodlake, just for old time's sake. And then it was time to depart. There's a lot more we could've done, but we wouldn't have traded our time at the beach.

Heading home was sad, and most of us questioned at least once whether we should just move back to North Carolina. I'm guessing we'll all be back someday... and this time we're totally stalking a sea turtle nest until it hatches.

Kalina's sand structure!

We did see sea turtles!

We had trouble getting good selfies! This is the
only really good one.

Naomi was feeling silly. But at least she was
smiling!