We Aren't Going Anywhere

Karen and I have been planning a winter vacation to a climate much warmer than ours. We haven't really traveled with our kids; we are trying to work out the details so that we won't be the people in the rest stop/hotel/airport/airplane with the screaming children who ruin everyone's experience (including our own). We initially considered Hawaii, but decided that few, if any on us would survive the 5-hour flight from CA to Hawaii. We then decided to consider Mexico, as it is much closer.

Karen found an great deal on the internet for our Mexican vacation. The only stipulation is that we would each need to host a travel companion on the trip.

I am paired with a lost member of the rainbow family. She has obviously suffered a very abusive, depressing life.

Karen has been paired with Marcus Soprano. His father really didn't mean to shove the pencil into that other guy's neck.....

As you can see, Karen took the kids in to get passport pictures. She did it right after getting their hair cut, so Marcus had a fauxhawk. Karen's orders to the photographer were to take "Whatever we need  to be legal." Good job Karen, I'm sure we'll zoom right through customs...

One Month, One Post

I have not been in the blogging mood lately and neither has Karen. I need to make up some ground, so I have decided to speed-blog.

Halloween: We visited a few friends followed by dinner at my parents' house. We took pictures of the kids' costumes, but the pictures sucked. Elena was a scuba diver and Marcus was a shark. Elena had a tough time pronouncing "scuba diver," so the teachers at her school thought she was planning to be a screw driver.

We made a couple of trips to the cabin. Our view has gone from this:

 To this:

The kids loved the snow. Elena woke up to see snow and promptly thanked the snow gods. "Thank you snow!" She made snow angels and Marcus mostly stayed put, as he wasn't able to walk around without falling down. It took us 20 minutes to dress the kids for the cold weather. After five minutes outdoors, they were cold and ready for some hot chocolate. We then spent 20 minutes undressing them.

 

 

Mary (Karen's mom) turned 29 this month. We had a nice celebration with extended family and friends.

Marcus either has epilepsy or he dances like his father. I will let you be the judge.

Speaking of Marcus, he has been changing rapidly. He now has a few words, the best of which is "out." He loves to go outside. He follows it up with the sign for outside, just in case the fact that he's standing next to the door and holding his shoes fails to get the message across. He had surgery to install tubes in his ears a few weeks ago to help with his ear infections and it seems to be helping. He has also started fighting back against his sister. Bear hugs and hair pulling are his weapons of choice. One evening he tackled Elena on the kitchen floor. They both fell down HARD. Karen and I were laughing so hard we couldn't help them up and comfort them.