New Years 2015

We spent New Years Day with my family in GI town. It was great fun! Had a wonderfully yummy lunch followed by long conversations, game playing and LOTS of laughs!

I didn't get many photos of the day...I was busy conversing and cooking, but we did get our 4 generation photo taken just as we were all leaving.

2015 is going to be a big year for our family! Lots going on. And can you even begin to wrap your head around the fact that Christmas 2015 will be our last Christmas with the twinners at home!? Our last summer will be this summer- they are off to college in 2016!!! Complete craziness! This is our last full year with them. Wowzers! 

Happy 2015! 

ps- Please don't feel hurt if you didn't get a Christmas card from us. I haven't done them yet. Perhaps a Valentine's day card! :)

Christmas 2014 part 4

We were supposed to fly home Monday. We headed to the airport all packed and ready to return home. Just as we were checking in for our flight- we were notified that our connecting flight from Denver had just been cancelled. CANCELLED!! So now what!? Our options were to fly to Denver and wait around all night hopping they could fit on a different flight at some point on Tuesday. OR we could take a red eye to Chicago at 10:30pm and hang around Chicago for 5 hours from 1am-6am then fly into Lincoln. OR fly to Denver and try to rent a car to drive home. OR just stay the night in San Diego for another night and get on a flight the next morning. We opted for the last  one. We gathered up all our luggage and headed over to the hotel shuttles. Stayed at a Bayside hotel. It was only 2pm and we had already returned our rental car...so we were basically confined to that area. The twins did some homework, Corynn messed around on her iPad, and Evie and John and I took a walk around the neighborhood. 

Corynn and Evie took advantage of the extra pool time. We walked around downtown San Diego and had dinner a great burger place. 

Then about 2am Evie had a coughing fit. We turned on the shower and sinks in the bathroom and tried to use the steam to help ease the coughing. Our family had two hotel rooms with the twins and Corynn in one and John, Evie and I in the other. So at least the other kids got some sleep. Evie finally fell asleep around 4am. We had to be up and at the airport before 8am. I should have known it was an omen of the how the day would go. 

We made it to the airport at 8am only to find out our flight was delayed a few hours. I walked the entire airport trying to find some kind of cold medicine for children, but no luck. Poor kid was going to have to tough it out until we got home. 

She was exhausted by the time we finally boarded our first flight. It was a 2 hour flight and she fell asleep in my lap about 10 minutes in. She needed the sleep so I let her sleep. Even when she peed all over my lap. Not much you can do at 30,000 feet when all your clothes are packed in checked baggage. Just thankful I had on black pants...otherwise it might have looked like both of us had accidents. 

We finally make it to Denver only to find out that the connecting flight to Lincoln is delayed. Joy. I go through all our carry-ons hoping to find something to change Evie into. Finally find something that will work for her and we head to the bathroom to change her and dry me. As we get back to our gate, John informs us that the flight was delayed AGAIN. So we hang out in Denver. For hours. And during that time, flights at gates around us are getting cancelled. Evie is still coughing and the airport was freezing. 

Finally- we make it onto our flight only to sit at the gate for a half hour while they restocked soda and ice. The buckle seat belt sign was on and Evie had to pee. She had to wait until we were in the air. She was crying. There was nothing I could do. I had put a pull-up on her at the airport, so I told her that it would be ok to just go in her pants. She held out as long as she could. And of course the pull-up failed. She was upset. I was done. I could not wait to get home!!

But we made it. It was definitely a stressful trying time for our family, but it didn't ruin the trip. The trip was amazing! Lots of memories we made and we had a blast! I'm just documenting our experience, so that when we contemplate taking a flight through Denver- I can just read this and remind myself to pay extra to take connecting flights through any place but Denver. Seriously. 

Happy 2015!!! Wishing everyone a lovely NEW YEAR!!

Christmas 2014 part 3

We were able to add on a few days to the end of the trip for just our family. We explored the San Diego area. 

We visited the Birch Aquarium. A great little facility perfect for families with small children. Evie was thrilled we found Nemo and Dori. ;)

I quickly walked through the grounds of the San Diego Temple. So gorgeous! Loved the stained glass windows and how they filtered in light. Beautiful!

We also stopped by the Oceanside Pier. Very cool! Lots of surfers and a great little playground on the beach. Evie loved swinging out over the ocean. As we left the pier, we traveled down a road right along the beach. The waves were pushing water over at some points. The water was on the right and houses were on the left. I can't imagine living in one of those little houses. Craziness!

We also traveled to Coronado Island. We checked out the famous Hotel Del Coronado. It is on America's Most Haunted Hotels List. I've always wanted to see it. It's an all wooden structure and you could completely envision hotel guests in the 1890s walking around on the beach in all white with umbrellas. It was very cool. The bridge you take to the island was crazy too! 

The USS Midway. Our final stop was this WW2 aircraft carrier. The twins are big history buffs and love all things WW2. I have a feeling this was one of the highlights of the trip for the twins. It was also cool because we have great grandpas on both John's and my side who served in WW2. John's great grandpa flew fighter jets in the South Pacific where this carrier was stationed. It was also used in parts of Desert Storm, which my father fought in.

The tour was very cool. It was a personal audio tour as you traveled through out the ship. My claustrophobia started to kick in. It's crazy in there. You really feel like you are in a huge tin box and the passage ways are tiny and cramped. A funny story: It was getting to be about 12:30 and Evie was hungry for lunch. And we were touring the second level of the ship we kept passing through the various mess halls and chow lines. Evie was so sad there wasn't any food. We finally saw one set up with fake food to show what it might have looked like and Evie perked up at the sight of food. "Do we get to eat now!?" It was quite funny because the food looked disgusting. 

After a few hours aboard the carrier we went over to a fish market restaurant for lunch. We sat on the outside patio right on the bay. Kynna ventured out of her comfort zone and tried Mako shark. She really liked it...me not so much. But at least I tried it! :)