The Great State of....Indiana?

It turns out that I like Indiana. It's really pretty and it feels wholesome. (They sleep with the windows and doors unlocked!! That freaked me out. I went to sleep every night certain that I would wake up and one of my kids would be missing. That doesn't make for a restful sleep.) The negatives? Mesquitos, evil beavers, mice, and being forced to walk a 5K to benefit cancer research.  :o)   But it was so worth getting to see my mom and Mark in their "natural habitat." 

Over the river and through the woods....to grandmother's house we go! (Or just on Southwest Airlines. Much less hassle. I love modern convenience.)

Their beautiful home.

Enjoying the artsy and musical festival atmosphere.

Finishing the 5K walk to cure cancer. Maddie walked the whole thing all by herself! (I wanted to ride in the stroller with Jack.)

Enjoying the coziness of a small town.

Jack is always a sleepy monster beast on return flights. He is grounded and not allowed to travel for a long, long time. Bad. So bad. Very, very bad.

Adult time.

Not that kind of adult time! It's not THAT kind of website people! 

When we got back from California, we agreed that we need to enjoy this magical crazy city we live in. There is so much to do and see in this town, so we made a goal of acting more like tourists in our own town for date nights. 

The mob museum was a hit. (No pun intended!)

Chris Issak was freaking fabulous. I don't care how old that makes me sound.

We HAD to go to the Jimmy Eat World concert at the House of Blues. I love Jimmy.

But we continue to sneak off to some of our favorite cities for a few nights of fun. These amazing seats at the Giants game were so much fun. The Cracker Jacks bag was like icing on the cake. 

I realized a long time ago that my comfort will always be more important to me than fashion. ("Fashion is uncomfortable" sounds so stupid.) So I had no problem looking like a homeless woman at the baseball game. That city gets freaking cold! And besides, half the people walking around those city streets are homeless anyway, so I fit right in.

Seattle has a very cool vibe. But I am sick everytime I go there! That didn't stop me from eating great food, attending the Nevada trial lawyers convention, or seeing the Dave Chappelle show. One of these days I will NOT be sick there so I can explore the ferrys.

Josh got to hang out with his brother and see a football game in San Diego.

And I got to hang out with the lovely ladies in my book club and go see the "Austenland" movie. (Loved!!)

I am a Tingey.

Before school started up again, we got to sneak off for the Tingey family reunion. There's about a thousand grandkids or so. Luckily I was the third grandchild, so most of my aunts and uncles at least know my name. The other 997ish cousins aren't as lucky.  :o)

School Boy

Jack started "baby school." Can I just comfort anybody who is judgey-wudgey about day care? It has been a great thing in our family. Jack loves going to school and seeing his friends. When he gets dropped off he practically jumps out of our arms and crawls off to play without even looking over his shoulder. I love going to pick him up and seeing him playing with his buddies. I insist on raising independent children, and I think he fits in nicely into our family.  

First Day of School picture.

Jack is totally weird.

So.....it turns out that Jack is totally weird. He chooses these random weird things to be scared of. So far, I have been able to document the things that he randomly assigned a "scary" label to. Here is what he has been terrified of so far:

A squishy tomato toy.

The cookie monster finger puppet.

My orange round brush.

There's No Place Like Home

So.....I think you can tell that I love to travel and I love adventures. But let me just remind you that I also LOVE to be home. If I can't be exploring a new place, then I want to be at home in my pajama pants. Maddie feels the same way. We missed our home so much that she literally hugged it when we finally got home after SIX WEEKS of being gone.

Home is where the happy memories are made. I can't tell you how happy and grateful I am that my Maddie has her Jack, and that my Jack has his Maddie. My heart bursts when I think about it.

California.....It is so lovely there.

We finished up our summer time in Newport Beach. That is such a happy, happy place. Jack was enjoying the soft grass that doesn't itch or cut your skin when you sit on it (like the grass in Vegas does).

Riding a bike on the boardwalk might be the happiest thing in the world.

We like playing with puppies at the puppy store, where we don't have to clean up their poop and they don't chew our shoes.

We worked really hard to get Jack to drink on his own...

But it took him a long time to realize that he had to tip his head back to get the water. I don't know why this concept was so hard for him to understand. (Maddie did a good job of modeling the behavior.) He eventually sort of figured it out, but is still terrible at this whole sippy cup thing.

He just wanted to be free to run around outside all on his own. I eventually had to go buy the baby gate to keep him from being a runaway.

"The wheels are coming off." - Josh

This is Josh's favorite phrase to describe family travel. Pretty much without exception, someone gets sick. This time, it was both kids. Maddie threw up twice.

And Jack caught a virus, had a 103 fever, got an ear infection, broke out in hives, got diarrhea, and essentially became miserable. We took him to the cruise doctor and got some medication and then I stopped everything and took care of my little man. This picture is so sad. I didn't get to see the beautiful beach towns at the end of the cruise, but there is nothing I would rather do than take care of my babies. Especially when they are sick and just need their mama. 

I think Jack was very happy when I started the process of packing all of our crap into our suitcases. 

We found a huge sink at the airport and gave Jack a nice warm bath to prepare for our 24 hour hell.....Um.....I mean trip home. 

But as you can imagine, a sick, sleep deprived, miserable little guy made for an absolutely miserable trip home. Oh. My. Gosh. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. We have been home for almost 48 hours. With an insane amount of time sleeping and the antibiotics I got from the pediatrician in California, Jack seems to be MUCH better. I think we are all a little happier in our own beds in our own house. 

But it was still awesome.   :o)