Family vaca: Lake of the Ozarks, MO

Phew, it's been a busy couple of weeks. On Friday, June 12th, my brother-in-law got married and it was a little cray cray leading up to it, with all the setting up and details and out of town guests. All fun things, but when you are running on 4 hours of sleep for a couple of days, nothing is fun anymore:) Anyways, the wedding went great and then we took off on our family vacation. We just got back late Monday night and I think I'm still recuperating. 24 hours of total driving, 14 people in one house (13 of which got really sick during the vacation at some point or another), 5 rainy days, 4 kids under 4... It's easy to imagine how it all went, right? But you throw in one pool,  one lake, one boat, one ping pong table, 90 degrees, and a LOT of food and coffee and you got yourself a very fun relaxing chaos:) I always look forward to those times and looking back at the pictures is a little bitter sweet. Already wonder where we will gather as a whole family next. (Last year we were in Charleston, SC... Gosh, how things have changed in just one year.)

And below is a load of pictures...

San Diego {according to my iPhone}

We've been back home a few days now, but I swear those 4 days in San Diego were enough to set us on the Pacific time. It's true when they say that one gets used to good stuff fast. Kiddies don't care though and it's 7 am wake up every day. Ek!

But below are a few more pictures from the trip. Since my big-girl camera weighs about 17 pounds, I sort of got over hauling it around San Diego and for the rest of the time my phone became my eye.

Our first day there was jam-packed with activity, but we made the rest of the time pretty laid back. On the second day we toured USS Midway, which is a huge aircraft carrier that was decommissioned from the Navy a few years ago. It was the biggest ship in the world until 1955 and it went through Vietnam war.  We spent about 3 hours on it with our audio guides. Later I also visited the rest of the Maritime Museum, while Greg was in meetings. I toured the Star of India, which is the oldest ship still sailing, Berkely (a really cool ferryboat),  and two submarines, a Russian one and an American one. The Russian one (B-39) was a beast! It's really long and has these round holes in place of doorways that make her even more claustrophobic. I almost had a panic attack, especially when I read that even the crew had trouble with being deep underwater in a long narrow iron tube. You know how they were supposed to deal with it? To shut up and get over it. After I read that, I zoomed towards the open thingie on top and climbed out. Spookie! 

We also spent a lot of time eating in the Gaslamp quarter, running along the harbor, drinking coffee and reading at coffee shops and just wondering around. 

We didn't have nearly enough time to see everything (like the much recommended La Jolla and The Coronado Island), but who knows, maybe one day we will be back? Maybe even with the kids when they are old enough to appreciate, say, one of the best zoos in the world:) 

It seriously was like a mini-honeymoon. It was so awesome to not have to split attention with the kids  and for once just enjoy each other's company without being pulled into a million directions. I would recommend trips like that to any married couple with kids. 

Sincerely, your marriage councilor:)

More photos below

San Diego, day I

When a few months ago hubby announced that we were going to San Diego, i was all 'oooo, it borders Tijuana, Mexico, that's cool'. I swear, this proximity to the scariest place (in my mind) was the only thing I knew to be interesting about San Diego.

Boy, was I wrong!

Just our hotel alone has more going on around it than out little village at home has in a year. For starters, it's one of the biggest waterfront hotels on the west coast. There is a tower on top of it which offers views of Mexico. There is the Kansas City Barbecue right across the street, where Top Gun was filmed, there's the little courtyard that used to be a police station in the 30s-40s and still has some original sells for public viewing. From our room we can see USS Midway and that famous WWII statue of a sailor kissing a nurse. 

On our first day, after a delicious breakfast at Brickyard Coffee&Tea. 

Then we did a city tour that included a ride along the harbor. Turns out military is the number 1 industry in San Diego, with the city housing 40% of all US Navy.

We made a quick trip to Balboa Park, which is home to a lot of museums and is a certified botanical garden. Lot's of history in this place. During the war it was overtaken by military. There is this beautiful reflecting pool there, that not only served for physical therapy during the war, but was also used to teach some marines how to swim (yep:)). There are also lots of Spanish style Baroque building that originally weren't meant to be permanent, but were reconstructed to last, because the locals were so enamored with them they wouldn't let them be demolished:)

We then headed to Old Town for lunch at an adorable Mexican restaurant called Casa Guadalajara. So good, oh my goodness. After lunch, instead of returning to our hotel with the buses, we decided to stay and walk around Old Town a little bit longer. A few blisters and some blood on my feet, we took a trolley back to the hotel happy to have gleaned a little history of San Diego.

We ended the day with a waterfront dinner at The Fish Market.

All of a sudden, proximity to the drug cartels of Tijuana is forgotten and I'm so in love with this city, I know I will want to be back. 

Chicago Weekend for the Win(n)

As I was nursing Mr. Leo before bed tonight, I was browsing my phone (I usually read some smart book during nursing... no I do not!!!), I looked at my photo stream and was disappointed at the number of photos I took while in Chicago this weekend. My first thought  - fail. Because we all know that the level of success of a certain endeavor is determined by photo documentation of that endeavor.   No, it is not. Because yucky weather notwithstanding, it was a positively successful weekend not without some new experiences.
First, there was the "almost bribery" of a Chinese consulate worker, who helped us out with my brother-in-law's passport situation. We didn't intend to bribe at all, just wanted to thank the guy and make it "worth his while" for coming into work after hours. But he refused our Target gift card. He may have been worried about getting caught on tape accepting something, but I'd like to believe he was just acting out of the goodness of his heart. Ashley and Weishan should be about an hour away from Shanghai as I type this, thanks to the honest and kind Chinese consulate worker, who probably got a lickin' from his wife.
Then there was my first ever bathroom nursing. Standing up. My arms were shaking , but it could have been worse actually. Thank you Mr. Leo, for being a speedy eater. And thank you, Target, for your semi-clean spacious family restrooms. (Would you put a bench or something in there though?) I don't know about you, but this seems like a big deal to me.  Is a "Seasoned Mom Club" a thing? 'Cause I feel like I've just become a member.
One of our goals for the weekend was to get Greg a new wardrobe. I was planning to not shop for myself, but to help him. But you know that feeling when you walk into a clothing store and everything goes blank in your mind and all of a sudden you come home with a bunch of crap you didn't need? Yeah. Me! Neither!

So yes, two and a half iPhone pictures only, but we came home from Chicago with some money to spend at Target,  a new-found level of motherhood, and bunch of clothes that we don't need, but must have if we don't want parenthood and small town living to completely turn us off fashionability... Fashionhood? Fashioning? Agh... too late...

a trip to Austin, TX

A couple of days ago we got back home from Austin, where we spent a few days. Hubby had a convention to attend and back in the pre-kiddos days, I would always join him and we would make a little vacation out of it. We decided to do the same this time, but with the littles. Thankfully, Greg's parents decided to come with us and that just took all my worries away.

Family vaca: Isle of Palms, Charleston, SC

Sunday night we got back from Charleston, SC after a week of pool, ocean, and family time. We stayed in a gorgeous spacious home on the ocean in Isle of Palms. It was a very relaxing week, where our biggest problems of the day were whether to go swim in the pool or in the ocean, or what we were going to choose to eat for dinner, or whether we wanted to dress up at all and get out of the house... We did get out of the house a couple of times, twice to go to downtown Charleston to just walk or have dinner (just young couples of the family), and once to the children's museum. The children's museum was obviously intended for the two little cousins, Mae and Annika, but the older crowd managed to make it fun for themselves too: they placed bets and raced little kid boats. I hear someone won a buck. 

These types of vacations aren't that good for your skin, but how amazing are they for your soul! You wake up early to the sound of the ocean waves and can already taste salt on your lips. You creep downstairs to greet the sleepy crowd and you all quietly sleepily fuss around the kitchen making breakfast and then sit and eat and lazily sip coffee on the balcony. No one is moving much except the two little always energetic two-year-olds. Already you feel so accomplished that putting on your swim suit and sunscreen seems like a lot of work. But then you do and the pool/ocean time is so worth it, although it does exhaust you even more:) Then you put babies (and some adults) down for a nap and the only sounds in the house are of more coffee brewing and fans running and muffled voices and again those glorious ocean waves. The evening is filled with play time, talk time, more pool or ocean, and then prepping things for yet another delicious dinner... Speaking of delicious dinners... My favorites were probably the Chinese dinner that my brother-in-law's girlfriend Weishan made and the low-country shrimp boil. I'm not sure I will attempt the Chinese dumplings, but the shrimp boil will definitely be offered at our next friends dinner (instead of the usual taco night or grilled brats or grilled chicken marinated in Winn Teriyaki sauce:)).

On Monday, my year as a stay at home mom began and it's been amazing so far. More on that later. 

And here are some random photos from the vacation, in no particular order.