Reno in February

One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog promptly.  I seem to have lost my motivation to keep this and pretty much all of my other resolutions.  Must recommit...

Cornyee got cheap tickets to Reno on Southwest.  When she told me about it, I said, "Well, then we have to go."  So I bought tickets for us and e-mailed Rob and Anna and Cwon our itinerary, saying, "Surprise!  We're coming, too."  Cornyee thought it was crazy that I didn't talk to Rob and Anna before booking a trip to their house, but I figured if they were available for Cornyee they were available for us. 

We arrived on a Wednesday evening and left Monday morning.  I took no pictures while we were there, so thanks be to Ann Marie and Cornyee for documenting. 

We did lots of hanging out.  Dolly showed off the longest one-year-old hair known to man (along with an explained bruise on her forehead):

She also showed off her self-feeding skills.  I can't get her off the bottle and on to sippy cups, but at least she'll hold the bottle herself now:



Dalai spent much time enjoying Legos:

The Rob-and-Anna kids were very cute with her, and she enjoyed following them around.  



The keiki introduced us to Just Dance on the Wii.  I think I did a bang-up job.

Dolly caught up on her medical journals:

Friday we went snowshoeing while the kids were in school.  It was almost a total disaster.  We didn't have proper gear for Dolly, although Clarice's hat fit her perfectly:

We didn't have any gloves for her, so we put my extra ski socks on her hands to give them a little protection:

It was a FREEZING day, and by the time we got Dolly dressed and in the backpack and got our snowshoes on, my hands were in severe pain.  I have to blame the Raynaud's disease because I really think my hands get injured way worse (and way more quickly) than other people's.  We debated turning back immediately.  There was much concern about Dolly's little (sad) face:

We thought she might die from exposure.  But we ended up going on for a while.  My hands warmed up quickly, and Dolly eventually fell asleep.  It was really, really nice to be outside and enjoy the snow.  I was so glad we persevered.  

Me, Jim, Ever, Cwon, Udon

Me, Ann Marie, Jim, Ever, Udon

Dolly falling asleep; Jim apparently sleepwalking:

Cornyee's comment on this picture in her blog made me laugh:  "Despite appearances, Jim remained awake."



And . . . she's out:

Udon, me, Ann Marie, Jim, Everest

The socks on Dolly's hands turned out to be very ineffective, and her extremities were super-cold for hours after we got back.

The adults plus Dolly went out for Thai food that night.  It was hard to keep Dolly quiet and to stop her from throwing things on the floor, but we enjoyed dinner.  The Hastings kids (little saints that they are) were all in bed by the time we got home. 

The original idea was to ski on Saturday.  The snow was so icy on Friday, though, and there hadn't been new snow for a long time, so we ultimately decided against skiing.  Rob gave a talk at a medical conference in the morning (bigwig!), and then everybody but we Kringels went down to the Grand Sierra.  The gang played laser tag, checked out the various conventions, and bowled.  We let Dolly take a long nap and then joined them for their second game of bowling. 

The cute keiki outside the Grand Sierra:



We were excited by the cat convention, but apparently it was a sad event hosted by the Humane Society and not a funny convention filled with crazy cat people.  I'm glad we missed that part.

I was also interested in the Divas' Day Out and was bummed to miss that one.  (A Cher impersonator/drag queen?  Yes, please!)



Bowling was fun, even though I'm ridiculously bad.  It seems so easy to just throw the ball straight.  I can't figure out why I'm terrible.



There's a reason there are no pictures of me rejoicing.  I had nothing to rejoice about; didn't even break 100.  Ann Marie, on the other hand, had the game of her life:

By the time we were done bowling, Jim and I were in dire need of a treat.  We were going out for BBQ in a couple hours, so we figured the Rob and Annas wouldn't be down for pre-dinner ice cream.  Cornyee came in our car, and we tried to make a quick stop at the U-Swirl (frozen yogurt place) on our way home.  We got lost and had a hard time finding it.  When we finally got there, we saw this:

Closed due to lack of rent-paying.  We were devastated.  Mamo saved the day, though.  Her Valentine's package of turtles (the chocolate/caramel/mac nut delights) was waiting at the door when we got home. 

We had delicious BBQ at Men Wieldling Fire downtown that evening:

Cornyee got in a lot of trouble that night.  I wanted to split a pulled pork sandwich.  She said she wanted her own.  The sandwiches ended up being gigantic.  I, of course, had to force myself to eat the whole thing, and then I felt completely disgusting/exploding the rest of the night. 

Rob led us down the strip on the way home, which was really fun to see.  The famous sign:

Rob, Cornyee, and I took a really nice little night walk when we got home to try to alleviate the overeating discomfort. 

While we were there, Dolly spent a lot of time playing with the magnets on the fridge.  She loved them, especially the big dog magnet. 

(Side note:  Tonight, Jim bought Legos and magnets for Dolly.  I hope they provide endless hours of entertainment because we need some entertainment for Dolly around here.  We have so few toys, and at this point she's much more interested in the kitchen cabinets and their contents (grrrrr) than the toys we have.) 

Sunday Jim and I took Dolly home after sacrament to let her nap before the planned afternoon trip to Lake Tahoe.  I was so glad we did because Dolly vomited big time shortly after we got home.  We were afraid to take her to the lake in case she threw up again, so we stayed home with Clarence while the others took in the Tahoe scenery. 

This trip made me finally face the fact that traveling with babies is hard.  Ever was sick while we were there, which I'm sure made it worse, but she wasn't sleeping well at night.  It was hard to get her down, and then she makes noise during the night and keeps us awake.  I'm reluctant to make her miss naps to do things for fear she'll just ruin whatever we're trying to do by screaming the whole time.  So then we end up not doing much.  Which was fine for this trip, because we really just wanted to see the fam, but I feel like a lame-o lady who lets the baby's schedule rule.  I just fear sleep-deprived Dolly.  So I'm sort of resigning myself to staying put until we don't have little ones. 

In any case, it was wonderful to see the family.  Thank you so much to the Rob and Annas for hosting us.   I love that Ever is getting old enough to play with cousins.  The Hastings kiddies are growing up so quickly!