Swimming Lessons

The youth at church did a fundraiser in April. We were out of town with the Karners at the time. Gary Oddou called Derrick Karner from the auction to ask whether Mel and Derrick wanted to buy ten swimming lessons that were being auctioned by Tracy Zundel. Mel and Derrick were interested, but Jim swooped in and bought them (through Gary). I am so glad we did.

Right about when we were starting the lessons, JoAnn's daughter stumbled upon a Frozen swimsuit, which she was excited to bequeath to Ever. Ever had been begging for a Frozen swimsuit since seeing Betsy in one some time ago, so it made all her dreams come true:

On day 1 of the swimming lessons, Ever didn't want to get out of the car. Then she didn't want to get in the water, and she certainly didn't want to put her head under water. Tracy is amazing, though. She's been teaching for 18 years, and she does a great job. The biggest challenge is her three kids under the age of four. They are wild (especially the youngest boy), and they are the most tactile kids I've ever seen. They are ALL over Wren and me as we hang out by the pool. Either that or they are in the pool climbing all over Tracy while she's trying to teach. Despite that obstacle, Ever was swimming short distances (like across the hot tub) by lesson 3. After several lessons, her progress stalled, and she started treading water and doggy paddling more than swimming with her head down. Tracy thinks she picked that up from Ella Rondo, whom we brought to one of her lessons. At this point, she needs to spend more fun time in the water to build her confidence, but she's pretty water-safe now - at least in the Zundels' pool. (We took her to Nanny and Papa's the weekend before last and she was kind of panicky in their pool and didn't swim much.) She even got adventurous and wanted to jump off the little bridge that goes over the Zundels' pool. I was so proud. 

Here is a compilation of the videos I took. All the first footage is from lesson 3. It features Luc Oddou, who took lessons earlier in the summer and came to swim for fun during a couple of Ever's lessons. 

Preschooler

Ever started Little Bugs Preschool with Miss Paula this month. She goes Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 to noon. A bunch of kids from our ward are in her class - Ella Ronda, Jace Alo, Liam Foulger, and Parker Moffat (formerly in our ward). The son of Jim's friend Dave (Padre) Watkins comes up from Carlsbad, too, so we know more than half her classmates. One oddity about her class: four of the ten kids are girls with very similar, short E names - Ellis, Ella, Emma, and Ever. There's only one girl in her class (Khloe) who doesn't fit the E mold. Weird. Another interesting thing was that when I met another one of the moms on the first day and told her Ever's name, she said she has a five-month-old niece named Ever. I told her I'd never met another real-life Ever, and she said she hadn't, either.

In our front yard before the first day of school:

I brought Wren into Miss Paula's in her car seat when I dropped Ever off on the first day. I set the car seat down by the wall in the living room. Then Ever clung to me, and I had to try to rip her off me and get her to stay. Finally I got away, and I left all ecstatic about how preschool is going to change my life and give me these two great windows of time to get things done (like finally clean the house). As I was driving away through the neighborhood, I realized I had left Wren sitting in her car seat in the living room. I am that mom.

After the first day of school, in front of the sign at Miss Paula's:

Class photo on the first day:

Ever is very tight-lipped about what they do in preschool, which drives me crazy. Miss Paula keeps a blog of their daily activities, though. I learned from the blog that they are learning a new letter each week and making "ABC" books as they go along:

At Kristi Rondo's suggestion, she and I are switching off doing preschool pickup on Mondays. I pick up Ella and Ever one week and keep Ella until 3:00 P.M.; the next week Kristi takes Ever home with them and keeps her until 3:00 P.M. It's a delightful arrangement, and it significantly lengthens the get-things-done window every other week. Kristi sent me this picture one Monday when Ever was at their place:

Thank heavens we got the minivan just in time for carpooling.

Farewell, Bessie

Jim's beloved 1996 Ford Explorer, Bessie, had spark plug issues for some time. One spark plug regularly went out and had to be replaced. Then one day Jim took Bessie into the mechanic, thinking it was the spark plug again. Something more serious was going on, and the mechanic told Jim that Bessie had to be put down; she could last a year, or she could just stop at any moment. The only fix would be a new engine. Since Bessie's "check engine" light is always on, we were only hoping to squeeze one more year out of her, anyway, as we knew she couldn't pass the next smog check (at least not without the fancy maneuvering we did the last couple times to get her to pass).

We weren't excited about the prospect of her shutting down while we were driving her, so we hurriedly set about purchasing a replacement vehicle. Both Bessie and the Duchess (my Corolla) were way too small for us now, with two car seats. It was awful when Mamo and Pod were visiting and I had to make Mamo climb over Wren's car seat, squeeze between the girls, and get buckled in by Pod because her seat belt buckle was nearly inaccessible under/behind one of the car seats. Bessie was even tighter, and the two-door thing was ridiculous. Neither of our cars could carry even one extra car seat, so carpooling was out of the question. We researched crossover SUVs and minivans and ultimately went with a minivan because in addition to providing extra space, they get better gas mileage.

One afternoon, JoAnn kept the girls while we wasted a couple hours going to two dealerships in Poway (where Jim and an annoyingly pushy salesman got into a beef after the salesman kept trying to talk us into leasing or buying new) and then drove up to Costa Mesa. We ended up arriving at a Honda dealership just after 8:00 P.M., less than an hour before closing time. We had wanted to check out some Toyota Siennas, but the private dealership that had good options was already closed. So without further adieu, we bought a 2010 Odyssey with 66k+ miles on it. Jim was very anti paying extra for the fixings (including the power doors), but we were pretty excited by the bells and whistles on this one - power everything (including the trunk door), sun roof, rear camera, TV/DVD player. It's got leather seats and fancy air conditioning; you can set a temperature for the driver, a temperature for the passenger, and a temperature for the rear. There was a silver 2011 Odyssey available that didn't have all the extras, but we went with the dorky blue, pimped-out 2010. We bought it without ever seeing it in the light because we had to get 'er done that night. We couldn't leave JoAnn with the girls until after midnight and come home empty-handed!

Ever was very excited about getting a van with magic doors like the Karners'. Here she is during her first ride in Big Blue (as Susan Oddou named it):

This isn't Big Blue, but this is what she looks like from the outside:

Jim donated Bessie to KPBS. At 19 years old and over 220,000 miles (nobody knows how far she's gone because the odometer stopped working a while ago), Bessie served us well. She took us to Canada in the beginning of our courtship:

Thirteen years and two kids later, we bid her farewell. Ever posed for one last picture before Bessie was hauled away:

May she rest in peace.

The Rest of August - Wren Pics, Ever's Mud Bath, Marlene, and Sleep Talk

I took a picture of Wren after a meal:

Ever had to get in on the action. Little ham:

We had Ella Rondo over for a play date. They wanted to get in our tiny pool, and they wanted it placed at the base of the big slide so they could slide into it. As that portion of the yard is pure dirt, the result was quite the mud bath:

Ella brought popcorn for a snack. Ever ate the leftovers later. That little one can put away a lot of popcorn. We had to use a cushion to block the afternoon sun:

Wrenzo's hair is coming back in. It's really fuzzy, sort of like a baby chick. It looks almost as bad in these pictures as it did before we shaved it, but it's better in real life:

Our neighbor, Marlene Shadel, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer back in May. A neighbor across the street told me about it a couple weeks after the diagnosis. Every time I went in and out of the house I glanced over and thought about how I needed to go over there. It took me a long time, but I finally went. Her daughter, Malinda, answered the door and seemed inclined to turn me away. She checked with Marlene, though, and came back and said Marlene was excited to see me. I had a good, tearful visit with Marlene and then with Malinda. Malinda had been there non-stop since the diagnosis and was physically and emotionally exhausted. I talked with both about faith in an after-life. Malinda said visitors had stopped coming. They were very grateful to see me. I set up a standing date to go over once a week. The idea was for me to sit with Marlene while Malinda got an hour break. It didn't really end up happening that way, but I did get over there a handful of times before Marlene passed away last week. The week before she passed, I spent a couple of hours with Marlene while she slept so that Malinda and her husband could go out to dinner with friends. I was so glad I made those visits and was able to show some support and love to both Marlene and Malinda.

On my second visit, I took a card from Ever. She decorated the front of the the envelope like this (can you spot her name?):

On the back, she wrote Marlene's name:

Marlene loved the card and had it displayed on a little table by her bed until the end.

I've been trying to get to the gym regularly, as has Jim. One Monday we met there after Jim finished work. I took some pictures of Wren as I waited for Jim to finish, trying to capture her Gerber baby-ness:

One night, as I was getting out of bed to feed Wren at 2:20 A.M., Jim said casually, "Yeah, he was focused on trying not to kill her, and she was focused on trying not to die. So it all worked out because they had the same goal." He says some pretty funny things while he's asleep. 

While Jim Was Surfing

Jim left for his surf trip the week after the family left. He went to work on Thursday, August 13, and then spent that night in Orange County at Sam and Tatum's so they could head to LAX early Friday morning to catch their flight to Mexico.

That Thursday morning, Ever was in the bathroom totally naked, and she heard the garbage truck. She tried to run outside immediately. I said she at least had to put on her undies, so she ended up outside like this:

I hope the driver wasn't offended by the nudity.

I took Wren to her four-month appointment that day. She weighed in at 13 lbs, 10 oz and was in about the 75th percentile for height and head circumference and around the 50th percentile for weight. (We didn't have her four-month appointment until she was nearly five months old, so she did have a couple extra weeks of growth.) I didn't do tummy time with her like I was supposed to because she hated it and was terrible at it. At her doctor's appointment, though, she really covered for me. When Dr. Villar put her on her tummy to check her out, Wren pushed her arms nearly straight and held herself way up, looking around and showing off. It was very impressive. She was sick with a sinus infection (which we just cleared up, many weeks later, with the help of an antibiotic) but was able nonetheless to get all her four-month shots.

I fed Wrenzo rice cereal a few times before her doctor's appointment: 

Dr. Villar advised us at her appointment to do fruits and vegetables twice a day (instead of rice cereal), so we've been working on that. So far there's nothing that she totally rejects. 

So the shots are where things really went downhill. First, I have to say that I was particularly exhausted before Jim left, as the preceding couple of nights had been bad. Here's some background:

Wren rolled over for the first time on August 9 - front to back. I figured rolling the other way, back to tummy, wouldn't happen immediately, so I still put her to bed in her little bat wing thing. (The bat wings are called "Swaddle Me Up." It's a sleep sack that's fitted on the torso and has pockets to stick her hands in so that her arms are bent with her hands up by her head. It's supposedly a more natural sleeping position.) That night after the first rolling, she woke to eat at 2:00 A.M., and I found her on her belly. For a while thereafter, she seemed to keep rolling onto her belly and getting stuck on top of the arm she was trying to roll over or, if she managed to get that arm out from under her, just getting stuck on her belly. I never saw her roll again from front to back, just from back to front. I was worried about her suffocating, and I began rescuing her through the night.

On top of that, she had a puke problem. Wren has always been a terrible puker. We would feed her, and then she would regurgitate it, often projectile-style. It never seemed to bother her much, but we were not fans. We'd work so hard to feed her, only to see it all immediately regurgitated. And then we'd wonder if we were supposed to start all over again. This was what she spit up after one feeding:

Another time I didn't even notice she had spit up until I got her upstairs and was putting her down on the changing table. I suddenly noticed that my arm was wet and she was wet. When I went back downstairs, I found a trail of spit-up:

(Note: Wren is six months old as I write this. I am pleased to report that she spits up much less these days, and there has been no projectile vomiting for a while. But in the beginning/middle of August, we were still in the throes of this.)

So the two nights before Jim left, I got up to feed Wren, and she promptly puked up everything she'd just taken. Then I had to clean her up, clean me up, clean the floor, etc. One of those nights, I had just finished feeding her and was holding her while I put the bottle in the sink. I noticed that there were two coyotes prowling around our backyard. I watched them for a while. One of them looked up and seemed to hold my gaze for a long time before going back to looking for food in our yard. I was disturbed by their presence. (I knew they roam around in the little canyon behind our house, but hanging out in our yard? Really? I'm super anti their attacking my children in our yard, so I find this disturbing.) As I was having a staring contest with one of the coyotes, Wren puked everywhere, and the clean-up began.

For these reasons, I was sleep-deprived when Jim left. Then Wren's shots resulted in a fever that lasted for about four days. Between the cold/sinus infection, the fever, and the rolling-onto-her-belly-and-not-being-able-to-roll-back, Wren was sleeping TERRIBLY at night. She couldn't go back to sleep when she got up to eat, and she kept getting stuck on her belly. I was up with her every couple hours, either feeding her or rolling her back onto her back. It wasn't until Tuesday, August 18 that I finally got a little sleep. She ate twice in the night (once at midnight and once about 5:30 A.M.) that night, but it was the first normal night we had in days. I was really amazed at how adrenaline got me through those first awful days while Jim was gone. I thought about how I'm going to San Francisco with Courtney in November and how Jim will not survive if he has to experience what I did when he was gone. He's even less of a fan of getting up in the night than I am.

I have to say, Wren is a wonderful baby. She is happy and easy. She laughs and smiles all the time. But I do wish she were sleeping 12 hours at night. That would really improve my life. I know other babies are even worse sleepers, and it's normal for a baby her age to need to eat once or twice at night. I hate it nonetheless.

Anyway, after Wren's fever went away and she started being more normal at night, things improved. Ever brought some humor, including this conversation:

E: "I want our next baby to be a boy."
Me: "That would be nice. I would love to have a boy so Daddy can have a son, but I don't think that's gonna happen. Daddy and I only seem to make girls."
E: "Why do you and Daddy only seem to make girls? Are you not good enough at your job to make a boy?"

On Saturday I was putting Wren to bed for a nap, and my ring caught on her bedding. I thought it was weird, but I didn't notice until later that the diamond had fallen out. That was why my ring had caught - the prongs were just sticking out, super sharp.

I didn't hold out much hope for finding my diamond. I vacuumed the entire upstairs and went through all the junk in the vacuum looking for a lump. No luck. I checked the bed. No luck. Then I thought of the shower. I saw something that looked like a little drop of hair gel. It was my diamond. I didn't take a picture of where I found it, but I did take a picture of the drain after the fact:

Note that the drain holes are giant and that the drain cover is broken off, leaving one side totally open. That was the side on which I found this guy:

The most annoying part was that I couldn't get my ring off. The jeweler who made my rings insisted on making them so small that I could barely get them over my knuckle; he didn't want them to be too big when they were down at the base of my finger. It's probably been years since I've removed my rings. I wanted very much to get them cleaned and to get the color of the white gold fixed, but I never did because I couldn't get them off. Of course, if I'd taken them in to get them fixed up, the jeweler would have discovered that the prongs had worn down.

I tried a couple times to get my ring off. I tried to shrink my hand in ice water:

Then I lubed it up with lotion, fetched by my assistant:

I pulled as long as I could bear and only succeeded in swelling up my knuckle and making it hurt:

A diamond ring without a diamond not only looks ridiculous, but it is dangerous. The prongs were so sharp. I accidentally sliced the palm of my right hand with that stupid, unremovable ring. I tried to keep Band-Aids over the prong portion, but they kept sliding off.

I ran into the senior Bunnells (Roy and Karen) at church on Sunday, and Karen inquired about my bandaged finger. I filled them in and told them I planned to go to a jeweler and get the rings cut off on Monday. Roy said he had a tool that could cut them off. Karen said she could get a ring cutter from work. I was anxious for removal. I told them I might come by later.

That night the girls and I had dinner at the Karners'. When I walked in, I told Mel and Derrick that if they couldn't get my engagement ring off, I was going to the Bunnells' on the way home to have them cut it off. Derrick got a bowl of ice water while Mel fetched olive oil. We froze my hand till it hurt. Then Mel began twisting and pulling while Derrick filmed the proceedings. My ring was stuck right on top of my knuckle when Derrick gave Mel a pointer and Mel told Derrick to stop filming and take over. Derrick finally managed to get it off. Mel wanted to go for the wedding band, but I didn't think that my finger could take the pain or that the swollen knuckled could possibly be passable. So now I'm wearing just my band. I may wait until some cold winter weather, when my finger is as small as can be, to try to remove the band. 

I took Ever to the activity pool at the YMCA a couple times while Jim was gone. It's a fun, shallow little splash pool. Ever would circle the pool slowly, repeating this pattern: stand tall, take a huge breath, and then fall/jump forward and down into the water, acting as if you're going all the way under but not really usually putting your face in.

We had our first Mommy/Ever movie date. Ever chose Frozen, of course, because she's totally obsessed with that movie. She went to town on the giant bowl of popcorn I made.

I enjoyed our time together. I have to say, though, I'm not sure why Frozen is supposed to be the most amazing movie in the history of the world.

I finally realized that Wren is a belly sleeper, and it was no use trying to keep her on her back. I put her down on her back every time, and she tightens her abs, lifts up her straight legs (often crossed at the ankle), and rolls at least up onto her side and often all the way over. She finally started turning her head, at least, so I could tell she was breathing. Isn't she big?

Jim returned late on Friday, August 21. That day we had Aven Dalton over for a play date. They had fun swinging and singing "Let It Go." Here's the still pic:

And here's some video:

They spent the rest of their play date making "welcome home" signs for Jim with paint, glitter, and stickers. They worked very hard:

We taped them to the garage door so Jim would see them when he drove in:

Needless to say, we were very glad when Daddy came home. 

As for Jim, he had a good trip but came back frustrated that he's not as amazing at surfing as he used to be. He is not as good because he never goes. He thinks he should surf, but he'd usually rather stay home with his lovely family (and for that we are very grateful). Surfing gave him his identity in high school and college, so he's confused about losing that. What this all means is that he returned in the midst of a mild mid-life identity crisis. He concluded that we can move away from the ocean, and he became obsessed with the idea of moving to the Pacific Northwest. He spent much time researching various cities in Oregon (Corvallis, anyone?) and looking at weather, rainfall, etc. We won't go anywhere for a while; we'd like to maximize his pension if we can. But we dream of living someplace green, someplace it rains, someplace there's not so much traffic. Someday.

A Visit from Some Hastingses

Rob had a conference in La Jolla in early August. That meant we were lucky enough to get a visit from Rob and the fam. They came down on Saturday night, August 1, and stayed with us until Tuesday. They spent Tuesday night through Thursday night in La Jolla (so they were there during the conference) and then came back for a few nights at our place before heading back to Reno on Sunday morning, August 9.

We picked up pizzas the Saturday night they arrived. I was teaching Relief Society the next day, so I stayed up late working on my lesson after the Rob and Annas turned in.

Sunday the girlies and I took a huge nap after church (like three hours). Amazing. The Rob and Annas went to Coronado that morning. Ever and Wren were happily reunited with their cousins upon their return to the house:

We had pork tacos for dinner with everybody and then went for a short walk in the neighborhood. We went to the swing up the street, and Clara and Ever took turns riding. Ever walked right in front of the swing to join the rest of the group precisely when Clara jumped on for her last ride. I saw it all happening, but there was nothing I could do. Ever got nailed by Clara on the swing and fell and hit the curb. I couldn't see much in the dark, but I could see blood in her mouth. I carried her home. She had some cuts and scrapes, including a good cut on her lower lip. She insisted that we put a Band-Aid on her lip, which was pretty funny. She was in a bad way, but she recovered relatively quickly.

Monday we went to Sea World, despite my vow never to return after watching the movie Blackfish. I thought I was smart by wearing Wren in the Moby wrap. I didn't think about the fact that without a stroller, I was also going to have to carry a backpack containing diapers, wipes, snacks, water, etc. Wearing all that thick wrap material, Wren on my front, and a backpack on my back, especially in the miserable never-ending heat wave of this summer, was really uncomfortable. The park was hot and crowded, and the Shamu show wasn't as amazing as I remembered. The dolphin show, complete with high divers, was definitely the highlight. Ever was only interested in the rides, and she was very upset that she wasn't tall enough for some of them. Lucy was a real sport and took her on the kiddie rides over and over while Rob and the other kids went on the big rides.

While the kids were on the rides, Anna came up to me and said something about wishing so badly she'd gotten a picture of this guy with scalp brain. She was pointing him out to me when Rob came over and showed us a picture he'd taken of said scalp-brain guy. We were very pleased Rob managed to photograph this bizarre phenomenon:

As the dolphin show started, Clara and Ever went down to sit in the soak zone together. They were very adorable. They were really upset afterward that they didn't get wet.

Miss E was exhausted by the end of the day:

Tuesday we decided to go to Balboa Park because the first Tuesday of every month is free - we thought. Turns out only San Diego County residents are free, and the free Tuesdays are so crowded that it's sort of a nightmare. I tried to learn a lesson from the Sea World experience and took the stroller to Balboa. The line outside the science museum was insane, so we skipped that and went straight to the Natural History Museum. We were informed that on free Tuesdays, strollers are not allowed in the museum because it's too crowded. I had to ditch the stroller at the designated stroller area, leave Wren with Rob, and run back to the car to get the Baby Bjorn carrier in my car. (Thank goodness I at least had that in the car.) I felt bad that Rob had to shell out a bunch of money to get his family into the museum. (I realized afterward that I probably could have taken the kids in with me so that Rob only would have had to pay for Anna and himself.) And I think that museum is probably not so great, although I did learn some interesting things in the water exhibit. (The amount of water it takes to grow/raise our food is ridiculous.) The little art museum was free, so everybody went in there for a quick look while I sat and fed Wrenzo. All the other museums cost money, though. Even the Japanese gardens charge a big admission fee. Hence we didn't really check out much else. I'd say Balboa Park was pretty much a bust, but Ann Marie took some fun photos:

That evening after Jim got home, we picked up some local kine food from Teri's Cafe and picnicked at the beach in Carlsbad. The kids braved the water. The boys tried surfing. Jim had bought a board he hoped would be good for them to learn on. Turns out a longer board would be a lot easier. Tucker, especially, gave it a good whirl anyway. Skim boarding and boogie boarding were also enjoyed. It was a lovely evening.

Super-cute mom and daughter:

Best picture of Lucy ever:

Wednesday morning I stayed home, let Wren nap, and did some laundry and other stuff around the house. Rob was in his conference; Anna and the kids had a leisurely morning at their hotel and went out to a late breakfast. Ever had a little quality time with Wren that morning, and she did some tender serenading. I took a series of photographs:

I also got a short video, although Ever's lyrics took a turn for the worse when I started taping:

Wren, Ever, and I met Anna and the kids at their hotel pool in the afternoon. Ever and Clara swam for three hours. (Hooray for the flotation vest that allowed Ever to swim without me!) I sat in the shade with Wrenzo and chatted with Anna while the kids swam.

We went out to a gourmet taco place called Puesto for dinner after Rob finished his meetings. It was delicious.

Thursday Anna and the kids went to the Birch aquarium and did some school-supply shopping. When Jim got home from work, we rushed down to Torrey Pines to meet them for an evening at the beach.

I didn't think I could lug Wren around in the heat another day, so I stayed home with her on Friday while Anna took her kids and Ever to the Safari Park. I appreciated Anna's willingness to take Ever, who was eating up every moment with her cousins.

Apparently there was a playground Ever enjoyed after lunch, and she threw a fit when they had to leave it:

I used my spare time at home to prepare dinner and do a little housework. I felt bad that I hadn't been cooking, so it was nice for us all to eat at home that night. Christian and Shandra and kids fought traffic and came down that evening to join the party. Lucy was kind enough to let Ever and Clara help her make some cookie/brownie concoction Lucy discovered during a quest to find good box brownies. We were up really late waiting for them to cook and then eating them up.

Saturday morning we decided to make waffles. Jim ran to the store to get whipped cream because he can't do waffles without it. After breakfast we split up. Sam and Tatum were hosting a BBQ at their place for the surf-trip friends and their families. That was the only day they could do it while Sam was here. (They were going back to China on Monday.) They sent out the invitation without confirming we were available. Then we were in a weird spot because we are the connection between Sam and Tatum and the other surf-trip friends, and we felt as if we really needed to be there to support and maybe make it less awkward for the people who don't know Sam and fam as well. So the Rob and Annas and the Deetrixes went to the beach (after Anna and Shan whipped together the guacamole I was supposed to take to the BBQ) while we Kringels went up to Mission Viejo. It ended up just being the Tatums and the Wilsons (Jeremy and Trish and fam), so it was good we were there.

We left as the pool party portion was beginning and met the fam at the beach. Of course that big beach day was the only day of the week that was not blazing hot. It was actually a little windy and cold, so everybody was pretty much ready to go by the time we got there. We did get to witness a bit of the burying that had been going on all day. The Anna clan got lots of fun head pics:

There was some water play, too:

We headed straight to The Privateer (coal-fired pizza) for dinner. Jim had his heart set on shaved ice, so we hurried to J.R.'s Shave Ice after dinner. The Kringels arrived a couple minutes before everyone else because we were the only ones who knew where we were going. We arrived a minute or two before 7p, which was closing time. In a very friendly manner, I said something about how we had a big group coming, and were they trying to close? The female worker said that if we had a big group then they couldn't help us. It was very weird and rude, and we were sort of thrown off. Jim went ahead and ordered a big shaved ice for himself. As they were making it for him, I thought maybe I should get one, too, to share with anyone who might want to try some. So as they handed Jim his, I said, "Actually, may I order one, too?" The girl said, "No. We have to close." I could not believe they wouldn't make one more. I hadn't delayed them at all, as they had just finished making Jim's. The guy worker could tell we were super put off, and he seemed sympathetic to us. I know that if you show up to a restaurant at any moment before closing time, they will seat you and take your order and serve you dinner. Are shaved ice places exempt from the whole doors-are-open-and-we'll-accept-customers-until-closing-time thing? We know the guy who owns the place, and we were tempted to contact him to tell him about the incredibly rude employee who turned down a whole bunch of business because she refused to stay a few extra minutes.

Anyway, when the rest of the fam pulled up, we explained what happened, and a decision to go to Baskin Robbins was made. Jim and I took Wren home to get her to bed. Ever was riding with the cousins, though, so she got to go on the ice cream run. She ended up running into a pole at Baskin Robbins and getting a good cut on her head. She's got a scar now, but I'm sure she thought it was worth it for ice cream with the cousins. This was pre-incident:

I can't explain how wonderful the cousin time was. It's so great now that Ever is old enough to talk and play with her cousins, and I loved seeing her have such a wonderful time. Until Betsy got here, Ever was ALL about Clara. (Betsy's arrival meant she had an extra older girl cousin to follow around.) It was cute hearing Ever and Clara talking in their room when they woke up each morning. I was blown away by how wonderful all of Rob and Anna's kids are with Ever. They talk to her, play with her, entertain her. The boys gave her piggyback rides. Lucy taught her hand games. ("Down by the banks of the hanky panky...") The boys, Clara, and Ever played a tag/hide-and-seek game together and were running all over the house. When the seeker found the person hiding, the person who'd been hiding became a prisoner and was taken to jail. It was hilarious hearing Ever say "You are a pris-on-er" over and over (she pronounced all three syllables very carefully). Lucy and Tucker are teenagers, and Anders nearly is. How are they so great? I'm pretty sure I never made any attempt to interact with my younger cousins on the few occasions I was around them. My dream is somehow to get my kids to turn out as wonderful as Rob and Anna's.

It was really great that the Deetrixes were able to join in at the end, too. Saturday night we rearranged beds so that Betsy, Ever, and Clara could slumber party it up together in one room, and Tristan could do the same with Anders and Tucker. (The Deetrix family had all been together in one room on Friday night.) Cousins are the best!

It was really sad when everybody had to leave Sunday. We love visitors, and we love family time. Hooray for radiology conferences in La Jolla that make reunions happen!