reunioning part 3

You thought you'd get away with just two family vacation/reunion posts?

While I appreciate your optimism + rosy outlook on life the answer is a cackle and a no.

But this blog is in luck, because I'm a little weary of the reunion recap (as manifest with part 2...I lost steam.) And I have other big things to blog about but it's a whole time < blogging equation. So I present to you a photo dump of last night's family reunion revelry complete with wordy and mundane captions. Have fun! 

We arrived a day earlier than the rest of my family so we took the opportunity to visit the Boulder Children's museum. I went with great trepidation, mostly because I can barely make it through a grocery trip with some of them contained so I can't really imagine a museum situation (Rad is a runner and does not care if I'm out of sight for an eternity) and the last (and only) time we went to the children's museum last year the kids proceeded to get more sick than they have ever been. Three weeks of super sick and super hell that left me with a bad case of children's museum PTSD. But this place was AWESOME. It was essentially two really large rooms with a few smaller rooms branching off of them but the museum founders and packed a punch in every square foot.

I (momentarily) lost Rhett when he wandered off to play with something in the the second big room. I searched EVERYWHERE for him and asked the employees and other parents if they had seen him, and the natives of Boulder were so kind offered to help as I frantically searched for him. I knew he wasn't in danger, but the panic I felt at not being able to find him almost made me cry. I told everyone that he was wearing a cream long sleeve shirt and jeans (totally nondescript I know) so when a cheetah ran past me I was embarrassingly surprised and relieved to see that it was Rhett. Unbeknownst to me, he had found his beloved favorite animal in costume form and donned it. Lesson learned, and I made him tell me before he changed personas.

Rad was much easier to spot.

Master Chef Junior contender.

Sampling his culinary masterpiece. Obviously he was totally fine with eating the large plastic fish. But in real like anything related to a fish must also be related to a cracker or else no go on the eat-o.

Tip: If you name a kid an adjective, family will buy you anything with that adjective on it. Thanks Aunt Jane!!

Rhett was curious to know how flowers pooped, naturally.

Rad gives off the cute vibes in the early hours but be warned...usually his pants are completely saturated with yet another casualty of overhydration by diluted juice baba.

The game lasted about 19 minutes before Rad melted. It might look like he was being cute and bashful in the bottom photo but he was really mid-tantrum because sharing isn't his current favorite jam unless you want to share with him. 

Fostering the wildest imaginations is clearly one of our parenting talents...manifested by Rhett stalking his "prey. " Yes fostering imaginations, because otherwise it looks like we're fostering ferrel traits.

One of my favorite traditions...Minute to Win It! Thanks to Kate the Great for always leading this healthy competition. :)

I wish I had thought to take pictures of our cabin because it was super cozy, (fire place and claw foot tub!) but it came with two full beds and there were three of us. The math isn't complicated but the sleeping arrangements were. 

The night began like so: 

Rhett with Rad

Julia alone

Moved Rad to the porter crib...he freaked. 

Moved Rhett to the porter to crib...he was Goliath in a shoe box.

Rhett came and slept with me. 

The night ended like this:

Sleeping Rhett's feet propped on sleeping Julia's face.

Rhett's bodily fluid all up on Julia's side of the bed.

Rad laying in the crib.

Other bed all alone.

And night #2:

Eight rounds of musical beds that ended with Rhett getting a bed all to himself and Rad scoring himself a solo snuggle with Mom at 4:55 in the am. We kept working on our co-sleeping skillz the rest of the trip. Practice makes mediocre --- > Miller mantra.

It was a really good weekend. One of those weekends that I was nostalgic about before it was even over because my family always does a great job of getting everyone together every other summer and providing endless amounts of food, drink, and a smile in the direction of even the moodiest great grandbaby (pointing all fingers lovingly at you Rad Aaron Miller) but it was still the classic reunion with lots of food, jokes about reunions past, games of murder in the dark and free babysitting. (Thank you saintly family!) Rhett just thought that he had made a lot of "new friends" but by the end of the weekend he thought everyone was his uncle or aunt and when he woke up on Monday morning to find that everyone was leaving he had a big little breakdown. 

And now...

The End.

Forever.

Well until summer 2017. 

reunioning part 2

There are three subjects that I consistently photograph and consistently wonder why I try to do them justice at all.

1. Zoo animals
2. Food
3. Nature

Jake dislikes going to the zoo with us mostly because (in his words) he really doesn't enjoy posing with every animal and/or waiting for me to capture the essence of aardvark in his faux-natural habitat, usually while the aardvark is sleeping and all that's visible is his backside from 4 yards away.

He also is prone to quote this line "because that's just what Instagram needs...another cloud (doughnut, sunset, cat etc...) picture."

But you know how it goes....must. preserve. all. the. memories!

Anway I was in my wanna-be National Geographic photographer element when we pulled up to this place in Boulder with that backdrop where I was able to professionally photograph one of my favorite mediums...nature.

Click-click. Clickty-click.

And thank you VSCO filter M3 for making me feel legit...now we have lot of cellular phone photos to reminisce over and share.

As Rad would say,

Wook!

I mean those mountains! The Flatirons are some of the most majestic beauties I've ever seen.

And you can't be near mountains like that and not want to pretend you're Maria Von Trapp. Which I may or may have not done every time we went out and hiked. Did I sing? You bet your doe a deer, a female dear, I did.

If Maria wore yoga pants, had 9 week postpartum baby chub and had a pony tail that is. 

I had it in my mind to get a great Memorial Day shot with the boys and their American flag shirts and the purple mountain's majesty behind them. But the good ol American sunshine was to bright for the AZ natives who forgot to pack the Ninja Turtle sunglasses. So Rhett DIYed a pair for himself.

I took the boys on a 1/10 mile nature walk and Rad was petrified of the pine cones. Naturally.

Sister(s) and Brother

Who share the same genetic failure to wear appropriate shoes for hiking.

#thewrongwaytogogreen

But I finally got it right...and then met the friendliest mud hole you ever did meet.

One day I should document the kid's quirks, but here's a freebie for you, Rad will only eat his "nacks" out of the bag the manufacturer puts them in. We save a lot of money on Ziploc baggies but get just as many stares when he's dragging the full bag of Cheerios around the park.

His souvenir stick, err log.

 Hiking with my little hikelets

Colorado is our favorite.

Don't let stink-eye Rad let you think otherwise.

reunioning part1

If part 1 sounds ominously like it could be leading to a trilogy of vacation post...chances are it's exactly that. Woot woot! Let's call part 1: anatomy of flying with children. And in the name of brevity, I'm combing all the airport/flying/traveling into one post. Thank your lucky stars. 

Boulder Colorado was the destination for the family reunion of 2015. Because of Beck's wee-ness, Jake's job and that is was a reunion for my side of la familia, it made the most sense for me and the older boys to leave on the jet plane. 

^^^ Mr. Worldwide and Linus do the airport. 

One of these days I'll have to dedicate a full post to Airport Julia because Airport Julia is a TREAT. She missed a flight once (again, one time) and is sufficiently scarred and will never ever ever risk missing a flight ever again - a post for another time. For now let's say that nothing brings out the nervous in me like an airport and security lines and if I had a dime for every time I thought, "where is my boarding pass?!"...when it is sitting in my right hand...right where I left it 0.3 seconds ago...I could treat you to a gourmet soda. So we were a fun bunch to usher through security with the stroller and the liquids that had to be tested and the boys shoes which they insisted on removing and and and and AND...I don't know how we all didn't just crumple up and cry sweet relief when we reached the gate because one round of security was enough fun for a lifetime.

The (blessed, always polite to my brood) security guards guessed that Rad was "3 or 4?" and tried to have a full on conversation with him. The hefty 26 month old mute responded by securing the security badge sticker they presented him on his mom's crotch and we just politely/embarrassingly laughed and went on our harried way. 

^^^ Rad saw the planes and kept yelling "tires! tires!" his newest word that he likes to toss around like it's no big deal. 

^^^ Rhett stepped up to being the man of the trip and graciously toted one of the three oversized backpacks his momma thought were necessary to take on the plane.

The Denver airport was full of the boys usual favorite amusement park ride...the escalator. I want you to notice the use of the word "usual" because up till this point both of them have been more than happy to go up and down on repeat, but Rhett thought it was prime time to develop a substantial fear of heights and subsequently escalators. (Right in the middle of a rush of travelers, with his single parent, toddler brother, and the 3 heavy backpacks. Love you sweetie.)  This is probably a "had to be there to believe it" story of Rhett deciding that...nope... this escalator business was not for him...but it was way too late. The rush of fellow riders and my already stretched nerves led to a less than proud moment on my part of grabbing him by the shirt collar and dragging him onto the escalator, riding boots up and head down until some strangers freaked, yelled panicked obscenities, and carried Mr. Fickle down the rest of the escalating stairs because my hands were tied with the stroller, stupid backpacks and Rad was already almost to the bottom looking at us like we all were crazy because he is a lover of the 'lator.    

^^^ The post escalator fiasco portrait. Rhett was still ticked (don't blame him at all) and even a ride on the cool tram didn't appease his wounded soul. (We did have a good talk and I apologized profusely for my poor choice and so far there hasn't been any indication of therapy needed in later years...) 

^^^ I'd like to give this picture the hashtag #allthewomenwhoindependant because I felt like a freaking rockstar for getting to this point. And I did throw my hands up thank you very much.

^^^ The rental car company was way way off site from the airport so a bus ride made the whole day primo for Rad. 

^^^ Until he got out of the bus and realized that it was literally 40 degrees cooler than his native land. Enter his babushka moment. 

^^^ But after all that...we made it. (The reality of all we had gone through was just starting to dawn on Rad...) Aaaaaaaand with a hop and a skip we were off like a herd of bobcats because we were living the highest life. Until Rhett pulled a, "Oops! I guess I forgot to get ALL my potty out" stunt two minutes after we pulled onto the Interstate, less then 10 minutes after his first installation of getting the fluid out.

^^^ The return trip through the airport was much more uneventful thanks to the discovery of elevators (not escalators!). And Rad was in his element with the moving sidewalks. I like to call this picture "Everyone in the terminal does not think this moment is as cute as you do or love the excessively loud shouts of joy your child is making. "

^^^ And Rhett spent the who flight home just like this. Crick in his neck be darned.

Jake greeted us at the airport with Beck and Rad's first jumbled sentence was "Daddeee?! Mom. Cwry." Followed by "Daddeee?! Twrain gooo!" Both sentences were repeated the whole baggage claim experience and drive home. So glad those where is top memories. 

After this trip I solemnly swear that I am not leaving the house for an extended period of time until Jake can accompany me and we find airports that don't have escalators.

Part 2 coming right up! Soon-ish. It takes awhile to go through hundreds of vacation pictures. (No joke...I was just shy of a camera happy tourist.)