How do I love you?

Over the past few weeks Daniel and I have had a sweet game we play at bedtime where we describe the ways we love each other. The game has had a few variations.

Variation #1: Distance

A spin on the "I love you to the moon and back" line.

Examples: 

"I love you to the school and back." "I love you to chapel and back."

"I love you to the garage and back." "I love you to the back door and back."

"I love you to the bathroom and back." "I love you to the toilet and back."

"I love you the ceiling and back." "I love you to the fan and back."

Variation #2: More than this

Examples:

"I love you more than ice cream." "I love you more than chocolate."

"I love you more than my bed." "I love you more than pillows."

"I love you more than your car." "I love you more than your bicycle."

Variation #2: Body parts

Examples:

"I love your eyes." "I love your smile."

"I love your brains." "I love your heart."

"I love your legs." "I love your feet."

Then, one day, a weird turn.

Daniel, to me: "I love your penis." (It seems our prior discussions of how boys and girls are different failed to register.)

Whether measured in distance, dessert, or body parts, I love my sweet boy and I love my sweet boy's big heart. Nearly every day he impresses me with some kind, thoughtful comment or gesture. Last weekend when I had stomach flu he wanted to take care of me and the next day when we shopped for Halloween costumes he chose a doctor costume so he could continue taking care of me. He enjoys sharing his desserts with Rebecca and tonight as we were getting ready to leave the house to go to dinner he went over to Rebecca to give her a big hug and asked if we were taking her with us, because he didn't want to go without her.

On a related note lately he's been on a kick of drawing pictures of our family. He learned the idea from an episode of Daniel Tiger when Daniel draws such a picture for his new baby sister's room. My Daniel's first picture of the family now hangs in Rebecca's room per his request.

A week or two ago he did a variation on the family picture. I told him about Baby Ellie, the 22 month-old daughter of some Aggie friends who has had several strokes and 2 major brain surgeries in the past few months and is even now still in the hospital. He has been praying for her every day "Dear God, please make the owie in Baby Ellie's head better." Then, on his own, he decided to do this:

I wrote the note but the artwork is all his. It's a picture of our family with Ellie and one of her parents (I forget if it was to be her mom or dad).

I've come to the conclusion that Daniel already knows more than most people about kindness, sweetness, and compassion. It's not my job to teach him those things, it's my job instead to nurture and preserve the big heart he already has.

Tinkle, tinkle little star!

A few weeks ago at the house of some friends Rebecca saw a potty chair. Though she'd never used one before or seen one used she knew what to do. She took off her clothes and diaper and sat down. Much to everyone's surprise, she struck gold, so to speak, on her first attempt!

When we got home I dug Daniel's old potty chairs out of storage and set one upstairs and one down. Since then we offer the potty a few times a day. Sometimes she wants to sit, sometimes she doesn't. I don't push her to do it but do give plenty of praise when she does sit. She's always quite pleased with herself after she sits, regardless of outcome!

Sometimes she drills a dry hole but more often that not she has success. A few times she has started taking off clothes on her own and pointed to the potty and promptly had a BM after sitting down so I think she's able to anticipate those and wants to do them in the potty. 

I don't consider her to be potty-training yet, and I don't think she's ready for that. But I'm glad to see she is gaining awareness and has desire to use the potty. She'll start preschool in February when she turns 2 and I'm optimistic that by then she may at least be out of diapers during awake periods. It's a promising start.

Weekend of fun

A few weekends ago Kevin was out of town and my mom came in to visit. We managed to pack a lot into those 3 days she was here.

That Friday evening we took the kids to Klyde Warren Park, one of the best new things in Dallas in the last few years. We bought dinner from one of the food trucks and had a picnic on the lawn. Then, after dinner, the kids had a great time running and playing in the playground. We topped off a fun evening with custom-made ice cream sandwiches from the food trucks. As the weather turns cooler and more pleasant I foresee a lot more Klyde Warren evenings in our future this fall.

The next day was the day Daniel and I had looked forward to for weeks, the A&M-SMU game. I got up to run and came home to a find the kids enjoyed a delicious breakfast. They always eat well when Mimi visits! Then Daniel and I donned our Aggie gear and headed for SMU. We arrived in time to hit the Dallas A&M Club and SMU Law School tailgate parties and it was fun to catch up with some friends out there. It was interesting being back on the SMU campus; even as a student there I barely ever ventured beyond the law quad into main campus. It felt vaguely familiar but I mainly just trusted the crowd to lead us to the stadium ;)

Our tickets (bought aftermarket on Stubhub) were in the SMU student section though you'd never know it from all the maroon around us. In fact, it was a sea of maroon all over campus that day. It made me both proud of the Aggie turnout and sad for SMU.

The game was about as competitive as you'd expect a matchup between the #6 team in the country and a team you could legitimately argue might be the worst Division I team and whose coach had just resigned. That was great for Daniel because our seats in the end zone proved to be a great spot to watch touchdowns get scored and extra points landed in the section right next to us. As excited as Daniel had been about the idea of "the Johnny football players" he was bored once we were there and soon asking to go home. (In fairness, it was a very hot afternoon.) I told him we had to stay to watch the Aggie band and then we could go. It was fun to watch his eyes light up as the band marched out and began the opening notes of the War Hymn.

As we were walking to our car he said he had a great time and wanted to go again tomorrow. He was probably a little young for this game but it'll be fun to take him and Rebecca in coming years, and someday show them around Aggieland.

The next day we crossed another item off my mom's Dallas bucket list. She had never been to the Dallas Zoo before, despite spending part of her childhood in Dallas, and the 3 of us had only been once last summer, so that was on the agenda Sunday. Last time we went Rebecca was a newborn who slept happily in my Beco carrier the whole time. This time she eagerly pointed out the "nimals" and wanted to be lifted up for a closer view. She and Daniel both were especially interested in the elephants, giraffes, and koalas. It'll be fun to go back as they get older and have longer attention spans; by the end of the outing we were all DONE.

It was a busy weekend and I was ready for a recovery day after all that walking around and time in the sun but we had a great time! Thanks Mom!

Funny kids!

No big news to share lately, just some funny stories and pictures.

The picky alligator

I forget how we got there, but one night recently Daniel was talking about an alligator and we started talking about what the alligator ate. Every food I'd suggest, Daniel had a reason why the alligator couldn't eat it.

Me: What about ice cream?

D: That's too cold for him.

Me: Chicken?

D: That's too spicy for him.

Me: Tomatoes?

D: That's too squirty for him.

Me: Coffee?

D: Only his mommy and daddy can have that, it's too hot for him.

Too spicy, too hot, too cold, too sugary, too milky, too disgusting (apparently the alligator is not a fan of fish). This is one picky alligator, apparently. Things he can have? Ice cream, chocolate, and candy. "Those are good for him." Hmm ;)

Since that night we've had variations on this conversation several times, always with amusing results. Sometimes he gets bored (or annoyed, I guess, that Mommy and Daddy insist on beating the dead horse) and he'll say "I don't want to talk about his food anymore." Usually though, he's game, with a smile on his face.

The entourage

As Rebecca gets older it's fun to see the ways in which she's a lot like Daniel and the ways in which she's her own little person. Daniel never had much interest in stuffed animals until the last year or so  but Rebecca adores her stuffed animals and dolls. She insists on hauling as many as she can carry with her everywhere she goes. Yesterday I had several errands to run with her and she brought 4 furry friends with her. She could barely wrap her arms around all of them (but didn't want my help, part of a general burgeoning independence movement) and needed me to left her from the parking lot to the sidewalk since she couldn't brace herself with her hands, but she insisted on carrying a full menagerie with her.

One of the animals she's carrying around is my old Pound Puppy, Milkshake. If memory serves I got him in 1st grade and he was a favorite toy for years.

Look who's swimming!

Daniel has always enjoyed his swim classes and on the handful of times Rebecca has watched his classes with me, she has always seemed eager to take to the water herself. So this fall we signed her up for intro classes and 2 lessons in, she's loving it. I get lots of one-on-one time with her during the week and take Daniel to his weekly lessons, so for the most part Kevin will be the one going to swim lessons with Rebecca. Daniel and I watched the first 2 lessons and it was fun to see him enthusiastically cheering her on. He even insisted on taking pictures of her and captured this great shot  of Rebecca enjoying her first lesson:

Monsters

A few months ago Daniel was scared of belly draggers coming to take him out of bed. This week it's monsters. He says monsters are coming to take him off to their cave. So, as I did with the belly draggers, I taught him a secret trick to get rid of them. I told him if a monster comes, you can scare it away by wiggling your fingers in your ears and saying "oogly-boogly!" (yes, he had been playing with his Scout toy earlier that day). Well of course he loved that, especially when I made the monster shriek "I'm melting!" Wicked Witch-style then made a fart noise as the "monster" died. Can't go wrong with fart noises where a 4 year old boy is concerned.

Aggie football season

A few weeks ago I bought tickets to take Daniel to the A&M-SMU game, aka, the battle of my alma maters (almas mater?). I told him about it and almost every day since he asks if we get to go watch "the Johnny Football players." The 2 hour lightning delay thwarted our plans a bit but he enjoyed watching a few minutes of tonight's game before bedtime.

He and Rebecca show off their Aggie spirit and sibling bond:

Bonus pictures

Because pictures of kids sleeping are always cute:

Rebecca and the giant apricot

This Monday night was a night much like any other in our house. Dinner, bath, and kids to bed.

Last Monday night was a very different story. A story involving 2 hospitals, an ambulance, and one dried apricot.

Rebecca had woken up from her nap and seemed hungry so I offered her some dried apricots as a quick snack before we left to pick Daniel up from school. She ate the first few without incident but then seemed to choke on one. I heard her making choking sounds so I immediately laid her over my knees to hit her back to dislodge it. She immediately cried heartily and was breathing well but nothing had come up. I gave her some juice hoping that would help it go down, and she seemed okay but then threw it up. She was also drooling a lot. She was never a drooler even when she was teething so I knew this was a sign something was wrong.

By this point I was concerned enough to want to see a doctor so I called Kevin and told him I was taking Rebecca to the hospital so he'd probably need to get Daniel from school. Las Colinas Medical Center is only 5 minutes from the house but I debated whether it was safe to put her in her rear-facing car seat or if I should hold her in my lap instead. I have a mirror by her seat so I opted for the car seat but called her name every few seconds and was prepared to pull over and grab her if she seemed to have trouble or wouldn't look up. 

Thankfully we made it to the hospital without incident and ran into the ER. As soon as I said I had a baby with a foreign object in her throat they brought us back to a room immediately...then we sat and waited. The first in what would be a series of "hurry up and wait" moments over the next 2 days.

Finally someone came in, checked her pulse, listened to her chest, and told us that this hospital wasn't well-suited for a pediatric emergency but that they were arranging for an ambulance to transport us to Medical City Dallas' pediatric ER. I called Kevin to update and ask him to pack a hospital bag for Rebecca and me, assuming we'd be there overnight. He packed the bag and he and Daniel headed to the hospital to meet us. During this time she soaked through several burp cloths from drooling and spitting up. Other than that she was in reasonably good spirits though.

After about 45 minutes of waiting the ambulance arrived, Rebecca was given a hep lock in her hand in case IV was needed (a process she thoroughly hated, understandably), and we said goodbye to the guys and embarked on what was the first ambulance ride for either of us.

As I looked out the back windows at the freeway behind us I thought "wow, traffic is better than I expected for 635 during rush hour." I knew we didn't have sirens on but thought maybe our lights were flashing. As we arrived at our hospital though I heard the paramedic tell the driver "you drove to the wrong hospital." What?! I looked out and sure enough, we were at Dallas Children's Hospital, not Medical City Dallas. The driver asked if I wanted to go on to to Medical City or just stay here. Um, my baby's got a foreign object in her throat, do you think I want to stay at the world-class pediatric hospital you accidentally drove me to or fight traffic to go across town to the other one? I told them we wanted to stay here so they wheeled her in and we were sent to the emergency room dedicated to kids with breathing issues. Which may not have been the best fit in hindsight but there we were, surrounded by kids going through asthma treatments.

And there we sat from about 7pm until almost 2am. An assortment of doctors and nurses came by and promised to be back soon with more information. From what I gather there was some confusion about whether Rebecca should be a surgery patient or a gastroenterology patient, because foreign object removal was usually the surgery team's job but when the foreign object in question was food, as in this case, GI took it. I'm not sure why that distinction or why it took so long to sort it out. They took several x-rays but couldn't see anything. Several nurses commented how her breathing seemed fine. I kept mentioning the drooling, though, as the main sign that something was wrong.

It was a long, frustrating night. Rebecca napped some in my arms but when she wasn't asleep she was fidgety and upset, as you'd imagine given that it was past her bedtime and she hadn't had any meaningful food since lunch. They started her on an IV line for fluids to prevent dehydration, which meant if I wasn't holding her I couldn't let her roam far for fear she'd pull the needle out of her hand. It's a sign of how tired she was that she didn't squirm to get away much and let me hold her.  Also, we watched a lot of Daniel Tiger on Daniel's Leappad computer and my phone.

It felt like the ER staff was playing zone defense with us but no one really "owned" our case. I asked several times when we'd be admitted and given a room and was always told "soon."

After I posted on Facebook about it, several friends graciously offered help. We took our next-door neighbor Candice up on her offer and she stayed with Daniel for a few hours that night so Kevin could come to the hospital. We had planned on enjoying a good bottle of wine that night after the kids went to bed to celebrate our 7th anniversary. Instead, we dined on soggy Taco Bueno in ER waiting room chairs that stunk of BO. Then when it was getting late and we still didn't have a definite plan for moving forward, Kevin headed home to stay with Daniel.

Finally around 2am we were given a plan: GI would do an esophagram first thing in the morning then, if it showed a blockage, they'd schedule her for an endoscopy to remove it. In the meantime, we finally had a room on the GI floor so we could get some rest. The room had a big crib for Rebecca with collapsible rails, a recliner chair, and a foldout couch. Rebecca was still hooked up to the the IV pole and had another monitor taped to her toe so I had to set her in the crib just to use the bathroom. She hated that so I knew she would have no interest in sleeping in the crib. 

So we passed the night sleeping together. We started out in the chair but it was horrible. It wouldn't recline all the way and kept trying to collapse in and my feet hung off the end, so after an hour or so of that we moved over to the couch. That went much better. With her wires she had to be on the edge so she started out sleeping in the crook of my right shoulder. Then when I woke up with nerve pain in the shoulder I rolled over a little more so I could wrap my left arm over her to hold her in the bed. I alternated between those positions every hour or so when the nurse check would wake us up.

We woke around 7:30 when one of the machines in the room started beeping loudly. A kind nurse brought me a cup of coffee (which tasted horrible but still, it was coffee) and we waited for the doctor to come get us for the esophagram. In the meantime one of the GI resident doctors who was rounding that morning came in to introduce herself. She was wearing a black cocktail dress and great heels with her white coat, the way Dr. Roman dresses on Nurse Jackie (but seemed imminently more competent). It crossed my mind that that was a curious wardrobe choice at 7:30am and I was tempted to ask if her day was ending or beginning. She said the esophagram would be around 9:30 and surgery, if needed, would be around noon.

By this point we were awake for the day and I wanted to keep Rebecca entertained to keep her mind off her surroundings and hunger. I was starving but didn't want to eat in front of her, so we turned on the iPad and watched another few episodes of Daniel Tiger. Every time the intro music started she got a big smile on her face. 

After dropping Daniel off at school Kevin came to join us and brought coffee and breakfast for us.

When the time came for the esophagram we were brought down to radiology and they explained the procedure. Rebecca would be immobilized and drink a barium solution to coat the esophagram and enable an x-ray to see if there was an object in her esophagus. She was not a fan of being tied down and by this point she was deeply suspicious of any stranger who came at her.

Fortunately she took the barium solution easily and sure enough, it was immediately obvious on the screen that yes, there was a giant apricot lodged in her esophagus. Now it was just a matter of waiting for surgery. After a few hours and several more PBS Kids shows we were taken down to pre-surgery, where we met with the anesthesiologist and GI surgeon. And I think several other people. All the names and faces and titles were running together by this point. Finally the time came to part ways. Rebecca was wheeled away on a stretcher toward the OR and Kevin and I went to the surgery waiting room. I hadn't cried yet through all of this but watching that stretcher disappear and knowing my baby was scared and anxious and I wasn't there for her was enough to make me tear up.

We were told surgery should take around an hour so we grabbed lunch from the cafeteria and ate as we waited. After a little more than an hour we were told surgery was done and sent to a consultation room to meet with the surgeon. Once he arrived he told us the surgery was successful and showed us the swollen apricot in a bottle.

He explained that the surgery had been difficult because of the apricot's size. The scope they used had a grabber on the end to grab it but it was too big to pull out that way through her esophagus. He tried taking it in pieces but that wasn't working well either so they ended up pushing it into her stomach then going back in with a net on the end of the scope to grab it. (Apparently there was some reason why they didn't want to just leave it in her stomach but I'm not really clear on that). He showed us pictures of the irritation in her esophagus and warned her throat would be sore for awhile. He also prescribed 6 weeks of antacid use.

After awhile we got to go back to recovery to see her. She was still sleeping and looked quite peaceful. She woke up in good spirits and immediately sucked down a sippy cup of apple juice and wanted more. 

We went back to her room (making sure to take her beloved blue Crocs that were in her crib!) and the nurses said to order her dinner from the room service menu. If she tolerated the food well, she could go home.

Usually I try to give my kids a healthy, nutritionally-balanced meals. This meal, however, I stacked the deck with things I knew she'd like: ice cream, applesauce, and a quesadilla. She wolfed it all down with a cup of milk, making up for the day's worth of meals she had missed.

She also figured out how to hold her cup with the hand with the IV and the padded board.

Besides her healthy appetite I was impressed with how much energy she had and the good mood she was in. The anesthesiologist definitely had a light touch, she had no lingering fogginess or confusion. It was like she woke up from a nap.

Kevin and Daniel came to pick us up and we headed home. 

Since she's already had dinner and was exhausted I just gave her a quick bath and put her to bed. Funny, she'd spent much of the preceding 24 hours clinging to me tightly but now that she felt better when I tried to hold her she squirmed away to play. Well okay then ;)

She fell asleep almost immediately and while she woke a few times during the night she was easily soothed back to sleep. It was nice to see her sleeping soundly in her own bed...wearing her shoes, of course!

In the almost week since our return she's done pretty well but has choked on and spit up several foods so we know her throat is still pretty irritated. We've been sticking to a largely liquid diet as a result-lots of mashed sweet potatoes, yogurt, fruit pouches, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs. All things considered though she's in great spirits. Little ones are so amazingly resilient.

It was a scary adventure for our family and one I didn't see coming. Both of my kids have now visited the emergency room-one got injured sleeping, the other eating. No high-risk daredevil stuff. Needless to say we'll be more dilligent about cutting up food for both kids now. You worry about your kids choking on their food but I had never before considered the risk of food going down the right pipe and getting stuck. I'm the one who fed her the apricot so I felt terrible about inadvertently subjecting her to all of this.

I wondered if I was overreacting to take her to the hospital at all that night, especially when the ER team didn't seem to have much sense of urgency about it. The esophagram showing how her esophagus was completely blocked confirmed that my mommy instinct was right. I later read that the drooling was because her esophagus was so blocked that saliva couldn't pass through it.

So glad our sweet girl came through the experience okay and hoping her throat is better soon. In the meantime, aside from at the dinner table, it's not slowing her down any!

Daniel is 4!

On July 21, my little man turned 4 years old! As in past years, we celebrated with a swim party at the Coppell Aquatic Center with school friends and a few others. Unlike last year, thanks to the polar vortex it was a little chilly that morning so we took the kids to the indoor pool area. It actually turned out just fine; the kids are the right age to enjoy the indoor area and it made it easier on the parents to keep everyone in sight.

Of course, no birthday party would be complete without cupcakes and singing "Happy Birthday!"

Daniel had a great time celebrating with his friends. It's been fun for me too to see his friends grow up alongside him.

The next week he had his "Celebration of Life" in his class at school. The teacher puts a (battery-operated) candle in the middle of the circle as the sun, and Daniel took a trip around the sun for each year of his life, then lit a smaller candle. For each year Ms. Susan showed the class pictures of Daniel at that age and told stories of what he did.

Our big gift to him this year was a balance bike. For months he told us that for his birthday he wanted a helmet (pronounced "heelmet"), a bicycle, and "a place to hang it up" in the garage like Mommy and Daddy's. After much research we found him the perfect bike. He was thrilled to get it and take it out for a spin. At first he was pretty much just walking with it but soon he got the hang of gathering momentum and coasting. He's getting pretty fast!

My parents also got him a Leappad tablet, which he calls his "iPad." At first I wondered if he might be a little too young for it but he figured it out pretty quickly and now loves it. Surprisingly to me he's actually pretty good about sharing it with Rebecca too. They love watching Daniel Tiger videos on it!

Last week Daniel had his 4 year checkup. He weighed in at 34lb 10oz and stands almost 40" tall, placing him in the 40th percentile for height and weight. The pediatrician was pleased with his development and growth. Daniel had to get 4 shots that day but was quite brave and even helped comfort Rebecca when she got one too.

He's generally a sweet big brother with Rebecca. He has him moments when he snatches toys away from her or pushes her down but he's also generous in sharing bites of ice cream with her and can often get her to eat when Kevin and I can't. 

She adores him and loves playing with him. He's used that to his advantage once or twice ;)

Here he is in the car seat he rode home from the hospital in as a newborn. He's grown a bit since then ;)

A few more pictures of my sweet, funny, adventurous boy:

Watching Daniel Tiger with Mommy, cuddled up on the couch

At Sea Life looking at the shark tank with Rebecca

Helping Mommy make pasta from scratch

Sleeping in his pink robe

It's been another wonderful year with Daniel. I'm lucky to be his mom and excited to see what the next year with him brings! One thing it will bring is his first A&M football game. He and I are going to watch A&M play SMU next month and we're both looking forward to it.

One particular harbour

"I know I don't get there often enough

But God knows I surely try

It's a magic kind of medicine

That no doctor could prescribe

And there's that one particular harbour

Sheltered from the wind

Where the children play on the shore each day

And all are safe within."

- Jimmy Buffett, One Particular Harbour

It's late July, which means another annual Padre trip has come and gone. As always it was a fun time.

I have to admit this year's trip was kind of a big blur though. The kids being at the age they are, our time was pretty much spent keeping them safe and occupied. Not much time to just be in the moment and take it in. It was fun anyway, just not many distinct memories from it.

We went with my parents and our friends Nicole and Marko and their kids Alejandro and Gabi. Ale and Gabi are a few months older, respectively, than Daniel and Rebecca and the kids have always played well together. Of course my kids were thrilled to be with Mimi and Baba again. Rebecca immediately attached herself to my mom and stayed in her arms as often as she could over the next 5 days. Both kids loved having swimming with my dad and having guest readers for their bedtime stories.

Daniel has really made impressive strides in his swim lessons and I knew he'd enjoy the water. He and Alejandro really had fun tossing their toy boats into the surf and chasing them. They also had fun playing with sand toys.

Love this picture of Daniel and Gabi walking up from the beach together:

Rebecca enjoys bathtime and playing in the pool so I figured she'd enjoy the beach. It turned out, though, that she hated the feel of the dry sand. When we first tried to set her down on the sand she set a toe on it then bent her legs up and refused to stand on it. 

Here she is realizing that this beach has sand, yucky!

Eventually she made her peace with the sand and decided in its wet form it was okay. She pretty much stuck to the surf area. She liked the tide coming in but wasn't a fan of water hitting her in the face.

Rebecca and the sand kiss and make up:

It rained our first full day there, which rained out the guys' fishing trip and forced us indoors for the afternoon. Fortunately the condo has an indoor pool so the kids didn't miss a beat.

One evening my parents and Marko's mom graciously offered to babysit the kids so we could get a parents' night out. We went to the place that has become our go-to "night out restaurant" over the last 3 years, Gabriella's. We sat out at a patio table to enjoy the nice weather and a few relaxing moments.

There were a handful of moments that did stick out to me for this trip, and one was our last evening there. Because we were planning to eat leftovers in the rooms, there was no need to hurry up to get ready to go out to eat or cook. So Kevin and the kids and I stayed out till after 7 and had the beach largely to ourselves. The kids had fun playing in the surf for awhile. Then the four of us dug a big hole and built a sand castle.

One of the few pictures of all four of us. Sidenote, check out Daniel's expression. Future heartbreaker there, people.

Having a "hole" lot of fun!

That night we watched the summer supermoon rise over the ocean.

And the kids enjoyed one last storytime with their beloved grandparents:

The guys did end up getting their fishing trip in the last full day we were there. Fortunately or unfortunately, they caught their limit so we had pounds and pounds of trout and redfish to try to eat. We gave it our best shot. Here's less than half the catch at lunch on our last day:

Yeah, it was a lot of fish. More than we could eat, really, but we gave it our best effort.

One last picture from that lunch. My parents had had to go on ahead to catch their flight so it was just us and the Rangels by this point. And all the kids sitting on an alligator because why not?

Running on the beach on my last morning I was thinking about past trips and future ones. The ones my parents took my brother and me on when we were growing up. The ones Kevin and I took with my parents pre-kids (I think the only year we've missed since we started dating 9 years ago was the year Daniel was born). Daniel's and Rebecca's respective first trips. 

And thinking ahead, to next year when the girls aren't napping anymore and the kids are more comfortable in the water. Later years when the kids need to be coaxed out of the water, not into it. When Daniel and Rebecca are old enough to go fishing too. When boogie board and tubes make our packing list and sand toys stay home. When I have a running buddy or two for morning runs along the beach. When the kids are teenagers and wanting a night out on their own.

This year's visit was just another link in the chain going all the way back to my dad's boyhood in the valley. It was fun and we're already looking forward to next year's.

Also, unlike last year, we did not have to visit the emergency room this year. So bonus for that!