1. To make me feel better about our home, rather than “argh, it’s always a mess!”
2. To make it easier for me to complete tasks, less “where is that form for school?” and “where is that 9 inch baking pan?”

And with the overarching goal of bringing back a bit of control to my life and feel less overwhelmed, which I’ve been struggling with lately.

I’m happy to say that I’ve been largely successful so far. I came up with a system for the kids so their school stuff isn’t just all over the place, and it’s easy to stay disciplined about putting away their papers and returning things on time. I also did some under counter organization, which has been incredibly useful so far, and we’ve kept it up for a few weeks!

I joked that it’s funny that I’m “so old” that under counter organization excites me, but honestly, I’ve always been like this.

In other house news, the TV in our au pair’s room died recently. MJ was feeling industrious, so he bought a set of boards for that model online and did a project with Adam to replace them. Success! I feel a little bad that my first inclination was to buy a new TV because they’re so inexpensive, but replacing the board in them was even less expensive in terms of cash, they had fun doing it, and it kept one more TV out of a landfill.

As life continues to chug along, it’s noteworthy that eggs are very expensive right now. Bird flu has decimated chicken flocks for months and no end in sight. With federal efforts that would help that come to a conclusion being dismantled by a fiercely pro-business, anti-health federal government I’m concerned it won’t get better any time soon. Our local grocery store got to $15.99 for 18 eggs before I finally decided to haul myself over to Costco one morning (before they sell out for the day) to grab two dozen for $8.99. It’s still on the expensive side (California always is) but even for here the situation was getting a bit out of hand.

I’ve continued taking Tuesday evenings for myself. In early January I went to San Francisco to see Nosferatu at the AMC Metreon. I pre-gamed by watching the original Nosferatu from 1922, and I’m very glad I did. It is the same story, but the new one has some really great nods to the original and some beautiful scene recreations. The movie was beautiful and well-acted, and I didn’t find it too gory. It also doesn’t have the cheap jump-scares that are so popular in horror now, and which I don’t like. I want my horror to be beautiful and nightmare inducing, but I don’t want to feel anxious about it while I’m sitting there watching it. This movie really hit the mark. I also saw Flow at our local theater, and finally saw Wicked! Another Tuesday evening I decided to go swimming at nearby Hayward Plunge, which has a $5 drop-in rate. That was a lot of fun, I love to swim and I’ve been looking for an outlet. Other evening activities for myself have included going to the library and reading, which satisfies my desire to have a calm evening to recharge. I have some San Francisco dinners with friends queued up after our spring break trip to Philly, which I’m looking forward to as well.

We observed Purim recently, which sadly got interrupted by Aaron having a cold that came with a side order of fever. That meant we had to avoid the event at the synagogue we’ve been hoping to go to more, but we did make Hamantashen! It was a smaller batch than previous years and we only did cherry filling, but everyone seemed happy with it and the boys had fun making it.

Since we were home for the sick kiddo weekend, we spent some time finally putting some more paintings up around the house. It’s nice seeing things come together, and finally starting to free up some space in the garage.

And then I promptly put a car in the garage. It wasn’t planned, but MJ’s 2000 Alero hasn’t been doing great lately. We had to recondition the battery recently after I neglected to take it out for a drive for a few weeks (oops). Once the battery was healthy again, I took it out for a jaunt to the car wash and grocery store, and didn’t make it past the entrance to the car wash. I put down the window to pay for the car wash, and heard a clunk. The window had fallen into the door. Unfortunately, it’s a relatively expensive fix, and with the overall condition of the car and usefulness to us, we made the sad decision that it was time to say goodbye. It’ll be a few weeks until we can actually part ways, so it’s basically taking up all the free space in the garage until then. It’s been amusingly weird having a car in the garage.

The following weekend everyone was feeling much better just in time for Monster Jam in Oakland. I’ve never had any interest in monster trucks, but Aaron really likes them and I thought it might be a fun thing to do with the boys. We weren’t sure how they’d react to how loud it was, but we came prepared with noise dampening headphones. And indeed they did have fun! I could have passed on it honestly, which is funny because so far my own interests have been quite aligned with the boys, and this was definitely a departure. It was nice to be able to take BART there though and not have to worry about parking.

Tomorrow we’re off to Philadelphia for spring break. Our house sitter gets to try her hand at keeping our new house tree alive while we’re gone, but I think she’s up to the task. In fact, given my track record with house plants, it may even be healthier once we return.

Our big house thing was replacement of the garage door opener. It broke just before we left for Philadelphia for the summer, and then MJ had his shoulder injury shortly upon our return. This month he was finally feeling better enough to tackle it! It took several weekends, and there are a few final things to complete, but the door now works beautifully, and Adam really enjoyed helping us fix it.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the old one, which includes a very long track that’s far too big to be put in our trash can. I’m not sure it’ll fit in the car either.

MJ and I went out for Valentine’s Day, on one of the rare weeks when no one was sick lately. We ended up on a very slow BART train that got us into San Francisco a little late for our reservation at The Cavalier, but fortunately it was raining so we didn’t have much competition for tables. The unfortunate part about the rain is we didn’t fully prepare for it, so when the sky opened up during our walk from the station to the restaurant, we both got rather drenched. My coat helped me a lot, MJ’s didn’t.

Sogginess aside, the food was excellent. It had been years since I’ve had caviar, and the scallops I got were delicious. The company was top-notch too, and we mostly avoided talking about the kids. It was a lovely evening.

Last week Adam was off from school, so I took a half day on Friday and we all went out to the Meta campus for a tour. The boys were very excited to finally see where dad works, and it’s a really beautiful campus, complete with outdoor activities, lots of good food, and a tram that takes you to the other campus that features a stunning garden on the roof. The boys also enjoyed the gift shop, and so did I!

In keeping with our chill weekends, we ran errands, went to hardware stores, and one day while the boys were getting tired of Dad’s visits to the hardware stores, I took them to a nearby mall where I picked up my Build-A-Bear Mothman. I kept missing the releases, so they sold out at least twice before I finally got one. I picked it up at the store unstuffed so the boys could help me with it, which they had a lot of fun with. The only problem now is that Aaron fell in love with Mothman and has been sleeping with it every night every since, hah! He has even gone as far as getting mad when I say that it’s actually mine, and will likely now go to his grave saying it’s his. That’s OK though, our house has enough stuffies for everyone to do a bit of sharing.

Last weekend we also did some bike riding in the BART parking lot. Ever since learning how to ride his bike, Adam has been asking to actually go somewhere on his bike, instead of just riding up and down our cul-de-sac. I finally granted his request by taking them to the farmer’s market, and on our way back we went over to the mostly empty permit parking area and spent about 20 minutes just riding around. Aaron is still practicing without pedals, but he’s making progress! I’m hopeful that he’ll be pedaling with two wheels in the next few weeks.

Looking to March, I’m hopeful. I’ve been addressing the causes of my sluggishness, and I am hoping that some organizational improvements around the house that I’ve been working on will reduce my day to day stress as well. I’m also hoping that my household helper can return in the coming weeks, as I’ve really missed having her help with day to day tasks.

The boys and I then took the MUNI Metro and then a street car to get to The Exploratorium. I mention the transit methods, because the journey was half the fun for the boys. We have a membership at the museum so it was a nice opportunity to spend 90 or so minutes there just seeing a few exhibits. Still, the boys wanted to stay longer and were quite grumpy when I explained we had to go home. It’s also tricky for one parent to take both boys there, as they tend to get excited and want to try everything, and so they run off in opposite directions.

The following weekend we went over to our local library to enjoy a Lion Dance for the Lunar New Year. It’s a nice event, and thankfully quite short, so the boys get some excitement but don’t end up getting too fidgety. Afterwards we explored the library, did some themed coloring, and met a nice family who were in town visiting.

On Sunday we went over to a local park that has a few rides because Adam wanted to ride the train there. Wish granted! MJ and Adam then ran off to the playground while Aaron and I went on the carousel, which was fun, and the tea cup ride, which was not fun. Aaron likes to make himself dizzy so he spun us a bunch, and I learned long ago that the spinning tea cups rides are not for me. Fortunately, the ride wasn’t long and it was a cool day, so I could just pause and sit through the nausea once we disembarked. No more tea cups!

MJ had to go out of town for work, so the following Sunday I had the boys solo, and with my continued bronchitis recovery I didn’t want to overdo it, but also knew being cooped up indoors in the rain wouldn’t be good for any of us. So we drove over to the McDonald’s in town for lunch and that’s when we all discovered the new McDonald’s Play Place. They’re really impressive. It was a two-story indoor playground with slides and climbing areas and bouncing areas. I realize it’s kind of funny that I didn’t know this, but I am not a big McDonald’s person and I lived in the city for years, where they don’t have the Play Places. The boys spent close to an hour there, and it was a bit of a challenge to get them to leave!

From there I wanted to check out a local toy store, Brick by Brick Toys, that specializes in new and used Lego. I suspected I’d like it and that the boys would enjoy some free-building in some of their Lego bins, but I didn’t expect that I’d love it as much as I did. We spent a full 90 minutes building Lego at the giant mixed bins, each of the boys came away with their own Lego car creations, and for $25 we added them to a big ziplock bag filled with other assorted Lego, instantly doubling our free-play Lego collection in one stop. It turns out that it’s in the same shopping plaza as Harbor Freight, so I let the boys go there too and pick out some new flashlights.

The rainy weather has continued, and hasn’t done any favors for my mood, and I’m definitely struggling. I’m grateful for the support I have though, and right now most of the challenges that life is throwing at us are pretty typical things. Bills need to be paid, a kiddo suddenly needs glasses, a half dozen things going wrong during a minor home improvement project. We’re just keeping going and doing our best.

Adam, on the other hand, wanted to see a baseball game for his birthday. Unfortunately, his birthday is in January, and that’s about as far as you can get from anything baseball. How about a hockey game? Yes! We penciled one in for January and got to planning.

But first we had to go see Aaron’s cave. Both of these events landed in January, since I was in no shape to go to a cave right after my surgery in December. Our cave day began with a trip to the farmer’s market in town, then the boys and I took a bus to our favorite cafe in town where we met MJ for breakfast (why did we take a bus and MJ take the car? Because the boys love buses, of course). After breakfast we drove directly to San Francisco, and encountered the usual amount of traffic along the way which reminded us why going to the beach side of San Francisco is such a time investment these days.

There was a lot of parking at the park that houses the Sutro Baths ruins, which was a relief.

To get to the cave, you first walk down some trails and past the baths, the cave is pretty easy to spot, and it’s actually more like a tunnel. It was enough for Aaron though! They got their shoes all coated in sand and ran through the cave, and tried to jump in puddles. The cave has little openings here and there where you could see the waves crashing in, which was pretty cool. Reading about it, the cave is actually a rock quarry, and they used the rock to build the now ruined Sutro Baths.

I’m glad Aaron was satisfied, but I think the rest of us preferred the rest of our adventure, traipsing through the national park that’s there, seeing windswept trees and taking in the magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. It’s such a beautiful place. The very California gift shop was nice too.

Afterwards, we made our way down to the Beach Chalet. MJ and I went there regularly when we lived in the city, so it was nice to be back, even if the boys were finicky about their food. After lunch, we took a little walk in the western-most part of Golden Gate park to see Queen Wilhelmina’s windmill and the gardens surrounding it.

It was a good day.

Adam’s birthday adventure was on the following weekend, a San Jose Sharks game! During his party, we made plans with his current and former au pairs, so all eight of us ended up going together.

I definitely had my apprehensions, there wasn’t a daytime game until March, so going in January meant we were taking them to a 7PM game, and their bedtime is usually 7:30. They were definitely a little tired, but Adam eventually got into the excitement of the game and really enjoyed spending time with his au pairs. I bought Aaron a Shark hand puppet to keep him entertained, and the boys kept eating my food.

I forgot how much I like SAP Center, even if it’s a driving journey to get there from the east bay (no useful trains like on the peninsula). It’s bright and clean and there are TONS of screens, so when I left my seat to grab some more food I was still able to see the game, and didn’t have to deal with the between-period crowds.

And a success for Adam’s birthday? Yep! I think hockey is nice because of how fast-based it is and even between periods they have entertainment to keep the crowds happy. We were lucky enough to attend on the evening they were observing the Lunar New Year, so we were entranced by lions and dragons, which was quite a lot of fun.

As for me, it was a bit of a stressful evening. I’m still bringing a diaper bag and snacks, and I do have to entertain them, so it’s not a lazy night at a game like it used to be, but it is starting to get a bit less stressful. The boys listen a bit more, run off less, and with careful planning I can make sure no one ends up too hungry/thirsty/bored. And it was worth it, I did still have pockets of fun, and I always enjoy having new experiences with the boys.

We got back home from Philadelphia a couple days before his birthday, and his birthday landed on a Monday, so we piled on to BART after work and went to the Stoneridge Mall to make his Lego dreams come true.

And pick up his birthday Build-a-Bear!

We even got some Lego-shaped gummies before going over to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.

His birthday party was on the following Saturday and we had his former au pairs over to visit and do cake!

And gifts!

We did a little gift coordination too, with a big red Lego box joining our home just in time for me to pull out a box of vehicle-related free build Lego blocks. Truly, the free-build Lego sets have ended up being for both the boys, and Aaron was thrilled to start playing with them.

Happy 6th Birthday Adam!

Because of how it moves around on the Gregorian calendar, there is always a chance that we’ll be spending part or all of Hanukkah in Philadelphia over the winter school break. It presented an interesting challenge, how do we give the big gifts like their new bikes if the bikes are in California during Hanukkah? And for smaller things, do we just plan on bringing a bunch of gifts home instead of keeping them at our vacation home? We got creative, and brought along an extra suitcase just in case we ended up bringing things home (we did!).

Now, one of the things about winter break is that the kids are home from school, so we revisited our summer strategies of keeping them occupied. During this two and a half week trip, our au pair also decided to take some much deserved vacation over New Years and so that left us with most of Hanukkah just the four of us, and nearby family. This year it began on the evening of Christmas, and with most things closed the boys and I got to work on making a bunch of sugar cookies from my family recipe. We quickly discovered that we don’t own a rolling pin (our supplies are rather limited there) so we used a water bottle. The cookies came out great, I forgot how much I like them. I ate a bunch.

For dinner MJ and I got Wawa hoagies and I tried my hand at making latkes. We purchased a food processor a few days before so I wouldn’t have to manually shred potatoes and onions like I did last time when I made them in California. What I didn’t think about much was oil, so I just used what I had: vegetable oil. I came to regret that decision. Turns out, using vegetable oil for latkes makes them cook much too quickly and I ended up with burned latkes, only a few of them were even edible. It also filled the house with an oil smell that lasted for hours. Thankfully, my second attempt at the tail end of Hanukkah was much more successful with Canola oil and lots of ventilation.

Also, we discovered that Aaron loves latkes.

We did some Hanukkah crafts, including a table runner that the boys enjoyed coloring and putting up some small lights around the house.

The boys fell in love with sparklers over the summer, so I joked about and then produced “Hanukkah sparklers” which we played with in the snow on the second night, which is also the night they were treated by grandpa coming over and doing gifts with them. This year we also gave Adam the opportunity to help with candles, which he was really excited about.

Of course the Hanukkah train came out too! The boys are treated with year-around trains in Philly now that we have a Lego train that we put together over the summer, so we temporarily put that one away so we could enjoy the more traditional model train.

Next year there’s a good chance we’ll be splitting Hanukkah between coasts, so that will be an interesting one!

We were greeted with snow! The boys had seen flurries before, but they’d never actually had the opportunity to play in the snow, and that was remedied with this visit. They shoved a little, tried to ride their bikes in it, and delighted in throwing snowballs at me. I made the mistake of shoveling the driveway because I was worried about ice, and that set back my recovery by a couple days, but it didn’t tear anything, which I’m grateful for. It did end up being bitterly cold for several days though, and I’m glad we had recently bought some winter coats for them both.

I took the last week of the year off to enjoy Hanukkah, which I’ll write about later, and go on some adventures with the kids. The first was to Fonthill Castle in Doylestown. First we stopped for brunch at nearby Cross Keys Diner and it was absolutely perfect, it was everything I love about little Pennsylvania diners. Then it was off to the castle! I had been to the sister museum, Mercer Museum, a couple of times, including with the boys two years ago. The castle was a whole new experience. The museum is a winding path of all kinds of collected items from the early 20th century, including a lot of every day things, offering a real snapshot into life back then. The castle is where Henry Mercer actually lived, building what was a farmhouse into a castle of concrete. It’s just as strange and whimsical as the museum, which unexpected discoveries at every turn. We happened to pick up a children’s book about the castle when we were at the museum the last time, so we had some idea what to expect, and it was fun to match up the photos and drawings in the book with what we were seeing in person.

The whole place was absolutely fascinating. I loved how natural light was so effectively used in places like the library and map room, since electricity was still rather new and most rooms would have been lit by a single light bulb. In one room he had real cuneiform tablets built into the columns from thousands of years ago that he picked up on his adventures around the world. We also did a little hunt ourselves after MJ read a Hanukkah display that mentioned he had a menorah tile somewhere in the house – we found it, on the ceiling!

Aaron got a picture of his stuffed dog, also a purchase we made the last time we visited the museum, by Rollo’s Stairs, a series of stairs that the dog had run through and left his footprints in while the concrete was still drying.

Upon completion of our indoor exploration, we took some time to explore the grounds. One of the photos from the book had the tree-lined driveway pictured, so we took a nice stroll down the driveway to experience it.

It was probably the warmest day of our trip, so the boys also enjoyed running outside in the grass around the castle, which also allowed me to get a few more photos of the whole castle in all its glory.

Since both MJ and I had off on New Years’ Eve, we took the opportunity to hop on the regional train down to Philadelphia, an adventure the boys constantly ask for. Our first stop was to see the Ice Dinosaurs exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences. We love this museum and Aaron really loves dinosaurs, so we knew it was a must on our visit downtown. It was a hit with all of us!

From there, we took a bus over toward City Hall for lunch at Iron Hill Brewery, and then walked up Market street to visit The SEPTA store to pick up a bunch of transit goodies, and also look at their exhibits. They have a full size PCC trolley in the downstairs lobby, and also various small exhibits scattered around. In front of the store itself there are a couple of model train displays to enjoy. From there, we walked up to City Hall, which I’d never actually walked through before, and then visited the outdoor Holiday Market still going on. I am certain it has shrunk since Christmas, but there were still several booths still set up and the boys got to watch people ice skating. Now they really want to go ice skating. Plus, MJ found a cannoli with vegan filling, so he could eat it! Turns out, you can do just about anything with enough oil and sugar.

We filled the rest of the week with activities like free building with Lego, which it turns out Aaron really, really enjoys, and Adam and I finished our first Light My Bricks build, which was a lot of fun. We started with a small car we knew we could finish on our trip and took the other kits (R2-D2 and Tantive IV) home with us to California to work on them here.

The boys are also enamored with science kits, so they received a few of them from their grandpa for Hanukkah. One of them was a volcano experiment that had you first make the volcano and let it dry for a few days, and then use it for exciting eruptions!

And the Friday before we left was an exciting day: The release of “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” on Netflix in the US! The boys and I have been so excited about this, and watched all the other movies leading up to it in preparation. So first thing on Friday morning we all snuggled up on the couch and watched. I even paused for a little while to write about it on my fan site!

Our evening on Friday concluded with a final dusting of snow and dinner at our favorite Italian place in town, a beautiful conclusion to the trip and a nice distraction from all the house close up tasks we had the following morning.

For the trip home, I was four weeks post-op and thankfully had the ability to handle suitcases to a limited degree. The pain was definitely still there, but the flight didn’t add to it, and we all got home safely and on time.

It worked out really well, and on Saturday we were joined by our first au pair (who got married and stayed in the US), their second au pair (who is now going to school in the US) and their current au pair! Maybe next year we’ll do a birthday with other kids, but none of us were ready for that yet.

As requested, he had a cake with dark blue frosting and a Chase from Paw Patrol decorating theme.

And his au pairs brought him gifts, which is always fun.

He’s really grown up in these past few months. I think being in preschool is helping him, but generally he seems to have just really taken off conversationally. He’s also more strongly communicating his preference for things, like dinosaurs and drawing, so much drawing. I love the little person he’s growing into.

Beyond the birthday, December didn’t exactly unfold the way we expected. I had an emergency appendectomy the day before the party, which I’ll write about soon, and it knocked me out of commission until our trip to Philadelphia on the 18th. But before we left we made time to go over to our favorite donut shop, Rudy’s Donuts, which was closing for good. I’m really bummed, it was so good and we could walk there as a nice Saturday or Sunday adventure. But the owners are retiring and I that’s certainly a conclusion of business that I can respect. The news had gotten out about their pending closure though, and the weekend we went was the weekend before they closed and the line looped around inside the building! I can’t imagine how it was their final weekend.

As we packed for Philadelphia the boys got to pack their new Lego luggage! We picked the pair of suitcases up at Costco and they came with matching backpacks. This was the first trip where the boys would have their “own” luggage (what ended up in the bags was only partially theirs). In general, it was a success, though there were several times at the airport where they asked adults to pull them for a while.

The boys are growing up!

As far as the drive up goes, we learned over the summer that the boys do not enjoy long car rides, so three hours would be quite the challenge for all of us. We made plans ahead of time to stop halfway through for lunch, so at least then the drive would be split into two roughly 90 minute chunks. We ended up at Suzy Q’s Hometown Diner in Jupiter, Florida. It was perfect, we all found food that we enjoyed. In the car I sat in the back with the boys so I could help keep them entertained, and we played with a trouble-making puppet dinosaur, got out some Colorforms, and scoured the road for colorful cars and interesting landmarks. We arrived at our hotel in Melbourne the late afternoon and quickly discovered that the air conditioning in one of the rooms wasn’t working, and maintenance had to come by while we were at dinner.

For dinner we met with my Aunt Pam and her new husband Gil at Marker 99. It was a pleasure to catch up, and I was so excited for them to meet the boys, even if they checked out fairly early in the dinner to play on their phones. It was nighttime, but we did also enjoy the views over the intracoastal. After dinner, Adam and I went down to the end of a pier at the restaurant and looked at stars.

The next day we planned on spending the afternoon with my Uncle Don and Aunt Tanya, but we quickly discovered that the air conditioning problems hadn’t been resolved and we had to change rooms. Following this, the boys were feeling a bit on edge and we figured it might be better to just have a pure vacation day at the hotel. But we had to eat too! We had a fantastic breakfast at The Blueberry Muffin just down A1A from our hotel. I went with the blueberry pancakes, but we all found food to enjoy, and we also picked up a pumpkin pie to bring to Thanksgiving dinner the next day. After breakfast, it was down to the pool!

This chill day meant we had a fair amount of time in our room, which we filled with drawing and some Colorform games (mostly sorry and Snakes & Ladders), as well as working with Adam on a Lego Mustang that we had picked up at Walmart precisely for this reason. There was a fair amount of TV too, and while watching some around 5PM little Aaron fell asleep in a chair while eating an apple. The day off was the right move.

On Thanksgiving we began our day at the beach where Aaron build more sand castles and found a crab. Adam and I braved the surf again and had a bunch of fun in the water. We then rinsed off and made our way over to the pool for a little while before going back to our room to get showered and changed for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving was held at my Uncle Frank and Aunt Amy’s house, with my Grandpa and his wife Jo, and my Uncle Don and Aunt Tanya also joining in the festivities. It was absolutely perfect, even if the boys were a little energetic. The food was great, and so was the conversation. We were also incredibly grateful that they were willing to host us on such short notice. It was great to catch up with everyone and have them meet the boys, especially having them visit with their great grandfather. Amy even gave the boys a tour of the back yard.

Friday was our last full day in Florida, and the weather was a little gloomy. We began the day by visiting a couple local parks to see if we could spot some manatees, which we didn’t succeed at, but we did see some birds, lizards, and rabbits! We then stopped for lunch and that’s when it started pouring out. While eating, we decided that the poor weather meant that we should take my Aunt Amy’s advice and drive up to The Dinosaur Store for the perfect afternoon visiting dinosaurs at their exhibits!

I think all kids like dinosaurs, but Aaron loves dinosaurs. Going to an exhibit with fossils alongside full size colorful recreations and scenes was an absolute delight. He ran around excitedly pointing at things and rushing between each next great exhibit. We got the tickets for the “Adventure Zone” which was an unlimited arcade area, which the boys enjoyed and I guess it was a nice spot for them to enjoy while I scoured the amazing store they had there (I picked up a moon rock and some fossil earrings), but it was a little underwhelming. There were also some live animals in the zone, which is where we finally saw an alligator! And several beautiful snakes. Still, the upstairs rooms with the museum really were the draw for us.

Our flight on Saturday out of Orlando was quite late, so we got up and went straight to the pool for a final dip.

MJ grabbed some lunch at a pizzeria across from the hotel, and then it was all the packing and packing while the boys ate lunch and watched TV in the room. We got to the Orlando airport suitably early to clear security, ride the air train, watch the air train a bunch, and spend a little time in a lounge getting some snacks. It was nice to not be rushing, and our flight home was uneventful.

It was a great trip, I’m so glad we went. It also made us feel a lot more secure in doing other trips with the boys. We definitely learned that having a small stash of toys/activities for the hotel room during gap time and healthy snacks was key, and to just expect sleep problems (even my own) and cope with it accordingly.

Our trip started by flying into Miami and spending four days near Hollywood Beach, and we had Gaby with us to help with the kids during the daytime. On the first day we met up with my cousin Shannon at Frost Science Museum in Miami. Unfortunately our big adventure with her son and ours didn’t quite work out, but Adam and Aaron had an absolute blast at the museum anyway. They had a beautiful Bugs special exhibit, and you know what our boys love? Bugs.

And the ocean focus on a big chunk of the museum was a lot of fun. We also got to see a short planetarium show, this one about constellation stories from around the world, which was fun but we still need to get the boys out to a classic night sky show sometime. Maybe at Chabot when we’re back in California.

There were even some dinosaurs, and some hands-on exhibits where the boys could build paper airplanes and launch them across the room, always a hit.

The next day went better for meeting up with my cousin and her son. We spent the afternoon enjoying a fantastic pool, and I’m glad the boys got to meet, even if they largely ignored each other in favor of splashing pool time. I got to catch up with my cousin, who I hadn’t seen in nearly a decade but who I regularly chat with about kid stuff. She’s been such a life saver when I’m in mom crisis mode.

We also made plans to see MJ’s cousin Rachel, her husband, and their two year old son, finally! Gaby came with us, and found the perfect restaurant: Kosher de Brazil. MJ’s family is Jewish, and Gaby is Brazilian, so it was a nice mixing of worlds, and we all love a churrascaria! It was very good, and we even found some food from the market table (a salad bar, plus!) that the boys would eat. Aaron and our little cousin had a lot of fun running and dancing around the restaurant together, though we did have to rein them in a bit so they wouldn’t disturb other diners.

We were also in vacation mode. The hotel pool was spectacular and the boys were absolutely in love with it. Plus, Adam really enjoyed seeing the wild iguanas that were walking around nearby. They’ve been in swim classes for several months, but it didn’t quite cure them of the fear of pools, and some days we still struggled to get them both into the pool and focused on their lessons instead of playing. I think going to Florida and spending DAYS in the pools helped a lot. They’re a lot more comfortable with the water and have a better idea of why they need to learn how to properly swim. It was a ton of fun to play with them in the pools too, since I also love pools! And with appropriate use of long-sleeve bathing suits all around and reapplication of sunscreen, none of us got burned. Phew. And I had a dorky looking phone carrier for the pool, which helped me stay in touch with everyone as plans came together, and take photos in the pool, woo!

The beach was also a short walk from the hotel, so we spent a couple hours there one day. Adam and I spent a bunch of time hilariously crashing in the waves in the water. Aaron preferred to stay on land this time and enjoyed playing in the sand.

Eating while traveling is definitely tricky, since the kids don’t have a huge selection of things they’ll eat, and it’s all easier to accommodate at home, or at least supplement with some vegetables. We walked to a Super Wal-Mart at the beginning of our trip to stock up on fruits and healthy snacks, but honestly the boys just ate a lot of kids menu food. There was one restaurant that we went to twice during our four days in south Florida though, and that was Family Fresh Cafe. Why twice? Excellent, diverse menu making the meals very different (even for the boys) and a playroom in the back:

“Family Fresh® is the only restaurant which offers a kids playroom with with video surveillance broadcasted to the dining area so the parents can enjoy dining out and having kids entertained.”

GENIUS! The boys had a ton of fun, and asked to go back, so we were happy to oblige on our last night there. It clearly also works for the restaurant, it meant we went twice and ordered more food and drinks than we would have if we were rushing to get antsy kiddos out of the restaurant quickly.

That night we also dropped Gaby off at the Brightline train station so she could head up to Orlando to meet a friend for a vacation over the Thanksgiving holiday. We returned to our hotel and got ready for our own journey up to Melbourne the next day. The second half of our vacation was coming up quickly!