We are more than halfway through our 5-week trip. Only 10 days left. The kids are ready to see their daddy, and I'm ready to be home, but it's been good to be here with family, so I'm not complaining.
Utah
We took a spin out to Utah. Saw a lot of family and that was great. On a Monday the Downs family got together to see me and the kids (though, one person informed me he just came for the food--whatever works!), and that was really nice because then I didn't have to run around seeing everyone one-by-one. I got to meet my new sister-in-law, Katie, and she's a doll. I like her better than I like my brother, Justin, but I probably also like her better than I like myself. She's just likable. We were able to be there for her shower/open house thing on Saturday, and that was nice, too. We also got to see Jude and Eliza and Josh, my cousins. They always make an effort to see us, and that's appreciated. They're cool people. Also got to see my brothers play an indoor soccer game and that was cool. Brought back good memories and made me want to play.
The Drive to Bakersfield
We drove back to Bakersfield, where Budge and Jana live, on Saturday night last week. The van has been having problems with overheating and man, it was hot in Utah! Holy cow! So we started driving at like 6 pm and got into Bakersfield a little before 4 am. It was a long drive. And driving through the night must work better when there aren't 30 minute stretches where your 2 year old cries and that makes the baby cry which makes the 2 year old cry harder which makes the baby cry harder which makes ... and the whole time your 5 year old is whining about everything there is to whine about ... she needs to use the potty, she needs a drink, she's cold, she's hungry, she can't get comfortable. ... I was insane when we finally stopped the car to let her go potty. She didn't have to go, and she laughed about that. We told her in no uncertain terms that it was NOT funny. She didn't look happy about being scolded like that. After 30 minutes of screaming, no one had a sense of humor any more. :) We all got there safe and the van is okay, so all is well. And Budge and Jana took the kids to church and let us all sleep until about 1. Otherwise, we would not have been human any more. Stayed in Bakersfield until Monday night, then came back to Hollister.
Elijah
Collin came back to CA with us, and that's been really nice. Rob was at scout camp all this week, so we couldn't talk to him on the phone. That doesn't seem like such a big deal until it kind of is a big deal. The kids are really missing their daddy. I put Elijah down for a nap on Wednesday. I laid down with him so he would actually lay down (he was TIRED but fussy--he slept from 4:30pm until 8:30am the next day with only a half hour break in-between because I had to move him to a different location) and he sat up twice, looked at me and said, "Where Daddy?" even though we've talked and talked and talked about where we are and where Daddy is.
As soon as we got back to CA, Elijah was also asking where Dea is. Dea is in Portugal with her grandma. Fun for her! Today Elijah, out of the blue, said, "Dea in Portugal (okay, it didn't sound that clear)." "I at grandma's house. Dea in Portugal." Miciah has also been missing Dea, but has been really well behaved for missing her and being away from home.
Elijah has perfected the phrase, "I mad at so-and-so." He gets pretty pouty when someone tells him no (this is and has always been a normal thing for him). So he asked Grandpa if he could watch a movie and he said no but maybe a little later. Elijah comes in to me and says, "Papa say no," and then, "I mad at Papa." It's just cute. A little later, when Grandpa said yes, he came running out to me, so excited, and said, "Papa say yes!"
The Aquarium
We are having a little downtime that should last for the rest of our trip. So far the trip has been just about non-stop chaos. Fun, but chaos. Now it'll calm down a little (with some luck), and we should be able to do some fun relaxing stuff. Like yesterday we were able to do a little sightseeing type stuff. We went to the aquarium and it was fun (anyone who hasn't been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it's awesome! Make a trip to CA and my parents will take you). We did a really fast run-through (kids make that necessary), but basically saw the whole thing in about 2 hours. It was a little hard because we forgot the stroller and there really wasn't a place to put Teancom down. But he was really good anyways and that surprised me a little bit (not a lot, because he IS the world's best baby).
They have some new things there. It felt like a new aquarium, and I've been there quite a bit. There's this part that was a crowd favorite. It's open to the outside, and outside they've built a tide pool kind of area. A sloped roof, like in a sun room. And every 20 seconds or so, they dump water over the top. Makes a cool effect and lots of people were taking pictures. All the kids would ooh and aah. I thought ti was cool. I could have spent a while in there.
That was right next to the touching pools. Miciah got to touch the bat ray. Apparently it came up out of the water about 4 inches and "kissed" her fingers. Cute. She loved it. ... The other touch pools, with the starfish and other things in there, Miciah loved it. I was curious to see what Elijah would do, because last time we went (a year ago, plus), he wouldn't touch anything. THIS time, though, he was excited to touch the fish. In fact, they went to the water play area and Elijah was playing in the water and sand and then stopped, walked to where Collin was standing and said, "I don't see fish." :) So, at the touch pools, Elijah reached in and touched a starfish. I asked him what it felt like. He said, "Wet." He then touched one of the slimy things in there. He pulled his hand right out and said, "What's that?" I told him I didn't know. Then I said, "Do you want to touch something else?" He said, "No," and walked away from the touching pools.
It was funny.
He loved it and was excited about all the fish. ... My mom said the new River Otter exhibit was neat, so we left that til last, thinking that it'd keep the kids' interest really well. Well, we probably should have gone there first or in the middle or something, because they were ready to go before we even got there. But, the river otters are SO much more active than the sea otters and they were a lot of fun. In one of the exhibits both of the ones we could see were sleeping. Bummer. There was a little cove where you could crawl in and be right next to the glass. The level was about up to where the water level was. Cool view, but neither of the otters were in the water, so it was a bummer. I was about to tell Elijah we needed to go (he was so excited to crawl in there, which is funny, cause he wouldn't go in anything remotely tunnel-ish last time), when one of the otters dove into the water right in front of us! It was cool. He then swam and played in the water longer than we wanted to stay, so it was cool to see.
The Beach
Then we drove down a little bit in Monterey and went to the beach. Miciah was excited to go to the beach but not the aquarium. We woke up, I said, "Let's go to the aquarium!" She said she didn't want to, she wanted to go to the beach instead. I told her we could do both. But she didn't realize that the beach is colder than the beaches she's been to (the one at the lake). She wanted to wear a swimsuit. I told her it was too cold for that. Anyways. We found a nice little beach and they played in the sand and surf for a while. Again, no place to put Teancom down. Bummer. I held him and then sat on the ice plants with him. Collin was like, "What, he didn't like the sand?" I said, "He probably would have. I didn't want him to get all dirty though." Could you imagine? Disgustingly dirty. I put his feet down on the sand once, but he kept his feet up, saying, "Don't put me down!" Then I put his feet in the sand right next to the water and waited for a wave to come in. The water was cold! It hit his feet and his whole body tensed up as he drew breath in. Funny.
Elijah chased the waves the whole time. For the hour, maybe, we were there. He would chase them out and then, when they were coming in, he'd run away. He came to me once and said, "Mom! The water get me!" I told him to go get the water. He ran off chanting, "Get water. Get water." And did it all over again. For the boy that loves the game of "Get me! Get me!" and then he chases you back, this was the perfect place! Elijah didn't really play much with Collin and Miciah, he was pretty much doing his own thing chasing and being chased by waves. But if Collin went into the water a little bit with Miciah, Elijah would yell at him until he came back. Obviously he's enjoyed having Collin around.
Miciah loved it, too. She was a little braver with the water than Elijah was, but by the end Elijah was getting braver, too. Of course, RIGHT at the end they decided to walk a ways into the waves. One came up "out of nowhere" as Collin put it and got Collin wet up above his knees. I wasn't watching right then, so I didn't know what happened. All I know is that suddenly Elijah is SCREAMING and running back to shore. It made me laugh that it was only a big wave that had scared him. It didn't get him wet, just scared him. :) As we were leaving, Miciah found a rock that she wanted to keep. No problem. Miciah carried it and then had to set it down on the bench between her and Elijah. He picked it up and that upset Miciah. Miciah said, "Give it back!" to which Elijah responded, "No! It's mine forever!" And he says 'foreber' so it's even cuter. ... He likes using the word 'forever' and it cracks me up. He'll say, "I'll hold it forever!" or "It's mine forever!" and that is cute.
Miciah Being On-Line
Miciah has figured out how to get on-line and play internet games on pollypocket.com and barbie.com. Dea showed her how. She's played for hours here. Lori was surprised Miciah didn't know any of them, and Collin said it was cool she knew how now, but I reminded them about my slow-speed connection and they were like, "Oh. That's right." Oh well. I don't mind her not being on-line. Besides, we have other computer games at home.
Teancom is Crawling!
Teancom has been doing great! He's been really happy and now is moving around amazingly! Last time I wrote, I said he was only army crawling. The day I wrote that was the first time I saw him do a real crawl. It took until this week, though, for me to say he's officially crawling. He would crawl part of the way, then army crawl when he got tired of that, or when he wanted to go faster. He now has the crawling down, though, and crawls everywhere. Besides that, in Utah he figured out how to wave bye-bye by opening and shutting his hand. This week he's figured out how to clap. And now he's trying to pull himself to a stand. He can barely do it, but just barely. Sometimes I'll have to hold his hand so he can. Still, sometimes he falls down. Or he'll pull himself up, be standing fine for a while, then fall down. But he's trying and that's important. He will move his feet now, when you hold his hands and try to make him walk. He doesn't go very far, and he doesn't really bend his knees yet when doing it. But the progress has been amazing to me! All within like 2 weeks time. I was telling Mom how Jaden is climbing and cruising along furniture and stuff like that and Tan is not. She said, "Teancom has no balance yet." I thought about that a minute and realized she's right. But he's making a lot of progress and that's great. The added mobility seems to make him happy. He can go wherever he wants now and hence entertain himself longer. It's awesome.
The Rest of the Trip
Collin goes home tomorrow morning and so I won't have someone around to entertain my kids 24 hours a day. That'll be a bummer. But hopefully we'll go back to the aquarium again, to the beach again, and I'd also like to go see the redwoods, so we have stuff to do.
That's our update. ... I just tonight got access to a camera for the first time this trip (reminder to Jared and Michelle to send that picture if you haven't already), so I'll be sure to take some pictures and send them on.
Tamra
July 21 - July 31.
The kids also loved that Thomas the Tank Engine was at Roaring Camp. 
(This is the closest we got. There was a line to get a decent picture, but I wasn't waiting in line for half an hour to get a picture with Thomas. He was just a caboose anyway!) 
What to say about the beach? It's sandy. The ocean is neat. The end.
