California and Houston and All the Packing

You guys, I don't know where the time keeps going. Tuesday night was PTA Board Meeting night, then on Wednesday I had plans for an update that got lost in just chatting with James on the couch and finishing Rich People Problems (the 3rd/final book in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy; I enjoyed the heck out of all three). On Thursday I discovered a nail salon near my house that stays open until 10 p.m. and made a friend go get pedicures with me. Last night we cobbled together an unsatisfying dinner and then I typed a short novel to our former nanny (Tara!) now turned pet sitter because we're leaving Maggie for EIGHT DAYS to go to California for Spring Break. I miss her already. Would anyone notice if she snored away in the overhead luggage bin? She'd be no trouble at all.

So first things first, we leave for California tomorrow! I need to pack, but I'm doing this first so you can give me advice on what I need. It's not procrastinating, it's practical. What does 65 degrees mean in San Diego? What does a high of 68 mean at Disneyland? Jeans and a short sleeve shirt? Shorts? Long sleeves? I don't understand these numbers in a spring break beachy setting. I travel all the time and used to live in California and yet still the weather reports just flummox me when I stand in my closet staring at my clothes.

Here's our itinerary, please send ALL the advice!

Sunday: Fly to LAX (landing at 5:30 p.m.), pick up our car, drive to Disneyland Hotel, get dinner somewhere either along the way or near the hotel (thoughts?)

Monday: Disneyland! Starting at California Adventure, potentially popping into Disneyland at some point, finishing the day at World of Color at California Adventure. We don't have any planned meals (though we will have a backpack of snacks), so any thoughts on favorite snacks, lunch, or dinner are welcome!

Tuesday: Disneyland! We have a Breakfast with Minnie and Friends at Plaza Inn at 9:30 a.m. and that's the only thing scheduled. The park is open until midnight and we told the kids we'd stay as long as they were upright and cheerful. We'll transfer to a cheaper hotel in Buena Park a few mins away whenever we do finally leave.

Wednesday: Travel/relax day! Our hotel includes breakfast so we'll probably sleep in a bit, get some free food, and then we need to make our way to Legoland Hotel in Carlsbad by late afternoon. Possible plans include Laguna Beach, going back into LA (Landon is totally obsessed with seeing the Hollywood sign; any recs on a good spot?), going to the flower gardens in Carlsbad... the weather should be lovely (sunny; high of 60) and we're open to whatever. We just want to be at the Legoland Hotel by 4 or so because the kids are very excited to explore it and I've heard that's definitely part of the fun.

Thursday: Legoland! Landon is adorably EXTREMELY excited about this. He's been wanting to go since he was 3 and he's his only friend who still plays Legos. We have tickets to the park itself and the Sea Life Aquarium (thank you Lego Movie for your buy one adult/get one kid free special). I'm assuming we can easily get both done in a day. Ideally I'd like to leave in mid-afternoon to head to our condo in San Diego, but we can check in later if needed.

Friday: Mission Beach! We've booked a delightful-looking, rare single-family condo directly on the sand on the beach. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a big private patio and space to spread out and just chill for the final leg. We'll make some food at home, but welcome favorite restaurants if anyone has any! We love good, fresh food and local places. Will we be swimming? No, right? Highs of 65? This seems chilly to me, though my kids never seem to find water cold, ever.

Saturday: Mission Beach! Same as the day before. No plans, just sun and fun and sand. Thoughts on activities if we need them? We're not doing the zoo or Sea World on this trip- I figure we'll definitely be back (I love California) and after Disneyland and Legoland, really just want to relax and save some "big" items for later visits.

Sunday: Travel back to LA/home. Wake up for a final breakfast in San Diego and then spend the day driving back up to LA to fly out of LAX at 5:00 p.m. We'll leave lots of time for the drive and potential traffic and plan to stop somewhere fun and beautiful on the coast on the way up. We land back in DFW at 10 p.m. and we should be home to cry tears of reunion joy over the dog by 11:30.

And that'll be a wrap! We're super excited- the kids have never been to California or seen the Pacific Ocean from the US (just the warm and mild shores of Costa Rica), and I can't wait to show it all to them. And to me! I haven't been to San Diego since I was about 4 so I'd say I'm long overdue another visit. All I have to do is pack all the things, give Maggie a bath, and find the check-in instructions for the condo that were mailed to me months ago, hand-written in cursive on lined paper in delightfully (but now inconveniently) old fashioned style.

Let's go back to last weekend when we last packed a few suitcases! The kids (furry one included) and I headed to Houston to visit my parents one last time in the big lake house. Maggie was co-pilot and performed her duties admirably. If her duties include sleeping, snoring, and heavy sighing while sticking her tongue out at me.

nailed it

My parents are moving in 3 weeks to a smaller house across the street from a new lake (rounding out their tour of living on every lake in the Houston area), close to my brother, and about an hour closer to me. They're preparing for future retirement and plans to live in Colorado at least 50% of the time. They'll miss the big house- the house that was once their dream, but quickly had too many bad memories to feel the same.

Maggie was a big hit, quickly learning that my dad will always pet a dog that is in front of him.

My mom and I were able to get out for some birthday shopping, which was great fun. I will admit, while I'm feeling chatty, that I've gained about 10 lbs. from this point last year and am definitely struggling with it. I'm a full 17 lbs. up from my thinnest after Cora was born, which I can rationally recognize was never a goal weight, but the 10 is harder. I am constantly bouncing back and forth between loathing every extra ounce I can feel in my middle and vowing to diet back to the pants in my closet (which I used to fit into without any dieting at all; is this 36? I don't like this part), and shrugging and believing it when I tell myself that a size 4 is perfectly acceptable at this stage of life and I enjoy my vices of cheez-its and frozen margaritas far too much to consider giving them up, so bring on the new pants! I also think the anti-depressants have genuinely increased my appetite, I never used to be hungry between meals and now I find I constantly want to snack. I'm not giving the medicine up any time soon (any hope of that was thoroughly crushed by my furlough spiral), but I do know that I could work harder on controlling that particular side effect. I just flip back and forth between deciding if I want to. Size 8 high school me dreamed of being the size I'm at now; adult me that somehow found her way there sometimes desperately wants to claw her way back. So I'm still working on it, and doing some shopping and buying some new jeans a size up was a positive part of the process.

Well, that took an unexpected turn. Clearly I miss my online diary and writing things I later contemplate deleting but am secretly glad I worked through. Back to Houston!

We enjoyed a lovely birthday dinner of steak, asparagus casserole, oven fried potatoes, roasted beets, and cake! It's so fun to be home for your birthday- it's a day that you started celebrating with your parents after all, and we had such strong traditions of home-made birthday dinners in the dining room with my great-grandmother's dining set. My brother and his girlfriend came over too and it was so great. (And they also loved Maggie.)

Speaking of Maggie, she was a perfect house guest and became best friends with my parent's dog Shadow (Maximus was largely indifferent to her existence), but, we discovered on Friday night, she felt very strongly that dogs do not belong above ground.

She trotted upstairs numerous times to check on the kids or find me (when you're deaf, you do a lot of running around looking for people) and was fine with them, but when it came time for bed, being above sea level made her VERY uncomfortable. She refused to come up on her own, so my dad carried her up like the queen she is.

Then, she raced back down, so I carried her up myself. Then I had to do it THREE more times as she kept escaping through various open doors. Finally I got my act together, got everything closed, carried her upstairs, and then patted her to sleep like the fussy infant I no longer have until she was snoring peacefully, a state she stayed in until morning. We repeated the same thing on Saturday night (eye roll).

She had the best time with her doggie friends and doting grandparents. My dad fed her peanut butter bones and Maggie discovered yet another source of joy in life.

My parents loved her, and my dad in particular a concerned grandfatherly eye on her. "Rebecca, come here and check on Maggie. I think there's something wrong with her eye. It's like a dried up apricot!"

"Oh, yeah, that's just her normal face dad.

We drove home early Sunday morning so I could teach my barre class at 1:30 and my parents could start to pack. Maggie reported for copilot duty once again, sleeping the ENTIRE way. When we got home and were unpacking (the kids were SO good and helpful all weekend; I love that we're at a point where traveling alone with them is easy and genuinely fun), we realized Maggie was missing and we found her sitting back in the front seat of the car, ready for her next adventure. I tried to get her to leave and she literally stuck her tongue out at me.

Up in North Texas, James had been at a swim meet for the weekend! He's been working so hard on his training and this was his final meet of the season. His goal, which I secretly thought was crazy, was to make Nationals in the 100 breast. The nationals cut is a 55.9. That is VERY FAST. His best time of the last decade has been a 56.5. His best time ever- back in 2002, when he was a junior at UT, was a 55.25. I was nervous for him- he works so hard and then gets nervous and I just wanted him to do well.

He called midway through our drive home and yelled into the phone, "55.26!!!"

"What?!", I asked, incredulous.

"55.26! I did it!!"

You guys, that is so so fast. He's 37. He wasn't even going that time for his last two years swimming at UT at ages 21 and 22. The oldest kid in his heat was 15 and the deck judge tried to send him away because "recreational swimming is closed right now." He's the old man and the pool and I was glowing with pride for him.

So we're going to Nationals! In Atlanta in December. We'll be there in full Lag Liv family force, with signs and screaming, for our dad and husband who for reasons I truly deeply don't understand has always found time to still train every day (like 5 a.m. after driving 30 minutes the wrong direction in Chicago and then driving back an hour the other way to get to work after getting up with Landon at 4 a.m. and heading out) and loves swimming as much as he ever did.

throwback to 2002; taken about 2 weeks after the 55.25

We went out to dinner to celebrate of course.

Maggie says Hook 'em

The rest of the week has been good- busy, but good. Our nanny was off living her best life at Mardi Gras all week, so it made things a little hectic, but we got through. Maggie joined me on all taxi'ing of children around town and was always a little offended when I asked her to leave the vehicle.

Alright, I can no longer delay the packing and need to get to work. James took Landon to his 7:30 a.m. climbing competition an hour away because I am the far superior packer, but so far I've made tea, typed out a blog post, and watched 1.5 episodes of The Great British Baking Show. Nobody tell him, it'll be our secret. Send help via comments on California clothing, weather, food, and activities! Maggie will be here to gaze soulfully into my eyes and offer moral support.

I hope everyone has a great week!