Ann vs. Jason

By: Ann

I forgot to mention that some congratulations are in order for Jason’s brother Ryan and his girlfriend Laura who just got engaged a few weekends ago.  We’re all super excited about the up and coming wedding sometime next year.  Athena will be making her little debut as a flower girl.  She’ll be almost 3 by then.  We shall see what kind of wild card she will draw at the wedding.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures off of my camera from Chicago as promised in the last post. Here’s Cory and Athena enjoying some pool action.

All three zonked out after the Navy Pier.

By: Ann

About two weeks ago on Wednesday, Jason, Athena, and I flew to Chicago to surprise my brother, and later step-dad and mom who were driving through.  We haven’t seen the Chicago gang since Christmas, so the trip was long overdue.  Ever since I found out my parents were traveling through, I knew I really wanted to plan the surprise.  Dominique kept the secret ever since May.  It was great.  My brother was super surprised.  Unfortunately, he had a DJ event that evening, so he couldn’t hang out too much the first night.

The first day that we were there, we kind of took it easy.  Jadyn, Caleb, and Cory had swim classes in the morning.  I dressed Athena up in her little swimsuit so she could enjoy the water, which she definitely did.  She nearly gave me a heart attack by running straight into the water with her shoes and clothes on.  This kid has no fear.  Luckily, she ran into the wading section; however, the water level rises pretty quickly.  I have to get her into swimming lessons.  I have to get myself into swimming lessons, while I’m at it.

In the process of getting my little fish out of the water with all of her clothes on, I dropped my iPhone in the water, total immersion.  The next 24 hours my iPhone spent some time in a bag of dried rice, while I prayed that my phone would work once again.  My brother took my phone to a friend of his who fixes iPhones, and it was as good as new in a couple of days.

As soon as I find my camera, I will post pictures from the pool.  the rest of the day we took it easy, again.  Athena was still recovering from the long flights.  We did have a mini campfire in the backyard later that night and cooked smores for the kids and pina coladas for the adults.  I’ll have to steal those pictures from Pauel somehow.

After (or maybe before) the smores, Athena and Cory decided to put on a concert for us.  It was very cute.  I was waiting for someone to open up the piano, because I knew as soon as Athena saw the piano keys, she would go wild (which she did).

The next day (after swim practice) we decided to go to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.  This was the day my parents were supposed to arrive, but we were thinking they wouldn’t arrive until 5pm or so; however, we didn’t take into mind the time change and the chance of, literally, no rush hour traffic on a Friday.  More on this later.

The zoo was great.  I know I’ve seen giraffes before at other zoos, but these giraffes looked so…clean and well-groomed.  They also had camels at the zoo, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in real life before.

So after the zoo, Dominique tells me that she should check on my brother and see if he had left work, yet, or if he had even heard from my parents.  It’s 3:30 at this point.  Pauel calls back frantic, “They’re in Lansing! They’re in Lansing!”  Lansing is the town they live in.  I thought he was joking at first, because he kind of was using his joking voice, but the way I heard him rustling around in the background with keys and whatnot, made me think otherwise.  I was cracking up at this point.  This was the worst case scenario that my parents arrived at the house and no one was home. No kids. No grandkids.  Nada.  I haven’t heard my brother sound so scared since we were little kids and he had broken something valuable.  Oh how we revert to our childhood ways when we’re all together.  I love it.

Fortunately, everyone was in good spirits when my brother arrived home.  My mom took the opportunity to work on a few things from work while the children were out.  An hour later, when we all arrived back from the zoo, we were able to shock my mom and step-dad with our presence.  It was great to see  the look on her face.

We later had a yummy homemade fajita dinner and then my parents treated everyone to ice cream treats located conveniently just down the street.  After the ice cream, Cory and Athena gave an encore performance, while Uncle Jason presumed his duties as the play slave.

Right before bed, we decided to have a little Dance Party USA and have the kids show off their moves.  Caleb and Cory love to break dance.

The next morning, before heading out to Navy Pier, the kids decided to put on a fashion show with their back-to-school clothing that Nonny and Papa gave them.  Jadyn was the announcer over the baby monitor.  Uber cute.

Later that day we drove to Chicago’s Navy Pier.  We stopped at Bubba Gump’s for lunch and afterwards rode on the ferris wheel and carousel.  It is a very touristy area, but it was fun walking around seeing all of the sites.

When we got back home, it was more time for relaxation.  It was Caleb’s turn to be the play slave for Athena, apparently.

Athena kind of stuck to Cory like glue all weekend.  Jadyn, Caleb, and Cory were all really good about letting us know if Athena was into something she wasn’t supposed to be in.  I think Cory loved the fact that he wasn’t the baby anymore.

The next morning, my parents left, but not without some quick family portraits.

By: Ann

Another sorry for the extreme delay in the updates in the post.  Jason’s surgery went well.  He had no complications and he is back to eating his regular (rabbit) diet.  Jason was never an unhealthy eater, he just inherited the bad genes where his cholesterol and gallbladder are concerned.

A few weeks later we went to a wedding reception of one of Jason’s coworkers, Koklynn.  She and her husband had the big ceremony in China and smaller wedding and reception in California.  We were a bit nervous because we were going to travel 2.5 hours to Sacramento and be out pretty late.  We’ve never been out late with Athena before.  She was great.  She partied and danced all night long until 10:30 and fell asleep in the car at 11:00, just in time for the drive home.  Everyone was very impressed at how well behaved she was.

A few weeks later on Independence Day weekend, we traveled up to Medford, Oregon to see the Oregon Newmans.  It was great seeing my brother, sister-in-law, and baby niece Alia.  Athena’s new favorite word that weekend was “baby” followed by “Alia” (pronounced by Athena Ahhh-leyah).

The picture below is from the  city park in Jacksonville, Oregon.  Athena kept on refusing to admit how cold she was.

This is probably the only thirty seconds in which she didn’t cry when I held her.  That’s okay.  I didn’t take it personally.

On Independence Day, we drove down to Howard Prairie Lake for some lakeside fun.  The babies loved it.  Athena, again, refused to leave the lake even though her lips were starting to pale a bit.

We were so impressed with the fountains in Jacksonville (OR) that we decided to find some in our area.  Low and behold, there were some fountains right in downtown Los Gatos near my clinic.  The fountains were a little much for Athena, but I think she had just as much fun.

Tired baby after the fountains…

The next weekend, Julie and Alia drove in for a wedding.  Athena was thrilled to see her baby cousin again.  She was as gentle as she could be.  Alia isn’t quite crawling, yet, but she was definitely scooting as fast as she could to keep up with her cousin.

The next weekend our friends from Cleveland (Ryan, his wife Jessi, their son Asher, and JJ) came to stay a week with us.  Ryan and JJ went to high school together…and I’m pretty sure Ryan and Jason went to  grade school together, too.  JJ and Jason know each other from preschool.  It was great having them for so long.  Time went by so quick.  The first day that they were here, we kind of relaxed and took it easy.  It’s pretty rough traveling with a baby.  Here’s Asher and Athena playing with some fake food that was given to us by JJ and the Glows.  Later that night I fed the gang with Chicken parmesan.  Since I am a vegetarian, I think little faith was put in my cooking abilities.  I’m pretty sure I surprised everyone with a tasty dinner.  I haven’t been vegetarian all of my life, people.

The next day we went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival.  This festival is supposedly nationally known.  If you’re a garlic lover, this is your paradise.  You can even find weird oddities like garlic ice cream.  It was pretty crowded and hot by the time we ended up giving up on finding the garlic ice cream.

We found out that Athena loves live children’s entertainment.  This is her climbing up on stage to join the other children dancing.

Later that night I fed the gang with homemade pizzas.

The next day, while I was at work, They all headed down to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.  The kids absolutely loved the place.  I wish I could have been there to witness it.  That last time we were there, Athena had a great time, but she was not walking, yet, so we couldn’t go on any of the rides.

Athena has oh so much love to give.

The next day, also while I was at work, Jason treated everyone to some Google lunch.  Who knew that a Google tour would not be as enjoyable running after 2 babies?  After Google, the gang headed down to the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose.

Look at my girl climbing where she’s not supposed to go.  Surprise, surprise…

Later that day when I got home from work, we all decided to hang out on Castro Street for some good Mexican food and gelato.

On Wednesday we toured some wineries in Sonoma.  JJ was our designated driver.  We were able to stop at 6-7 wineries which were all okay, but Jessi and I have a distinct taste for dessert wines, which are better found in colder areas, like coastal California.  I guess we know this for next time.  It’s been a while since I have hung out like this sans baby.  Jason was at work (that day and Thursday), Athena was in daycare that day (which she made us pay for later that night) and Asher stayed home and relaxed with his daddy while the girls played.   It was great.

We had cameras.  We were just a little too tipsy to remember taking pictures.  But we did remember to check in on Foursquare at each location (with JJ’s help).

On Thursday, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Fishies galore.  It was a big hit with the babies.

Thursday night we took it easy since it was the last night for the Glows.  Asher and Athena ended up taking a bath together, but I had to take Athena out.  She was super excited to have a friend to share her bath with.  She’s usually pretty wild for her baths, but she was particularly wild this time, which was a little much for Asher.  But they made up soon afterward.  Please let it be known that if Rachel B. is unavailable to be Asher’s prom date, Athena has first dibs.

On Friday, the Glows left, I returned to work, and JJ enjoyed her six hour San Francisco tour without having to push any strollers or be in charge of holding Jason’s fancy camera while someone ran after children.  I’m glad she got some adult time.  I was starting to feel a little bad.

The next post will be all about our long weekend in Chicago and how I surprised my brother and mom for a visit.  This plan has been in the works ever since May, so I was glad that no information was leaked to important sources.  We are still uploading many pictures from the visit, so please be patient with us.