January: an update

I've been here all month single momming and working, trying to get the practice ready to start in February and painting every once in a while so this house will feel less.....dark.  

The good:  Megan came for a week and a half to love on Indie and the girls.  She basically saved my sanity.  Eden is Saratoga's newest spelling bee champion.  Cora joined the spelling bee for the candy bar, made it to round 2, and thoroughly enjoyed her Reese's Cups.  After a month on the frozen tundra, a calm 28 degrees felt pretty dang nice and the girls spent most of today outside.  I joined an adult co-ed volleyball team and it has been fun!  Indie and Cora joined karate and it's one of my favorite things to watch.  

I was going to type up some of the things that have been challenging this month, but nah, I like the above list more.  I will say that I found an incredible day care for Indie for 3/4 of the days that I will be working and that feels like the hugest blessing.  Also, most of the office supplies, personnel, and figuring out my new office managering seems to be coming together as well.  Onward.  

LegoLand

This year the girls asked Santa for Lego Land Tickets and he delivered a couple days before Christmas.  We showed up when it opened and hit most of the attractions before shutting the place down.  The park was geared for younger kids, but Milan still had fun and Eden still refused to go on the "scary" rides.  Eden did find a few driving rides that she enjoyed, despite having her own off-road vehicles at home.  It was perfect for Cora, especially because she got to enjoy it with Brynn, and she was the only one that wanted to utilize our second day ticket (she was outvoted and "forced" to enjoy other things instead, but her commitment was noted.)  Indie still has a hard time waiting in line, but enjoyed wandering around until she was just too tired to keep going and spent the last hour in the warm car with dad.  My highlight was slowing down a bit to explore Tiny Town in beautiful weather with my favorite people.  

Christmas In California

Even though we knew December would be chaotic, we decided a couple months ago that we would utilize Dave's work break to travel.  It was partly to celebrate Christmas, partly to spend time together without any sort of to-do list, and partly to reward the girls for their help with the Cheyenne house over the past year.  In our search for travel destinations, we searched for some cheap flights and I pushed some warm destinations, but the girls wanted to see great-grandpa's beach house in California.  It was not super warm, but that didn't stop anyone from jumping waves or even boogie-boarding in 60 degree temps.

Since the beach was only half a block from the house, we spent a ton of time playing in the sand, freezing in the water, walking to the pier (with the goal of hitting the donut shop or getting ice cream), and I got to ride bikes down the boardwalk every day, even that one pouring day.  We took a couple excursions to Balboa Island, Lego Land (next post), Christmas Boat Parade, and did some shopping. The girls got to go shopping with grandma as their Christmas present and I would guess that was their favorite part!

The Torlands also decided to join us and it was great to cook meals together, play some Cribbage games with Milan, watch Indie and Garrett wrestle it out in the living room, and the kids spent hours doing crafts in the house.  Their routine was often beach, drag sand through house, shower, craft, spread paper through house, fight, repeat.  Honestly, they had a great time and we had the perfect break from real life!