Camp Malabucha 2008

Don't ask where the name came from, no one really knows. It's just a funny word that stuck.

Last weekend was our annual camping trip to Pismo Beach with Nathan's family. This was my eighth trip with the fam, the first one being in 1998. I missed 1999 and 2000 because Nathan and I were broken up, then joined back in for the 2001 trip and we've gone every year since except for last year, when Micah was born. Camp was awesome this year, and we had our biggest group ever. From left to right, above, we are: John, Rachel, Jenna, Naomi, Elly, Jeff, Micah, me, Heather, Judah, Nathan, Eszter, Sophia, Ashlee, Ken, Brian, and Josiah.

We finally had to resort to two campsites this year, but it worked out really well. We had so much space! And with that many kids, that was a very good thing.......
Judah and Eszter had a ton of fun together, running all over the place and telling each other what to do.
Judah spent a lot of time kicking dirt around, much to the annoyance of the family. We had to designate a dirt kicking area just for him, far away from where the rest of us hung out.
We walked over the dunes a couple of times to the beach, where we collected tons of sand dollars and clam shells. The water was freezing! But felt great, since the first two days we were there were sunny and hot.
Nathan displaying his mussels and muscles.
This may have been the only time Micah touched the ground the whole trip! He wanted to crawl, but there were just too many things he would have eaten, the worst of which would have been the hundreds of eucalyptus berries lying around.
Clam chowder in a bread bowl from Splash Cafe: the reason we go to Pismo.
Judah, acting like a little punk at Splash.
The first night in camp Ashlee and I had to make a run to Target because Nathan and I forgot to bring our pillows. While there, we explored the clearance section and found a couple of wooden puzzles for Judah and Eszter. They were a big hit and kept them entertained for quite a while.
On Friday, I experienced one of those heart-stopping moments that no mother ever wants to go through. I was on a walk with Nathan, Jeff, Judah, Eszter, and Micah, and we had stopped to sit on some logs for a minute. Judah and Eszter ran off to play with Jeff. A minute later we heard Jeff yell something and I looked over toward them and saw my child standing paralyzed in the middle of a swarm of wasps. Let me tell you, that feeling is nothing I ever want to feel again. I froze, Nathan, fortunately, didn't. None of us can quite remember the exact sequence of events, but we were all running and the wasps just kept following. Nathan wound up with Jude, Jeff had Eszter, and I had Micah. Somehow, I wound up running with Judah for a little ways, but Nathan had him most of the time and we eventually got back to camp where the kids went into the motorhome and Jeff and Nathan and I stayed outside killing wasps. Jeff got stung seven or eight times, Judah got four, I got two, and Eszter got one. Fortunately, the stings turned out not to be serious, but it was pretty traumatic. Judah and Eszter were both pretty well shaken up, and after Judah finally stopped crying he fell fast asleep on Nathan's lap, something he never ever does. It all ended well, but it was pretty scary.
I had to throw in a picture of our campfire, one of my very favorite things about camping. I loved the evenings, after the boys were in bed (they both slept great in our tent) and we all sat around laughing and telling stories.
Breakfast at the kids' table.....
.....and at the adults' table. I love camp food! There's a place in Pismo called Old West Cinnamon Rolls, and their rolls are to die for. We got them for breakfast two of the mornings we were there. I would be in serious trouble if I lived anywhere near there.
This stump formed one of the boundaries of our site, and the kids loved it. It played various roles over the weekend: car, rocket ship, fishing dock. Oh, and also it was Judah's pouting spot, as in this picture. But he looked so cute sitting there that I didn't mind the pouting so much.
Saturday and Sunday were overcast, and I loved the foggy beach. It looked endless.
Our tent city: our tent is on the far left, then Bri and Ash's, then Ken and Elly's motor home, then John and Jenna's tent, and then Jeff and Heather's.
On our way out of Pismo we went with Brian and Ashlee to the spot where we take our traditional picture every year. We hope to have a whole collection of many years someday. After this picture we jumped in the car for the long drive home.....Nathan and I have agreed that this was one of our favorite years at Pismo.

Time for a change

Because it's fall, and this is what I do in the fall.

Re-discovering an old friend

On the day Nathan and I got married we left the reception and headed straight for Santa Monica. Once there, we walked over to Third Street to have dinner and relax after a beautiful but somewhat stressful day. We decided on Trastavere, and as we were walking down the street to the restaurant we spotted a kiosk selling some interesting and really original jewelry. We stopped to look, and Nathan told me to pick something out for myself. I chose a moonstone bracelet that night, and every year since then we've visited the Antiqua kiosk, where Nathan buys me a piece of jewelry for our anniversary. It's a tradition that I love and look forward to every year. This year, alas, we couldn't find the kiosk. And the mall at the end of the Promenade is pretty much gutted at the moment, so Antiqua's permanent mall location wasn't available either. So a couple of weeks later we took a trip to their main store on Pico in LA. After looking at some necklaces that were surprisingly expensive (compared to the reasonable prices at the kiosk) I settled on an old looking locket on a long chain.

I decided to put a picture of Nathan in one side of the locket and a picture of Judah and Micah in the other side, but found I didn't have any pictures I'd be happy using. So to take the pictures I wanted I resurrected my old camera, the one my dad loaned (gave?) me years ago. It's a 1976 Minolta, and I haven't used it really since I got a digital camera. It's completely manual, which means that action shots are kind of out of the question, but the advantage is that when you press the button, the shutter opens immediately, not a second later, like on a digital.

I got the pictures developed yesterday and remembered instantly why I love that camera so much. The digital I have is a really good camera, though it's not professional quality, and it takes good pictures, but my old camera...... There's just something about it. I don't know if the pictures will look that special on a computer screen, but the prints are amazing. Here are some of the shots from our "photo shoot" a couple days ago.





And here's one I took of Judah at Little Corona del Mar two years ago with the same camera. It's our favorite picture of Judah ever.

Another season, another playlist

More than any other season, fall inspires me to create playlists of songs that seem to fit the new feel in the air. And since we're almost to fall, here's my most recent.....

Never Meant - American Football (from an album that inspired Dave to say to me, "Do you actually like this stuff?" Yes, I do. Very much.)
Porrohman - Big Country
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You - Black Kids (SO much fun!)
Two More Years - Bloc Party
Sunday - Bloc Party
Jesus Christ - Brand New (get past the title and check this song out, it's really interesting)
Slave to Love - Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music (I can't help it, I'm a sucker for this song)
Blue Eyes - Cary Brothers
Viva la Vida - Coldplay (after hearing a bit of this album, I'm beginning to think they MIGHT actually be the next U2)
The Last Day of Summer - The Cure (find this on iTunes and buy it immediately, you won't regret it)
Pictures of You - The Cure (many times the best part of a Cure song is the instrumental part, but in this case the lyrics are perfect as well)
#41 - Dave Matthews (from the Live at Luther College album, incredible acoustic guitar)
Lover Lay Down - Dave Matthews
Come Away to Sea - David Wilcox
Brothers on a Hotel Bed - Death Cab for Cutie
The Winds that Blow - Duncan Sheik
Some Distant Memory - Electronic (a little Smiths, a little New Order, a lot perfect)
Let Go - Frou Frou (the best part of the nearly flawless Garden State soundtrack)
Thinking About You - Ivy
Keep Moving - Ivy
Lullaby - James
Cloudbusting - Kate Bush (keep an open mind if you listen to this....)
Ride With Me - The Lemonheads
Bengali in Platforms - Morrissey
Turn - New Order
A Question of Travel - The Ocean Blue
Poor Souls - Owen (I don't think anyone expresses longing quite as well as Owen)
This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave - Pet Shop Boys (left over from my college days)
High and Dry - Radiohead
Little Wonders - Rob Thomas (this song chokes me up almost every time)

Micah's Beach Bash

We threw Micah his first birthday party on Sunday night. Since summer's almost over, I wanted to make it like the last beach party of the season, but I didn't actually want to throw a party at the beach, so instead I turned our backyard into a beach. It turned out to be a really fun day. Our family all came, so there were about thirty of us, which was the perfect sized crowd. I couldn't find a good way to create an ocean in our backyard, but other than that we did pretty good! Micah enjoyed the pool filled with beach balls especially....

Christi came over a couple nights before the party and helped me frost sugar cookies to look like beach balls. It was a little challenging, and some of them kind of look like the Romanian flag (and the one at the top looks A LOT like a "VOTE" button), but we did our best, and a couple hours and a powdered sugar fight later we had our beach balls! They tasted delicious, thanks to the almond flavored icing.
Ever tried to bake a half-sphere cake? I have now.... I solicited advice from a bunch of sources (thanks go out to Shayleen in particular), and in the end my friend Aimee gave me the easiest and roundest solution: you bake it in a pyrex bowl. She made a monkey head cake for her son that way last year. My mom did the frosting. Good team effort!
Micah got his own little cake to destroy, and when the time came he wanted nothing to do with it! Looks like I finally found something Micah WON'T eat. I knew he'd reject something eventually, but I never guessed it would be PURE SUGAR. Wow, that's a win, I guess....
Judah was completely overjoyed at the prospect of all these beach balls to play with.
Naomi and all the girls spent a while at the craft table filling baby food jars with colored salt, an old craft I revived from my Girl Scout days. They looked cool, plus it was a way to re-use all those baby food jars we go through on a daily basis. Yeah, we're so green around here. :)
Part of the fam hanging out on the patio.....
And Christi and Dean, who aren't technically related, but might as well be. People used to ask Christi and me if we were sisters so often that we began to wonder if we were. The sad part about that was that they'd ask us if we were sisters AFTER we told them our names.
Brian and Eszter, and.....
Sophia and Josiah munching on some dogs.
Heather and Jeff, or, as the kids call them, Uncle Teffy and Auntie Ha'er.
I bought a bunch of sand to create a beach/bonfire area. Did you know that 150 pounds of sand doesn't really go that far? Next time I'll get 300 pounds. It went just far enough, though, and the kids had a blast digging and scooping. After Nathan lit the fire we made s'mores and the smell was heavenly.
Micah rejecting the cake. Not only did he not like it, I think he was actually a little scared by the way the other kids gathered around to "encourage" him and to sneak bites of their own!
Present time! Micah totally scored! He got lots of new cool clothes that he needed for the fall and for our upcoming camping trip, plus a swing, some toy cars, a Little People garage, and a Little Einsteins "rocket." Judah was more excited than Micah, but in the days since Micah has become interested, too, and we've been having to remind Judah that not ALL the toys in the house are his, these ones are Micah's. He either doesn't get it or he's in denial.
Micah loved the musical card from Grandma Marie! He was dancing every time we opened it.
The morning after the party, hanging out on his new rocket car. Thanks, everyone, for making Micah's first birthday so fun and special!

One short year

Micah is one year old today. I can hardly believe it! This year has gone by so quickly! Micah is such a joy to us, such a happy little guy almost all the time. I'm not a morning person, so I'm usually grumpy when I walk into his room each morning to get him out of bed, but I am always smiling within seconds, because I love the way he jumps up in his crib when he sees me, screeches, and starts laughing and babbling with a huge smile on his face. We love this boy so much! And we are so thankful for him.

At one year, Micah.....
weighs 20 pounds
is 28 inches tall
has 8 teeth (I think....I'm not brave enough to stick my finger in there to check)
says a couple words (Mama and uh-oh)
loves his big brother and watches him whenever he can
is sitting in a forward facing carseat and isn't sure if he likes it yet
loves the metal stars that hang from his ceiling and points to them all the time
loves bathtime
tries to eat anything he can pick up
can stand by himself for a few seconds at a time
crawls like the wind
has permanently dirty knees from crawling
loves his toy tambourine
does not like peas AT ALL
can "bonk" his head to someone else's when requested
raises both arms above his head when asked "How big is Micah?"
claps for himself
drinks milk from a bottle (FINALLY!)
has never worn shoes
has hardly ever even worn socks
loves to follow the cat around
has white-blond hair that curls above his ears
has blue eyes that make strangers stop and look
wakes up happy almost every time

What a wonderful little guy he is. Happy Birthday, Micah!

Six

You know how in your high school yearbook they have all those categories like "Cutest Couple" and "Best Smile" and Most Likely to Succeed?" If they'd had a category in my yearbook for "Most Likely to Get Married in a Cemetery" I probably would have won. Yeah, I was kind of goth like that. I eventually outgrew my goth phase (but not the music), and then....I went and got married in a cemetery!

It's true. Six years ago today Nathan and I got married in the SkyRose Chapel at Rose Hills (I don't have any pictures downloaded, but check out the slide show here, it's incredible). Our pictures were taken that day in the El Portal de la Paz mausoleum, and it was all so beautiful, even though some might think it's kind of morbid.

Tonight we went to Third Street in Santa Monica for our traditional anniversary celebration. First we went to the Miramar Hotel to have our picture taken in front of the bench where we got engaged. The Miramar is also where we spent our wedding night. Then we went to Trastavere for dinner, the same place we had dinner after our wedding. After dinner we walked up to Old Navy so I could get some flip flops and a sweater (it got cold!) and Nathan got a long-sleeved shirt as well. Outside Old Navy I promptly traded my three inch heels for the flip flops and threw the heels away - there was no way they were ever going to be comfortable again, and they were old anyway. Feeling better and warmer, we stopped at Starbucks for drinks, walked down to the pier, listened to a guitarist for a while, then headed home.

We had a great anniversary. Nathan, thank you so much for six joyful, fun, interesting, growing, trying (a little), contented, hysterical years of marriage. You are the best husband I ever could have hoped for, more than I ever imagined, and I thank God for knowing exactly what I needed and then sending me you. I have loved being married to you and I'm looking forward to many, many more years together. I love you!

Easily distracted by shiny objects and stuff

I think this is what all of my progress reports from grade school probably said. Yes, your daughter is a straight A student and she always seems to be able to come up with the right answer. However, to get her to pay attention in class we have to tie her arms and legs to her desk, put blinders on her, duct tape her mouth closed, and hire Mary Lou Retton to teach. Otherwise, she's talking to everyone (and everything?) in sight. I can't even count the number of times my collective teachers moved me to different table groups to get me to SHUT UP, already!

So I got distracted by a couple of things a couple weeks ago: the Olympics and an evil empire called Facebook. Which is why I haven't been blogging much. Don't worry: the Olympics only have a few days left, and I'm starting to lose interest in Facebook, since my flair board is totally full and I can't add anything else. So, soon I'll be back to my regular amount of slacking, instead of the increased amount of slacking. Until then.... go USA!

Vindicated

The Cure has three singles in the top ten on Billboard this week. THREE! Who says their day is past?

Fair enough for another year

On Thursday afternoon we set out for our annual trip to the Orange County Fair. Judah was so excited, he'd been talking about going on the Ferris wheel practically since last summer. And from the moment we set foot inside the fair he almost never stopped asking if it was time to go on the Ferris wheel. Now? Can we do it now? How about now? So funny. But we wanted to wait for Jeff and Heather before we went on it, so we did a bunch of other stuff first. Judah spotted these tractors and spent some time playing around on them.
He didn't necessarily want to sit on the back of this oil drum steer, but we talked him into it and he stayed there just long enough to have his picture taken.
I loved that the theme of the fair this year was cheese, because I'm a big fan of cheese. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough specialty cheese food around for my taste. Remember the year the theme was avocados and it seemed like every food booth had a different way of preparing avocados? Not so with the cheese. The only special thing I saw was funnel cake with cream cheese frosting, and I didn't notice that until (sadly) after we ordered our funnel cake with powdered sugar. My favorite thing about the fair is always the food, and this year I indulged in funnel cake, cheesecake on a stick, french fries, and a half pound hot dog that was SO good! It was even better because we got to watch a team of Peking acrobats while we ate.
Micah spent most of the day in his stroller, kicking back with his thumb in his mouth, taking it all in. I felt bad for him, just sitting there, but it didn't seem to bother him. He got out to enjoy this car for a while, until Judah came over and demanded to drive.
Judah was fascinated by all the snakes in the reptile area. They were some of the biggest snakes I've ever seen. We wanted to have his picture taken with the albino python, but they were charging $8.50 so we skipped it.

Micah loved waiting in line for the Ferris wheel......
and that's the first place we went after we met up with Jeff and Heather. Aren't they cute? :)
Finally, the Ferris wheel! Judah loved it. He's so brave, he stands up on the seats the whole time and watches all that's going on below us. From the top he spotted a roller coaster he said he'd want to go on. When the ride ended we headed for the roller coaster, only to find that Judah's not quite tall enough yet.
So we found one that was more his speed. We were betting he would bail when he was supposed to get on, but he didn't! And then he laughed all through the ride.
Judah met up with a clown who had his favorite thing: bubbles! We spent a while watching Jude chase the bubbles, then went and found the segmented bowl that Ken entered in the wood turning competition. It won first place! And a bunch of other stuff. After that we picked up our dinner, sat and ate while the acrobats bent themselves into unnatural shapes, then headed out while Judah waved goodbye to the Ferris wheel until next year.