Yikes

oNe is old enough to start learning to drive this summer... While this will be helpful, it's so scary!

She's not super excited to learn to drive, but she rides horses and it will be great for her to be able to drive herself to the stables and home.  It's a drive on the freeway, but the freeway isn't busy most of the time when she goes so it'll be a nice way to learn to drive.

By next summer, she could be the one to take herself there and back each day for the camp where she wants to help.  (This summer, we'll have to drive her to and from camp.  While it's not out of my way to go there by too much, I wouldn't be driving there at the times she needs to be dropped off and picked up.)

(She will volunteer at the camp this year--who knows if she'll like it, but I am guessing she will.)

Not the most exciting post, but I want to document just how crazy this milestone is... The first kid doing something new is ALWAYS scary and exciting.   Somehow, I think this driving thing will always be scary and exciting, regardless of the kid.  DRIVING....IT'S a huge responsibility!  It's GROWN UP.  

How did we get here?  I guess I missed the 11th anniversary of this blog.  Happy late blogoversary to me... I'll be shocked if I don't miss the 12th one in August.  School will have just started and it will be very busy with a new schedule.  The new school year always kicks me in the bottom, and we'll be rather busy getting ready for a conference at work. 

Spring Break

Over spring break MWH was better!  He can walk pretty well again!  (Still a little limp but not bad.  He really did a number on his poor foot.)  Given this improvement, we went to Yosemite -- so amazingly beautiful.  California got a ton of rain this year and it was incredibly green.

It was great to have MWH on this trip.  We missed him on our ski trip (see previous post).  It rained one day of our trip.  It was pretty awful, we tried to take a hike, but one girl (Three-a) was cold and completely miserable.  We need to get waterproof hiking boots for 4 of us.  Only oNe has really good hiking boots.  (And this is why Zappos loves me--someone or multiple people always need shoes!)

I'm not going to write much more about this trip because I've documented it in pictures on the "other' blog, but yay!  Yosemite!  I hope we can go back again in the next couple of years.  (Maybe when oNe is a junior, twoK is a freshman, and Three-a is an 8th grader.)



Trips we still need to take with the girls--the problem is we don't like to travel much:

NY
Grand Canyon**
Yellowstone**
DC
Another trip abroad -- Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, and Costa Rica are all places I really want to take them

Coming up soon we'll go to Universal Studios and see the Harry Potter stuff there!  (Hopefully we can find time over the summer.  It's already so full of things that I'm not sure when.)

Ski trip

This year, I took the girls skiing by myself.  As you may remember, MWH broke some bones in his foot. We weren't going to get to go skiing this year because the regular ski trip is a lot of work.  It involves a flight.  A lot of driving and cooking in a condo.  I wasn't up for all that by myself.  But I really wanted the girls to go skiing.

I thought about it and realized we have ski slopes within a fairly easy drive from our house.  I decided that I could take all 3 skiing by myself.  They are older and they are super helpful and super good girls.  I decided it would be a great opportunity to make memories with them.  Since none of us are getting younger, I decided to go for it.

I was super worried about going and driving and skiing with 3.  But we did it  I didn't write up details--wish I had, but better late than never.  I'm trying to remember the details, but they are blurry.  The car we took (rental with 4-wheel drive) was bigger than I have driven in a long time, but I liked it up in the snow!  (I drive an electric car so that wouldn't have worked very well.)  My girls helped me navigate and were helpful and awesome.  They also were good friends and sweet to each other the whole time so that was extra nice.

As I mentioned I was worried about skiing with all 3.  One doesn't love to ski, but she was willing to sit down in the lodge with her phone while we went one morning.  She joined us again in the afternoon.  We only had a couple of falls that were kind of scary.  I skied behind them so I could see them and if they fell I could help them or talk them through getting up.

We skied for a day and 1/2 (should have been two days, but it snowed while we were there and none of us like to ski while it is snowing). They love playing in the snow!  There was a ton of snow!  (The snow was some of the best I've ever seen for skiing.)

On the last morning, the girls weren't really helping me pack up.  I reminded them that I NEEDED help because I was alone.  I went down to move our car and came back and they'd packed up the entire hotel room.  Things were kind of chaotically packed, but it was done.  I was super proud of them.

I am so glad we went. I missed MWH a lot. He's my partner. I am pretty independent, but I like my partner.  But, it was good for the girls to know we girls can do stuff without guys.

One last thing... It was fun sleeping 4 in a room. The girls say I snore. Only on my back and then like a bunny.  Next time though, maybe I will get two rooms.  I will sleep better... they are noisy sleepers too!

Seizure inducing toy

A little boy had a spin-y toy with bright flickering lights on an airplane flight I was on recently. It was flickering in my peripheral visual field. It was almost seizure inducing.  Seriously.  (I am kind of sensitive to lights.)

I get that he's a little kid.  I get that you're trying to keep him quiet on the plane.  However, the flicker was more annoying to me than crying.  I did not say anything to the Mom.  I wouldn't.  I'm just throwing this out there for the universe.