Disneyland!

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We were at Disneyland from April 21-25 and had an absolutely fantastic time. It took me more than a month to find time to edit the video and photos, but here they are.

So much to tell...

Carol's parents Dennis and Mary joined us at Disneyland and were in the hotel room next door.

Carol has been planning this trip in her head since before she got pregnant with Audrey. She got serious a few months ago and researched how to do it with young kids. One key was to go for multiple days, so we bought a package deal through Alaska Airlines with free airfare for the kids and 5-day passes to Disneyland and California Adventure (a whole new amusement park in part of the former Disneyland parking lot). With a multi-day pass we could relax and not have ambitious goals. We decided the trip was really for the girls so we would let them set the agenda (with some guidance from us :)

Disneyland Video

We were a little afraid they might not ride anything so we took them to the small amusement park at Seattle Center to get them used to the idea. Carol showed them videos of Disneyland rides on YouTube so they'd know what to expect. Finally we used a little bribery: we told Audrey she could have cotton candy if she went on Pirates of the Caribbean and Charlotte if she went on the Haunted Mansion. They both did so, and they got their cotton candy. We went on tons of other rides with them and they enjoyed all but one...

Audrey indicated she wanted to go on the Matterhorn so I hopped on with her. She got scared right off the bat by the monster in the cave (you only see his glowing red eyes and hear him roar) and spent the whole rest of the ride terrified that he was going to show up again. I don't think she even realized she had ridden a roller coaster.

Most days we took a break for a few hours in the afternoon and went back to the hotel. Then we could enjoy the evenings being a little refreshed.

We deliberately scheduled the trip outside of anybody's spring break and that really paid off. Almost everything we wanted to go on we could walk right on. Our last day was a Saturday and it got a lot more crowded, so by late morning we were back at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail at California Adventure which just has free play and no lines to wait in.

Some highlights and surprises:

• Charlotte loved the Haunted Mansion and rode it more than once.


• Audrey loved Soarin' Over California, a spectacular IMAX film in which you sit in a feet-dangling seat that rises way up in the air for the film so you're up in the middle of the tall screen. Amazingly immersive.


• Carol got choked up by Charlotte's reaction to meeting the princesses (especially Snow White) at the character breakfast. Charlotte was mesmerized.


• Audrey was afraid of the caves on Tom Sawyer Island. But I convinced to try them with me and she fell in love with them. They were a childhood favorite of mine so it was rewarding to see her come around to them.
  

The whole 5 days were non-stop fun and happy. The girls were excited the whole time and everything went smoothly. Just plain fabulous.

Saturday afternoon I picked up a rental car and we drove to Palm Desert. Everybody seemed ready for a rest because the girls were calm and content. Carol and I just laid around for the entire first day. We made our usual visit to The Living Desert and saw the huge model train layout again. Grandma and Grandpa got to show off their granddaughters at Sunday donuts at the clubhouse. Audrey couldn't get enough of the swimming pool. She discovered that putting her head under water was not so hard and then she couldn't show off her new skill enough.

With Carol's parents at Disneyland and then a pleasant visit with mine, the girls got to spend time with all of their grandparents.

We can't wait for our next visit to Disney in a year or two!

Quick Update

I have a lot to write about but no time to do it. So here's a quick summary of recent news.

Disneyland: We spent April 21-25 at Disneyland with Carol's parents, then went to my parents' in Palm Desert until the 29th. We had an absolutely fantastic time. We were a little concerned that Charlotte might be too young, but she wasn't. The girls were far more adventurous than we hoped and went on many, many rides. Charlotte loved the Haunted Mansion. Audrey loved Buzz Lightyear. They both loved Winnie the Pooh. Then it was relaxing to be at my parents' home and Audrey spent a lot of time in the pool.

Audrey: While living in the pool on vacation Audrey decided that putting her head under water was fun. That's quite a breakthrough. Once she figured out it wasn't scary she couldn't do it enough. She was very excited to show off her new skill at her next swim lesson at the YMCA after we got home.

Charlotte: The day after we got home from vacation Charlotte decided to learn a new skill: pumping herself on the swing. She's also excited about her new ability and loves to show it off.

House: Before we went to Disneyland I wrote that we had listed the house. That happened on April 7 and we received and accepted a good offer on April 17. All contingencies have now been removed and we close on May 22. Then we rent the house back until June 20.

Moving: Which means we have a definitive move date. That's right, we'll drive away from Seattle on June 19. Carol and I both had a good bout of sadness about the move when we got back from vacation but now we're reconciled to it again. I'm sure we'll feel it again as it gets closer.

Road Trip: We've been playing with the idea of driving to Boston in our Vanagon camper. We have now made the decision to do it. We've mapped out a two-week itinerary that takes us to Yellowstone (I've never been), Mt. Rushmore, across Nebraska and Iowa (two of the five remaining states I've never been to), Chicago (home of my Uncle Gary and Aunt Kathy), Detroit (home of my Aunt Charlotte and my cousins Andre and Renee), then Philadelphia, New York City and finally Boston on July 4. The longest day in our plan is about 8 hours of driving, most are 4-6 hours. We'll take lots of breaks at small town playgrounds. I'm having a bunch of work done on the van to address the most likely problems before they occur.

School: This semester of school has not been enjoyable. I had one fairly easy class (Project Management) and one very hard and time-consuming class (Molecular Modeling). I took the final exam for the former class while in Palm Desert and the final for the latter is in about two hours. I have one class remaining to take and had planned to take it in Summer semester and receive my masters in August. But last night in bed with Carol I decided to cancel Summer semester and take the class in the Fall. I could do it while driving across country but I'd rather just move and get settled without the stress of school. It's quite a relief to have made that decision.

Boston House: Carol and I go to Boston May 12-18 to look for a house there. We have been doing a lot of research online and have several areas identified as good targets. We're very decisive, so we expect to buy a house during this trip. If all goes well and that happens, our household goods can go straight from our Seattle house to our Boston house and will never see storage, and we won't have to live in temporary housing.

That's it for now. Time to get to work and take my final.

I have tons of Disneyland video to edit and photos to post, but that's going to have to wait until we get back from Boston.

Ocean Shores - April 2009

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We had to wait until the house was on the market to take our first road trip in "Ruby Tuesday", the VW Vanagon Westphalia camper van we bought a couple of months ago. That finally happened last weekend and we headed out of town for Ocean Shores.

Ocean Shores is where my family went for getaways when I was a kid and I have lots of fond memories of it. I've gone back there all my life every couple of years. It's a typical ocean beach tourist town: a little bit tacky. But it has a miles-long wide sand beach.

We didn't finish up the house until afternoon so we left home about 3:00. We made a stop on the way to get Charlotte a sleeping bag and arrived at the beach about 7:00. We grabbed dinner to go and ate in the van on the beach watching the sunset. It was such a switch from the house prep death march to having fun with the family that I was pretty giddy. Plus it was the first sunny weekend in ages after an unusually cool and moist winter and early spring.


Ocean Shores Video

After sunset we drove to nearby Ocean City State Park and found a spot to sleep. The girls had been asking all day when we were going to put up the pop top, so they were excited. We had a great time playing and getting set up for sleeping and reading stories. I don't think we settled down to sleep until 10:00. Audrey started out in the upper bed with me but after 45 minutes of restlessness she decided she wanted to sleep on the floor.

We all slept pretty well in the van. I went to the bathroom about 4am and was surprised that opening and closing the sliding door didn't wake up the girls. When I woke up to daylight I figured it was 6:30. But when I looked at the clock it was 8:15 and everyone else was still sleeping. Amazing! But by 8:30 we were all awake and laughing.

We went back into town for breakfast and then back to the beach. It was relatively warm (50's) but with a steady strong breeze so coats were required. After playing in the dunes and watching other people fly kites I decided we needed a kite or two as well. The kite store was only a short distance away so I went and bought a Spiderman kite for Audrey and a ladybug kite for Charlotte.

When I unwound the kite strings and handed the spool to each girl and launched the kites they were thrilled. They happily flew their kites for a long time. The wind was perfect for it. As the day wore on it got warm enough, for Audrey at least, to be comfortable in just a t-shirt.

We hung out at the beach until mid-afternoon and then left for home. I sat in the back with the girls most of the way home and we had a good time together.

It was a very successful first road trip in the "new" van. We look forward to many, many more of them. We'd be gone somewhere this weekend but I checked the weather reports yesterday and it's raining all weekend everywhere within driving distance.

OK, That Sucked

In my last post a month ago I implied that March would be spent getting the house ready to sell and would not be enjoyable. It turns out that was an understatement. It completely sucked. Every free moment was spent working on the house.

Alas, we finished on Saturday and the house gets listed today. Yeah! And the listing price is right what we were hoping for. That's great news.

When I've whined to people about the work on the house, they often ask me, "What do you have to do?" So here's a list of what we've done:

Outdoor:

• fix sagging house gutter at se corner
• fix garage man door gutter leak
• fix garage exterior lights
• clean mailbox/porch light/house numbers
• build fence at alley
• replace west gable siding
• replace south window trim x 2
• install gutters on garage north side
• clean up back yard
• extend cement block wall
• level alley & spread rock
• install fabric & river rock in water barrel area
• install water barrel & downspout
• replace kitchen door
• paint green parts of house/touch up blue everywhere
• scrape/sand/caulk/paint all exterior trim
• paint porch rail
• paint front door
• paint underside of greenhouse window
• paint whiteboard on studio east end & around garage door
• paint man doors & trim
• clean gutters
• wash all windows
• install fence post caps
• clean greenhouse window exterior
  
• fill alley potholes
• install sod patch & side sewer cleanout cover

Indoor:

• paint studio trim
• clean up studio
• clean under refrigerator
• replace master bath faucet
• replace master bath light fixture
  
• install/paint kitchen door trim
• caulk kitchen counter
• caulk/clean greenhouse window
• cover junction box above breaker panel
• fix carpet padding downstairs hall
• mount smoke detectors
• grout added kitchen tile
• clean all windows
• touch up all interior paint
• paint new bannister
• finish bannister base
• clean downstairs door
• clean studio threshold

This doesn't include the many hours Carol spent getting the house declutterred, organized, cleaned and staged. She spent many days reuniting toy parts with each other, sorting and triaging kids clothes, cleaning out closets, packing "extra" stuff for storage and many other tasks - all while wrangling two temporarily attention-starved kids.

Whoever buys our house is getting a "perfect" house with absolutely no maintenance needing immediate attention. Perhaps a lot of sellers don't do this much work, but we can't imagine listing a less-than-perfect house in this market.

We finished the last of the work on Saturday afternoon and immediately packed up the camper van and headed to the ocean. We had a wonderful time. As soon as I have some time I'll post photos and video. Now that the house is done, I need to focus on final projects for my two classes. Both are due in two weeks. After my last final exam of the semester on May 8, life should improve dramatically.

OK, I'm done whining now.

This is Great!

A couple of weeks ago Carol and I started getting serious about the long list of projects we have to accomplish to put the house on the market. We are aiming to list it on April 1st. Our weekends now are sunrise to sunset house projects. Combined with homework and vastly increased responsibilities at work it isn't leaving much time or energy for blogging.

I'll post some photos when I can. We've done some great stuff making the house look better - for someone else to enjoy. We're pledging that on our next house we won't let these projects build up, so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labors. Famous last words.

It also means lots of TV and computer time for the girls while Carol and I work. I think that bothers us more than them. Audrey got to play her Lego Star Wars game all day last weekend. At one point Carol checked on the girls and asked Audrey how she was doing. Her response? "This is GREAT!"

Oh well, it's temporary. Once we get the house in shape it'll be time to bug out so potential buyers can see it. We'll head out for some trips in our new camper van! Plus we have a trip to Disneyland and visiting with all the grandparents at the end of April. We just have to put our heads down and get through March.