Easter

We spent Easter weekend with the family. Craig and I took Kai to pick up Justin while Courtney hid eggs and baskets in the backyard. We enjoyed an egg hunt and a family dinner. I didn't get any pictures of Easter, but I got took a picture of my Easter gift - silly putty!



And I got a few pictures of Kai enjoying her favorite Easter gift - a bubble machine:



Of course, I also spent quite a bit of time with Kai while she had a cold this week. During the cold, we encouraged her to breath as much medicated air from the humidifier. So we spent a fair bit of time playing in the humid air. I like this picture:



I also took Kai to the storage unit to get something Craig sold on eBay during our move. We had a few issues getting into the unit. So while we worked those out in the office, Kai guilted them into giving her a Kai-sized bottle of water. And when I found the item in the storage unit, I used my favorite measuring unit - Kai - to send a picture to Craig to ensure I had found the right thing. She was happier to "help Laura" than to show off her water.

Easter Prep

I do have one fun picture from Easter. This is Craig helping Kai dye eggs:



We sure enjoy that little girl! She was being "so careful".

Yosemite (part 2)

Before we got to our hotel, we had to pull over to take in the view. Someone took this picture for us:



I think Craig took this one of us:



And I'm sure he took this one:



As I mentioned in my first post, we were celebrating our anniversary-ish. In addition to our picnic-lunch, we went out for dinner. Here is a picture of us dressed up for dinner:

Yosemite

My parents had barely left and Craig and I were heading off for a weekend at Yosemite. We'd been planning this weekend away for months now, but we had to reschedule it several times. It started with a long drive (about 6 hours). I took a picture of the road here because suddenly the opposing traffic was on the wrong side of us.



Just as soon as we were in the park, we stopped at a public restroom. I'm not sure what it says about people who go to the park when you have to padlock your single-ply toilet paper, but it did make an interesting picture.



The hotel we stayed at, The Ahwahnee, was marvelous; however, I'm still bewildered by this soap.



Now, I don't know what happens to the middle of the bar at your house. But at our house:



Yeah, we are thrifty like that. Anyway, we did see a few other odd things on our trip. First, a kit for Courtney (who loves S'mores):



And for Rebecca, who introduced me to these combination utensils:



Unfortunately, I injured my foot during the move. Despite the limitations on my walking ability, we did go on a few adventures beyond shopping:



And, of course, we found time to celebrate our "anniversary-ish" in our traditional style (that is, an indoor picnic/snack lunch:



It wasn't our most expensive meal, but it was the most meaningful. It's the little things.

The Happiest Place on Earth

On Sunday, we took my parents to the happiest place on earth - Disneyland. We decided to go in the afternoon, allowing my parents to attend church in Upland that morning. They found a very small, but welcoming congregation here.

Sunday afternoon, we headed to the park. We decided to go to Disney's California Adventure instead of Disneyland, because my parents hadn't ever been to DCA. Courtney drove herself, Kai, and Mo so that they could leave early if necessary. Unfortunately, traffic and road closures set them back an hour. That gave us more than enough time to rent an electric scooter for my dad at the park. I do not envy people who drive those around all the time - they are not easy to maneuver in a crowd. But I will say my dad did far better driving his than the majority of people pushing strollers in the park - and those people presumably have more practice! One man ran his stroller into Craig three times!

But we had a nice afternoon in the park, managing to fit in most of our favorite rides (Soarin' Over California!) and a few shows (Aladdin - again with the carpet flying over the audience). Courtney did leave early with Kai, but the four of us stayed for World of Color. Here they are, waiting for the show:



On Monday, my parents came back to the house to spend the day with Kai and I. We had another lovely day, just talking and playing. I got one fun picture of my parents in our backyard:



One final meal that night, and they were off on an adventure that was their return trip home (rescheduled flights, rental car returns, and so forth). But they made it safely home. And we are so glad they were able to come visit us!

Exploring LA

On Friday, I took my parents to Gamble House. Getting there was something of an adventure. Their rental car had "never lost" - but the stupid thing caused us to take a 7 mile detour (by telling us to keep left when the highway split but failing to mention that we needed to take an exit on the right side half a mile later; there was no way to get across 5 lanes in LA traffic in that amount of time) and at least 6 u-turns (because the street names it used did not match the street signs). This is dad and I outside the Gamble House:



We got a late lunch at In-N-Out Burger. Then we drove to Craig's office. After a tour of Thinkwell, we got to sit in on "show and tell" which was really interesting. This is Craig, me, and my dad at the office:



We ended the evening meeting Jason and his family for dinner. Bryce and Courtney drove out to meet us. Courtney really enjoyed Jason's girls. We only got a picture of my parents and I with Jason and his family:



On Saturday, we took my parents into L.A. We went to the Petersen Automotive Museum. On the way there, we saw the most "interestingly" dressed person. Initially we thought a woman was standing at the bus stop in an unfortunate bikini, but no, "she" was a he. A nice taste of L.A. for my parents. We stopped for lunch at the Johnny Rockets in the museum - if you have food allergies, I highly recommend this place. They have their entire ingredient list available online - in full, easy to find. And the food was good too. Here's a picture of Craig with an old Helmes Bakery truck (his grandfather drove one of these, a slightly newer version, though):



From there, we drove out to Santa Monica. My parents weren't interested in going down Third Street or out on the Pier, but my mom did want to look at the ocean. We weren't able to find parking, so Craig stayed with my dad in the car while mom and I walked out to the water. My mom insisted on tasting the water (to make sure it was salty and not just a big lake) and then insisted I do the same. I took a picture of the water - you can see that it was a rather grey and dreary day:



The weather does not explain the traffic, which was miserable all day long. We spent over 4 hours in the car that day, so we met the kids for a late dinner before crashing.

"Grandma" & "Grandpa"

My parents came into town late Wednesday night. Craig and I met them for dinner (after their adventures at LAX). They came over to the house Thursday morning. I gave them a quick tour of the house. I'm told it looks bigger in person than in pictures, but I think that might be because all the pictures I've taken included unpacked boxes. I need to get on that.

While Courtney is at school, I have Kai. So she kept us entertained at the house most of the morning. She took my dad up to her room and, in my dad's words, "showed him every single toy she owned." She also showed him how Courtney puts on her makeup (mimicking mommy with her own plastic set of pretend makeup), which was somewhat disconcerting to my father (I don't think he had any idea what a makeup routine can look like).

But having my parents and Kai together, I learned I have a habit of referring to my parents as Grandma and Grandpa - a pattern of speech I learned for my eight nieces and nephews, I'm sure. And my mom has the same speech pattern. So it wasn't long before Kai was calling my parents "Grandma" and "Grandpa" which isn't technically true. But it doesn't seem to bother anyone, so I guess it works.

I took my parents and Kai on a short driving tour of Claremont. I showed mom where I usually walked when I called her on the phone. She was able to see the views where I frequently stop to take pictures for her. We ended up at IHOP for lunch. Kai really enjoyed her syrup-delivery device (pancakes) and bacon; my dad enjoyed Kai's sausage and eggs and strawberry topping as well as his own pancakes. My mom ordered a half-sandwich, but she enjoyed the enormous hot fudge sundae far more than her meal.

When we got back to the house, I put Kai down for a nap. My dad stayed to listen for her (he had a book) while mom and I ran to the grocery store for a few things. When we got home, we started dinner in the oven. After cooking my roast for just over an hour, the oven decided it was done. The roast wasn't done, but the oven displayed an error code and shut down. I ended up cooking the roast on the stove and homemade rolls in the toaster oven. (The oven promises to be another washer-like drama, stay tuned).

After dinner, I found my mom sitting with Kai in the living room. Earlier, while I was making dinner, I had overheard my mom say "I think we might have to ask Laura for help playing that game" followed by Kai's reassurance, "No, we've got it." I didn't follow up because dinner prep was getting creative without the oven. Kai is in a fun "pretend play" stage:

Kai pulled out the lapdesks that Craig and I use for our laptops. She put one on my mom's lap and one on her own. She helped Grandma open her computer. They typed for a bit on their imaginary computers before Kai asked, "Can you help with my game?" My mom leaned over to peer at her "screen" and said, "Oh, I think this one wants you to count the apples." Kai tapped various places on the lapdesk and counted, "one, two, three, four." My mom replied, "Good job!" After a moment, Kai said, "What do you think about this one?" My mom considered a moment before saying, "We have to count the socks!"

Way better than any app!

Clean Clothes (coming soon)

If we've talked in the past week, you've probably heard me complain about the drama that is our new washer and dryer. It's been an adventure, or something.

Last Tuesday, our new washer and dryer were delivered with our first fridge. Craig had scheduled installation for Wednesday (our lease specifies that, if we have a washer and dryer, they be professionally installed), so I was not expecting any drama so early in the process. The delivery guys told me they usually install when they deliver, which was news to me because Craig had paid extra for the installation scheduled for the following day. But I figured having the washer and dryer early would be a bonus, so I took the man upstairs.

He looked at our second story laundry room, with the drip tray we had purchased according to the property manager's instruction, and announced that he could not install the washer and dryer. No problem, I thought, tomorrow morning will get this taken care of. He left the washer and dryer in the garage next to my car (and assorted other stuff):



Wednesday brought the installation person. He first told me he couldn't install the washer and dryer because no one told him it was a second story installation and he didn't have a second person. He wandered up to give the laundry room a look and told me the drip tray had to be installed before he could do anything anyway. He suggested we call a plumber.

The first plumber came out Wednesday afternoon. He assessed the laundry room and took some pictures with his phone to send to a friend. This is not reassuring, I thought. He first told me I had the wrong type of drip tray. But after a phone consultation with the aforementioned "friend" (I assume it was another plumber or his boss), he told me they don't make that sort of drip tray anymore. Instead, they would need to reroute the plumbing from the wall to the floor, which would cost about $800.

Craig called the property management company. They sent out a second plumber. Again, pictures were taken of the laundry room. This plumber assured me that the problem was not nearly so bad as he had been led to believe...and left. I'm not sure what problem he thought we had, but we were quickly approaching a week without laundry facilities. I assure you, problems were mounting.

After several attempts to contact the property management company and the plumber to follow up, we had resigned ourselves to installing the washer without the drip tray. On Monday, two men were here to swap out the fridge and I hoped to get them to install my washer and dryer. This attempt met with even less success than the previous four visits. The guys wouldn't even consider doing it, because it was "not on their paperwork."

Meanwhile, I told Craig this by text and he called Best Buy. After a lengthy hold time, he was told we should just ask the guys delivering the fridge to do it. I was ready to lose my mind. Craig was also trying to follow up with property manager - who had called to ask if the drip pan had been installed on Saturday and when informed it had not been, said "okay" and hung up! - and the property manager's plumber. He was having about as much success there as I had with the installation people. That is: NONE.

On Tuesday, the property manager sent out a different plumber to install the drip tray. This man assessed the situation, took pictures, and told me the drain was in the wrong place. Yes, thank you. I know. That's why you're here... I began to panic, thinking he would leave. But he settled down and modified our drip pan as you can see here:



Today, the installation was scheduled for between 2:30 and 4:30. This presented a slight problem as I needed to pick Bryce up from school at 3. I left a note on the door with my phone number, saying I would be back by 3:15. I was on the verge of panic even so, afraid I would again fail to get the washer and dryer installed. As Bryce and I turned into our development, the installation people called. I assured them I would be there in minutes and asked them to wait. Thirty minutes later, we have a working washer and dryer!



And soon, I hope to have the first load of laundry finished, just in time for my parents' arrival!

Never Hungry

Last Wednesday, I was planning to make one last trip to the old house to empty the fridge and freezer, now that we had our own at the house. At the last minute, I decided to race over before Courtney left for school, so I could finish the chore without Kai's "help". I had about 40 minutes. The old house is two miles away.

I forgot, however, that we didn't have trash bags at the old house. So I had to carry food out to the dumpster in small loads. I also didn't have quite enough boxes/bags to pack...I ended up stealing the ice-maker box to carry the last of it out to the car. But I made it! Here are a couple pictures of my car packed with food. The first is the boot, with one seat down (I have a carseat for Kai in the other seat, which has been a struggle this entire move, but I use it too often to take it out):



This is my passenger seat - my car thought my "passenger" was not wearing a seatbelt and beeped at me the entire drive home (You'll see it's very chaotic because I didn't have everything bags/boxes.):



I've tackled our pantry several times since moving. This is, hopefully, the final configuration:



But as I mentioned, the fridge we got was not the one we wanted. Today, they came to swap out the first fridge for a new one. I got a picture of the two guys carrying the "old" fridge out on a strap.



But before they came, I had to empty the fridge. We have a smaller fridge in the garage, so I planned to shift as much as possible into that fridge temporarily because there was a two hour window for the swap. Here is the garage fridge, slightly full:



This evening, Bryce helped me carry everything from the garage into the kitchen, so I could arrange our food for the fifth(?) time. I'm not sure if everything fits better in this fridge or if I'm unusually familiar with the bottles, jars, and food stuffs we keep in our fridge.

Shell Game (move part 4)

After our big move on Monday, we still weren't finished. Tuesday morning, Kai and I waited for the delivery of our new appliances while Craig got a u-haul and went to the old house. There, he and Justin began packing Justin's things into the truck. This involved not only those items Justin was moving with him, but those he wanted to put in storage, some things we had left that needed to be moved into storage, and an assortment of items to be donated. I might add that the reason these things had been left for Tuesday - they couldn't be moved in Craig's car. So we aren't talking about light odds and ends here, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the appliance delivery at the house did not go smoothly. Two men wrapped a strap around themselves, under the fridge, to carry it in. I don't think I've seen this done before, but it was fairly impressive. But as they set up the fridge, I learned they had brought the wrong model. (After over two hours on the phone, Craig arranged for a swap of the fridge for the right one, but that won't take place until Monday.) And when they looked in the second story laundry room, I was told they couldn't install our washer and dryer. So they left them in the garage:



Kai and I went over to the old house to help finish loading the truck. After a very convoluted series of donations, taking some of Justin's things out of storage, and putting other things into storage, we paused for lunch at about two in the afternoon. Courtney was just getting home from school, so she picked up Kai for a much needed nap. She had to swing by the old house to pick up Kai's sheets from the dryer (Kai managed to wet the bed through her diaper on her first night in the new house). I followed Craig to Justin's apartment, then turned around to pick up Bryce from school.

We stopped at the house so Bryce could pick up his driver's licence and a snack. After several wrong turns, we made our way back to Justin's apartment. Bryce was planning to drop me off and take my car home, but I think the series of u-turns I made getting to Justin's scared him off driving home alone. Instead, he stayed to help us carry Justin's things in, which was wonderful because Justin's room is on the second floor.

We finished the day by driving back to the house and loading one last piece of furniture into the truck. Craig and I took that piece to Goodwill, returned the truck, and came home. The move is done and barely begun at the same time!

Second Move (part 3)

The guys took an hour lunch after loading the truck at the old house. We ate and raced over to the new house, where I had taken Kai's mattress earlier. We heard the guys pulling up just as we went inside. I was terrified that Kai wouldn't get her nap.But all that moving did her in. She passed out and the guys were great about letting her sleep (keeping aside her furniture and shushing one another when they were near here room). I'm sure they didn't want her underfoot any more than we did!



Courtney got home from school soon after the unloading began, so she was able to direct traffic some while Craig went to pick Bryce up from school. I continued to be impressed with these movers. They offered us a "VIP chair" - one of those camp chairs with their logo on it. We were supposed to sit and direct them, but it was easier to show them. Even so, they were pretty amazing, learning all our names and linking them with the rooms. They were also incredibly helpful about placing the furniture. Once everything was in the house, they went through each room with me and asked if I was happy with the placement (throughout the load-in process, they rearranged furniture in a couple rooms, sometimes more than once as I saw the arrangement in real life). They adjusted everything the way I wanted it, never complaining even about moving furniture between floors.

I took a series of pictures just after they finished. This is the downstairs living room. I had them rearrange the furniture in here several times, it's a very oddly shaped room. We moved our TV in later. And we love this room! It opens to the kitchen, which is a nice change.



This is a view from the kitchen, those cutouts look into the room above.



Dining room:



This is Bryce's room. You can sorta see him in shadow in the corner of the picture. I love the fact that the only thing he's done since getting home from school is set up his computer...and he's already using it. He reminds me so much of Dave!



This is the upstairs "bonus room" - it's open to the hallway. We ended up moving the bookcase from our room in here, but it's in the corner you can't see by my desk. And I got my huge desk moved in! And up the stairs, without killing anyone. This is the enormous furniture from our old family room, which the guys also managed to move up the stairs.



This is Courtney's room, with an added bonus of a very surprised Courtney in the picture. She finished the stripes with her boyfriend's help while we were away. A stark contrast to Bryce, she has everything but those few items on her desk unpacked already.



This is the game room, not yet in it's final configuration. I guess I took this picture before the guys finished moving everything. Those shutters would open into the downstairs living room. And the entry is opposite the half-wall.



The entry, with bookshelves.



Kai's room - the guys moved her bed and furniture in after she woke up. Courtney and I had already moved her toys over, so her room was also essentially unpacked and ready to go.



This, however, is the master bedroom. And with all our unpacking efforts aimed at the family living area, it still looks very much like this. Our weekend project:



It doesn't look nearly as bad from this angle:



My closet, on the other hand, what can I say? Actually, I've made lots of progress on the closet in the last couple days. It's looking much better now. But right after we moved in:



This is the master bathroom. I'm afraid it actually looks worse now, as there were a few boxes we had moved ourselves that weren't in here.



And we're moved! Still plenty of unpacking to do, of course...