In which I am Found in the Kitchen in my Underwear in the Middle of the Night

So, we put our kids to bed promptly at 10:00 last night. What?! It was Oscars night! And even though the pretty darn boring broadcast was actually over early, there was still the tallying up of everyone's ballots here to see who got the most right. Kris did, he always does. But I did get best movie and best actor right. (Go, Mr Darcy!).

Anyway, we put the kids to bed. Fionn, who had spent most of the evening lying on the couch in fever-induced lethargy and occasionally kicking and thrashing out at anyone who dared encroach upon her space, came to bed with us. Preparing to sleep with a five year old who was putting out enough heat to warm the whole room, I decided to forego PJs and just snuggled down under the covers in my underwear with my live little heating element and went right to sleep.

Then, about an hour or so later, Fionn began to kick, and clutch, and grope and cry "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," and occasionally giggle maniacally, which was a bit disturbing and made it well, really hard for me or Kris to sleep anymore. The cold medicine was downstairs on the mantel where I left it after the last time I dosed Liam a couple days ago, so, I scooped her up and we went in search of the medicine. With her begging me not to make her take the nasty stuff, but her lucidity when faced with the horror of grape flavored cold medicine was actually somewhat comforting to me.

Then things got good. I poured the medicine, but then Fionn began to gag and then proceeded to puke on the kitchen floor. Amik heard all the commotion and came upstairs to help and I sent him to the garage in search of a puke bucket (aka 'Party Pail') since my frantic search in the tupperware cabinet had proven fruitless. Well, when you open the garage door without turning off the alarm system, the alarm starts with a little warning beep. If you put the code in before the beeping stops everything is good, if not then the alarm goes off in earnest emitting an ear-splitting electronic scream that would scare the living daylights out of anyone who ever dared break into my house. So far, it has only ever done so to us though, because we are the only ones who have ever set it off. So last night, I couldn't get the stupid key pad to work. I swear I punched in that code four times and it never took. And that is why last night at about 11:30 the scene in my kitchen when people came running from all over the house at the sound of the alarm was of me standing in my kitchen in my underwear frantically punching the keys on the alarm system, while Fionn puked and cried and held her hands over her ears at my feet.

So, now I know, even if everyone in the house seems to be asleep when you creep down the stairs with a feverish baby just to grab some medicine really quick--put some clothes on, because, well, you never know what might transpire before you can creep back up the stairs to your bed.

The Beach in February

You know what Kris and I did this weekend?

We walked on the beach. A lot.

And took pictures of seals.

And sea lions.

And sunsets.

And multi-million dollar homes on the beach.

And collected sand dollars. And ate cheesecake for lunch. And slept in the sun (maybe that was just me). And walked on the beach some more. And laughed just a little at the women in their bikinis and Ugg boots. Why do you own any kind of boot at all if you live in San Diego? And ate frozen yogurt for dinner. And tried really hard to make our 3 ounce bottle of sunscreen last 3 days. It didn't. And bought chocolate at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory--in San Diego. And laughed a lot at the road sign that said "Move Only on Green." Except, apparently, that road sign was necessary. And walked on the beach some more.

You know what our kids did?

They went to school and work. They played Apples to Apples. And PS3. And watched movies. And ate macaroni and cheese. And pizza. And goofed around a lot on Skype for their parents' amusement. And generally took care of one another and the house, and while I am sure they are covering for one another a bit, everyone seems to have mostly gotten along. And, except for a few bumps Fionn was sure to point out to us, everyone seems to be in one piece too.

The Zoo with Cousins

One beautifully warm and sunny winter day last month we went to the Denver Zoo and were met there by cousins Ande and Kyle and their momma too (John ditched us). Ande, Kyle and parents have recently moved back to Colorado, we missed them and are happy to have them back.

Amik with Kyle

Fionnula and Ande

We are generally lovers of zoos, and have visited a handful of others, but the Denver Zoo feels very much like it is ours.  We have been visiting there since our family began.

We celebrated Erin's first birthday at the Denver Zoo. She made kitten noises at the mountain lions.

Once, we took Erin, Bayley, Kegan and Rhys to see the holiday zoo lights. We got there and realized we had forgotten to bring the girls' coats. It was cold and dark and after bedtime. We ended up bundling the girls into the double stroller with lots of blankets. I pushed the girls and Kris carried a toddler on each arm through the whole zoo. By the time we were done, Kris's arms were so sore he could barely move them.

When Kegan was two we went to the Denver Zoo with our LaFond cousins on Christmas Day (yes, really, Christmas Day). A snowball fight that day nearly turned lethal when Kegan tripped, smacked his face on a rock and broke his nose! He effectually ruined Uncle Greg's jacket with the copious amounts of blood that flowed freely from his face. Most of my kids, even those who were not yet born that Christmas, can still point out that offending rock.

That was back when Enrights and LaFonds lived about 20 minutes from one another. Years later, they traveled from Pennsylvania to visit us in Colorado Springs and we wanted to go to the Denver Zoo together, of course. The day of the zoo trip turned out to be rainy, but we went anyway. Mostly the rain just effected the picnic part of the day, not the moods of anyone involved. At lunchtime we piled into the two vehicles to eat our lunches. Everyone was happily eating and chatting and loudly laughing when in the bus there was a sudden and complete silence followed by a loud chorus of "Ewwwww! Gross!" And an extremely efficient evacuation of the bus. Rain was nothing compared to remaining in the vehicle that poor Ronan had just puked in.

Last June we met cousin Alison for the first time at the Denver zoo.

Ronan and Liam up a tree

Alison under the tree

Cousins and zoos sort of go together I guess.

Ronan, Kyle, and Amik