Sisters Trip 2016

After Nellie was born, I started to feel a tug to go visit my grandparents in Southern California.  I mentioned the feeling to Katie, and she exclaimed, "I've been feeling the same way!"

Together, we began to make plans to take our babies and go down for a quick weekend visit.  As our plans progressed, we thought, "We should invite our sisters!"  To our joy, all of our sisters and our Mom were able to commit to the trip (sadly, our sisters-in-laws were not able to make it this time)!  

The Sunday before we left, I got a phone call from my Aunt Amanda's husband.  My first thought was that something was majorly wrong, but he quickly reassured me that all was well, then asked "would you mind if I surprised Amanda and got her a ticket out to join you for the weekend?"

Let me back up a second... Amanda is indeed our Aunt, but she's the same age as my sister Colleen, so four years younger than me.  She also happens to be one of our very favorite people, so you can imagine my response to her husband, "Would we mind?!!  Of course not! Please, please, PLEASE send her! A million times, YES!"

By this point, our simple weekend visit to grandparents had turned into a full-fledged sisters+ getaway.

Katie and I met up at the Seattle airport Thursday evening for our flight down to SoCal.  We joked about how people seeing us with our babies in tow likely thought, "Oh, how hard to have to travel with a baby!"  While we were thinking, "This is so easy to only have our babies!"

It was wonderful to travel with a sister; It made things like potty breaks totally manageable.  Jordyn slept most of the flight down, but there was way too much new to see for Nellie to cooperate and agree to sleep.  She didn't cry, but she wanted to be up and looking around. 

We didn't get into SoCal until quite late, and we still needed to get our luggage, get our rental car, and make the long drive to our grandparent's home.  This was the point that Nellie's lack of sleep started to get ugly.  When we finally got the rental van and strapped her and Jordyn into their car seats, it was 11pm and we hoped that they'd both sleep soundly for the 90 minute drive.  They had other ideas.

 

Such sad, sad sounds, and sad, inconsolable babies! G'ma Lis jokingly suggested we should "change the station."  If only it were that easy!  When we got to Grandpa Bunker's we said quick, happy hello's to our sisters and aunt who had arrived before us, then we all crashed into our respective, and very welcome beds.

The next morning, we began our real vacation.  This vacation was not of the "adventure" variety, but rather the "renew relationships" kind.  We got up, chatted for a while, went out for a beautiful 70+ degree walk, then came back for more talking and story telling.  

We enjoyed a mini-photo shoot with Nellie, Jordyn, and Amanda's baby Embree (who is only four days younger than Nell).  Leaning tower of babies!

 

Amanda and I have already decided that Embree and Nellie are destined to be best friends.  I mean, look!  They're already holding hands!  They bonded over shared baldness. 

We spent the rest of the day just as we'd begun, talking, playing games, and listening to stories from Grandpa Bunker and Grandma 'Lis.  That was a driving motivation for this trip - to get a chance to hear stories from our grandparents.  I'm trying to convince them to write a blog to record their memories and stories.  It would be easier if we lived closer and could be more hands-on in facilitating that project.

We offered to take our grandparents out to dinner, but they insisted that a meal at home would make talking easier, and so they made us a delicious roast and potatoes dinner.  We spent hours after dinner playing games, laughing, and eating way too many peanut M&M's and nuts.
Kira introduced us to a hilarious YouTube video that provided the go-to phrases for the rest of our trip... "we bounced OUT... "Not TODAY!" (Here's the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9TrTY-VSDQ)

Saturday morning we all got up at very un-vacation-like times in order to meet our Aunt Emily (a.k.a. the Garage Sale Queen) for adventures in yard sales in Simi Valley.  We made quite the caravan - three cars full of ladies and babies!  One garage saler went so far as to ask, "If my current marriage doesn't work out, is there someone in your family I can marry?"

After bargain hunting all morning, we made a quick stop for In 'N Out, then met up with Grandma Joni and went to watch my 12-year old cousin Kennedy play a basketball game.  My young Simi cousins are outstanding athletes and we really enjoyed providing Kennedy with a huge cheering section.  One of her teammates asked her, "Did you bring a daycare with you?!"
Kennedy turned out to be one of the most pleasant surprises of our weekend.  Though only 12, she is remarkably mature, articulate, and enjoyable to be around.  She returned with her family to spend Saturday evening with us, but on her own chose to spend all day Sunday with us.  By the end of the weekend we claimed her as an honorary sister (she has four brothers and no sisters)!

 

Saturday evening we all got together once again for a family party at Emily's. We'd stopped at Costco earlier that day (not the most brilliant move on our part, as it was the day before the Super Bowl and Costco was predictably nutso) and stocked up on pastas and salads.  Everyone feasted and moved from group to group talking and catching up and making new memories. 

Emily with Embree and Nellie

When it was time for bed, Katie, Lauren, and I took our daughters out to sleep in Emily's RV.  (My boys still speak fondly of the few nights they spent in this RV when we were last in California for Lauren's wedding.)  This time around, Simi was in the middle of a raucous visit from the infamous Santa Ana winds.  We were quite literally rocked to sleep.  

We had a happy, lazy Sunday morning getting ready for 1pm church with Grammy Joni.  Grammy was thrilled to have a whole row of family joining her for sacrament meeting.  Of course, the babies were somewhat less than cooperative, so a lot of us ended up in the foyer!  After church we gathered for an impromptu photo shoot.  Sisters! Mothers! Grandmothers! Granddaughters! Cousins! Great Grandmothers! Aunts! Nieces! Love all around.

 

We spent the afternoon and evening at Grandma Joni's.  Someone turned the Super Bowl on in the family room, but only a couple people cared to pay attention.  The rest of us gathered around the kitchen table or the garden patio, talking and snacking.  

As it got later, we all squeezed around the kitchen table for a memorable night of games.  We played a three-round name game in which everyone writes down a bunch of names of well-known people or characters.  The first round is a bit like Catch Phrase, where people give clues to their team and the team tries to guess the person listed.  The next round (using the same list of names), people can only use one word to describe the person listed.  The final round becomes charades.  One of the most challenging characters of the night was given by 6th grade Kennedy - Queen Hatshepsut, which promptly became another running joke.  The whole activity lent itself easily to hilarity.

At the conclusion of the name game, we were fairly certain nothing could match that activity in enjoyment. Colleen suggested a Telephone-type game where one person writes a sentence, then passes their paper to their neighbor.  The neighbor draws a picture of that sentence, folds the original sentence down, and again passes the paper to their right.  This continues on (everyone has a paper), until the paper is full, then the papers are all opened and shared with the group.  Once again, the game proved to be a hit.  So much laughter!  So many wonderful memories!

All too soon the night was over, and we said our sad good-byes to family we wouldn't see again the next morning.  We decided that Sister Trips should be a more regular occurrence.  The current plan is to go on a sister's trip every time a sister turns 40 (Amanda is also an honorary sister!).  That sure will help take the sting out of turning the big 4-0!

The next morning most of the sisters returned home, but Katie and I headed South to spend an extra day with friends.  First, we made a way-too-brief visit to one of my dear friends (and personal trainer) from Florida, Jenni.  She has a fabulous job in a hospital, and we got to spend a precious hour catching up.  Sometimes, these short visits only make the missing worse.

Then Katie dropped me off at McKell's house in Huntington Beach (and she went on to spend the night with her friends).  McKell moved just a year ago from Washington and it was lovely to get a chance to visit with her.  The weather turned summer-like just in turn for our visit, so we spent the evening at the beach!

The water was frigid, but the view was gorgeous and we had lots of fun seeking out shells.

We stayed for the sunset before heading home for an amazing dinner.  One of my most favorite things about spending the night with friends is getting the chance to stay up late and talk about meaningful things.  My time with McKell did not disappoint!

The next morning we had just enough time to go for a long walk in the 80 degree sunshine (and I'll admit I realized that Washington is a great place for me - 80 felt too warm!), before it was time to head to the airport and officially end our spectacular trip.

Katie and I arrived at the airport at the exact same time.  Once again, Nellie refused to sleep, but what can you do?  At least she didn't cry or scream.

As we flew, I glanced down at the scene below me and almost exclaimed, "Look!  There's snow! Those must be high mountains!," before I remembered, "Duh! It's still winter!"  Five days in California and I thought it was summer!  

It was quite gorgeous in Seattle when we returned, though.

 

The trip was everything I'd hoped it would be.  On the home-front, Mark took care of everything. He took two days off of work to take care of the kids.  He fed them, took them to co-op and to spend time with friends.  The kids loved having him as their primary caregiver.  When I got home, Thane asked, "You're back already?  How fast does time go?!"