Well. Here we are, home again. 24,817 is roughly the number of miles we have traveled in the last 50 days. The house looks like a bomb went off. No seriously. I’ve been gearing up for the last month or so thinking about how we need to live more simply and all the CRAP I continue to hold onto in our 1100 square feet of prime cement real estate. So in addition to descending with our 4 suitcases, two strollers and carseats, as well as my brother’s two suitcases I’ve also decided that simultaneously I should start my purging project. Poor Mackenzie– she has the room that, since we moved here, has been the “flea market pile” room. Honest to God- there has never NOT been a pile in there, even a small pile. But this time Im getting serious. We’re finally able to get rid of some baby stuff (infant carseat, one stroller etc) and I’ve just finally realized that I hate living like this. Its such a constant cycle that is mostly fed by the THRIFT STORE (hey– this toy is only $1….books are only 25cents!!) While at home this summer we ran into the mom of one of my brother’s friends who has sort of a hippie/gypsy lifestyle and says everything she owns fits inside her Honda Civic. Can you imagine? Anyway, so thats my project now. Every box that comes in here is going out full. Flea market is on the 5th. I’ll be ready.

Back to the summer. After leaving my parents house we went out to Virginia. This wasn’t part of our original itinerary but Im so glad it worked out this way. PC had a 2 week conference in Quantico which to me meant: Ikea, more Target and Kohls, and seeing some of our great friends from Japan. I was a bit daunted by the fact that I was going to have to do this (albeit small) portion of the trip by myself. There was a plane change in Chicago afterall. I was thinking in a knee-jerk reaction to buy that double Maclaren. I love my Maclaren stroller- maybe the double would be twice the fun. But then you told me not to spend the money. But I was still a little worried because at this point we’d already flown through umpteen airports and I knew- *knew* what happened with Nathan when he had to walk long distances. There was whining and not listening and wandering off and getting in other people’s way and why couldn’t he ride in the stroller and what if we had to run to the next plane etc. So, my mom took me to the consignment store and we are now proud owners of our fifth (yes FIFTH) stroller, aptly referred to as ‘The Rig’. This thing is huge. It took up our entire trunk. I hate that it is the size of a small car but this thing has saved my life. The kids actually really like riding in it, and despite the fact that when I bought it (for $60) I figured I’d get home and sell it– potentially at a profit, but now Im not so sure I want to get rid of it (see also: purging my house of excess).

The first several days were spent in frustrating attempts to shop with both kids. Its funny to me how here, really the only place we go is the BX. And when I go to the BX sometimes its just to get out of the house and tool around, but most of the time its to go in and get something and leave. So, imagine my frustration when, with both kids, they were not so keen on the idea of mommy browsing the clearance racks (even though I did score a very cute skirt for $8.90 down from $54). I was bribing them with the moon and yeah. Mackenzie is past the point where she will cooperate and take a nap in her stroller, Nathan gets bored quickly so we had to keep our trips short which in the long run was probably better for my wallet.

On Wed. night after work we drove down to Langley where our good friends from Japan are now stationed. Jeff and Stephanie used to share a wall with us in the cement bungalow (4-plex) and while we got to see Jeff when he was deployed here earlier this spring, I haven’t seen Stephanie or the kids since they left 2 years ago. When they lived here we would have impromptu dinners together, drinks on the front steps, breakfasts at coffee casa. We got to enjoy each other’s company. We had to corral the 2 and under crowd with minimal distractions from adult conversation. Yeah. Thats changed. Our current cast of characters includes Nathan-4, Wyatt-3, Mackenzie-10months and Natalie-5 months. Was there nice adult conversation? I don’t know, I couldn’t hear over the commotion. There was running and jumping and bouncing and hollering and constant fighting over ONE toy (an F-22 plane). Our first day involved a trip to a living museum which was cut short by rain. Later we went to Trader Joes! which went about as well as you would expect taking 4 kids and two moms to the grocery store. The trip was highlighted with Nathan barreling through the store with a shopping basket with Stephanie and her two kids in the wine section and him asking, loudly, “I know you want alcohol but why do you need SO MUCH alcohol??” Ah yes, we’re nothing if not a bunch of lushes.

As we were leaving Trader Joes I opened up my box of dark chocolate covered almonds (I think my favorite part of Trader Joe’s is the row of chocolate covered everythings….including Edamame which I did not particularly care for.) After eating a few I felt like my throat was hurting….possibly swelling shut. Then I was thinking about how that would just be fantastic if all of a sudden, in the car ride home I developed some sort of nut allergy. It continued but since I was still able to breathe and swallow I thought I’d be ok. Then I had a bit of a headache but just figured I was tired. That night once Jeff got home and he heard about our day he bathed 3 out of the 4 children, sent the two boys downstairs running around naked for some sort of post-bath performance that never materialized, cleaned up the kitchen and sent Stephanie and I out shopping to one of the fancy/gourmet grocery stores in the neighborhood while he held down the fort.

Stephanie and I picked out some tasty desserts, and I was reminded how much I love the fact that she loves frosting and selected her dessert based on the thickness of the frosting. And then I picked the same one. And it was good. Still feeling fairly craptastic I took some motrin and went to bed. And then in the middle of the night things went downhill and I had a really sore throat, fever, chills, body aches etc. PC was due to arrive in the morning and I was hoping I could survive until then. I had an inkling it was strep (internet….I think I may have to bite the bullet and get those tonsils out) and was dreading whatever process I’d have to go through to get tested.

Let me tell you- I don’t think there is a better test of a friend than if she is willing to rescue you when you are sick. Stephanie volunteered to take the kids while I went back to bed and then took the two boys and Natalie to a bouncy house place to burn off some energy. I felt like hell, felt terrible AND guilty for dumping my kids on my friend who already had two kids to take care of and was just sort of pissed off that this had to happen while I was on vacation. Especially since I’ve been so good about using the “San Hanitizer” (hand sanitizer) as Nathan calls it, this entire trip. But she did it, and it just serves as a good reminder of how lucky I am to have the friends I do. And then to top it off when PC arrived we ended up going to Urgent Care at Langley and again, left Nathan with Stephanie (we did take Mackenzie with us so as to not totally burn her out). Thankfully I got seen really quickly, and even though the quick 5 minute test was negative the dr. was all “lets just treat it.” And I told him we were on vacation and heading back to Japan and what if my husband gets sick and he was all “lets just treat him too.” Sometimes military medicine can be soo good. The longest part of the entire ordeal was the pharmacy, which took an hour, because of the fact that there were TWO prescriptions for Augmentin, one for Lisa, one for Philip, with the same last name. Evidently this was too difficult to comprehend (“wait…..two prescriptions….same last name…..that must mean I should only fill one.”) and it ended up taking us two trips through the line to get squared away. Sometimes military medicine can be soo frustrating.

I went back to bed, woke up briefly for dinner, went back to bed again and before I knew it it was morning and we were headed to the airport. As expected it was hard to say goodbye to such good friends, never knowing when we’ll get together again…lets just hope that the next time there will be less cuing of the circus music and more fun conversation like the old days. Although- the commotion is sort of a fun memory in and of itself– I think I’ll always remember the kids in the back of the minivan playing with the cupholders, screeching like dinosaurs at their respective sisters and Stephanie and I laughing in the front seat. Ah…we miss you guys. I guess I just need to keep in mind that its a different kind of fun.

A drive that should have taking 2.5hrs ended up taking about 4.5 and the kids were melting down in the traffic. This of course was before we had to get on a 3+ plane ride to Denver. We had lunch with my in-laws who deserve some major credit here as they drove over to Va. multiple times to help us with luggage and shuttling things to/from the airport and hotel. And it makes me happy that Nathan now gets so excited to see them. Remember- my kids have only seen their grandparents like 3 or 4 times in their life so after seeing them this summer he has really warmed up to them.

Our flight to Denver was uneventful, there was a bit of an ordeal waiting for the supershuttle and some nasty stares and comments from fellow passengers with regard to the amount of luggage we had. I have no problem being a bit snide and letting them know we are military on orders (albeit IPCOT leave), stationed overseas. That usually puts people back in their place.

Onto Colorado. Im not sure I can write this post right now because its….ugh…what is it? Emotional? Upsetting? Difficult? Lets put it this way, there is a small part of me that doesn’t like making trips back there because its So. Difficult. to go home. I ranged from teary eyed to full on crying multiple times during the trip. For the background here both PC and I went to school at CU-Boulder and stuck around after graduating until we hopped on this Marine Corps train. Colorado will always be home. And its not like “we’re from there” its like my heart BELONGS there. In addition to it being home, some of our very best friends on the entire planet Earth are there. Marc and Vivian are friends from college. They’re our friends that we have history with. People we knew before we even got married. Marc unfortunately was gone (he was in Japan, ironically) so it was Vivian and the kiddos and us. We played at the park with the mountains in the background, we picked wildflowers, we ate at some of our favorite restaurants, Marc’s parents took the kiddos one night for us so we could go out and have ADULT conversation, we ate Glacier ice cream (best ice cream out there: Caramel Oreo- preferrably less melty than ours was), we relaxed on the back patio while the kids played in the pool. While Vivian was at work PC and I drove past our house and as soon as we got in the VICINITY of our neighborhood I was just sobbing. The previous day PC had gotten together with his friend Stephen who keeps offering a job to PC over and over again and PC told me that he didn’t think he’d miss Colorado this much and maybe we should move back and add this to my already highly emotional state and I was just a wreck wondering what we were doing and then asking myself what am I doing and how do you know if you are doing the right thing in life and if Im such a mess every time I come home and so attached to it then maybe we should just GO HOME (that was intentionally a long sentence because thats what my brain feels like– a big long run-on sentence). This is a entirely separate blog where I will seek your advice internet, but currently, I have a lot on my mind. That post will have to wait until we unbury ourselves from the nuclear fallout around here.

Marc and Vivian have two kids- Marielle who is 4 and Harper who just turned 2. Nathan and the kids played marvelously. So well that Vivian and I spent several hours going through cooking magazines and chatting while the kids entertained themselves. And by entertained themselves I mean they got into dress-up clothes. Marielle was a princess and Nathan alternated between a pirate and a bumble bee. The bumble bee was a 12mo size costume. It was his favorite. At one point Nathan and Marielle were in the office (“the ballroom”) and when I went in to check on them I was told to leave because they were getting married. I don’t think Nathan has any idea what marriage is, but he was persuaded to enter into it evidently. Im going to have to attribute the vast difference between Nathan and Wyatt playing and Nathan and Marielle to boys vs. girls. Thank GOD I have one of those….two boys might kill me.

We left Denver at zero dark early and it was another 24+ hours of travel to get home. We were lucky to get upgraded to business class (using miles) and let me tell you- with kids, this is the only way to fly. There is room for them to play on the floor, you dont have to crawl under the seat in front of you to rescue the dropped toy, you can have your shit spread out instead of jammed into the worthless seat back pocket, we had several grandmother flight attendants who fawned all over the kids, truely- that was the easiest 12 hour flight I’ve been on. The flight down to Okinawa sort of sucked because there was some kid (not baby- but kid) that screamed the entire way. And Im a parent and I totally get that sometimes there is nothing you can do. But my sympathy wears thin when 1) your kid is old enough to know better and 2) you, the parent, do NOTHING about it.

So, we’re home. Its good to be home. The house sort of stinks from being closed up for a month. My awesome neighbor and friend picked us up from the airport and when I got home I found she had dug up and weeded my entire flower bed so it looks all nice and pretty again. I’ve got some good people in my life. Its been a good good summer. Now I must go, the fallout shelter is calling.

Filed under: Colorado and Mountains Make Me Happy, The Whole Wide World, This Is My Life, Travel