A Long Wedding Post

At the end of June, we took our first family road trip to Mammoth Lakes.  My brother and his fiance love Mammoth and snowboard there so they arranged to get married at the top of Mammoth Mountain (over 11,000 ft. elevation).  It's a 6 hour drive from Southern California, skirting Death Valley with only a few stops along the way.  Yes, that's 6 hours in a car with an almost 5 year old and an almost 9 month old.  We planned to leave SoCal on Friday morning, arrive in the late afternoon in time for a family dinner, go to the wedding on Saturday, and head back down the hill toward home on Sunday.  I'm exhausted just typing that out....  Anyway, here's the rundown of our trip:

Friday, 9:30am -- car is packed to almost bursting and we hit the road.  Chelsea is already crying very loudly.  Lee is grouchy (he's an anti-traveler).  Nate asks after 3 blocks "when are we going to have food and drinks?"  I laugh.  Or cry.  I don't remember now.

Outside of Los Angeles County, we make a bathroom stop at McDonald's in the town of Mojave.  Take my advice -- don't add Mojave to your "must visit" list.  Yuck.  Lee admitted 2 days later that, while I was in the restroom, Nate made the following statement rather loudly in the middle of McDonald's:  "Mommy's taking a long time in the bathroom.  Is she going poo poo?"  Good times.

We start driving through the desert.  It's pretty barren and boring.  Nate has been set up with a stack of movies and a portable DVD player so he's good for a few hours.  Chelsea should be sleeping but after 45 minutes, she decides to wake up.  I give her a few toys and she seems pretty content...and probably bored since she has to sit backwards in her car seat and can't see the rest of us.

Eventually, the desert on US Route 395 (a 2-lane highway) becomes more interesting with beautiful mountains and rock formations.  We pass Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States (not in this photo).

  

And then....Hallelujah!  Civilization!  We pull into Lone Pine, a small desert/frontier town that must survive on the tourists driving to/from Mammoth, Yosemite and other points north.

I knew in advance that there was a small park at the edge of town where we could have a picnic lunch and the kids could play in the park's creek.  It's plenty hot outside but the dry wind is nice and in the shade we feel fine.

We stay there for about an hour enjoying the surroundings.  Nate, of course, cuts his foot in the creek.  He then tries to play on the playground equipment but it's too hot to touch.  The ladies restroom here is impressively clean for a park (okay, so if you are a parent, you know that trips are broken up by bathroom visits and, out of habit, you begin to rate them in your head for future reference). 

From there, we drive through Independence, which is small and charming.  I loved this courthouse:

The next stop on the map is Bishop, the largest "city" in the Owens Valley.  We thought we might stop here for a break but decide to push through to Mammoth.  Bishop is nice and makes you wonder if you could live in a small town.  Check this out:

Wow, coming from the land of mega shopping centers, this JCPenney made me smile.  Hello 1950s.  

Just outside of Bishop, the scenery dramatically changes from desert to mountain, as you quickly ascend 3,000 feet in elevation.  It was beautiful.  The weather cooled down to the 80s the higher we went.

We got to Mammoth Lakes between 3 and 4pm.  Chelsea only slept 45 mins. the entire trip.  Nate watched a ridiculous amount of movies.  Our car's interior looks like a bomb went off.  

Here is our home for the next 2 nights:

We had a nice 2-bedroom condo with a full kitchen.  Mammoth Lakes is a winter resort area so that means no air-conditioning, which normally isn't a big deal but the Western US was experiencing a heatwave so there were moments that were pretty uncomfortable.  But I'd rather be hot and sweaty in the beautiful mountains than back home so it wasn't too bad.  This is the pool area, where Nate and I swam on Saturday morning:

 

Back to Friday evening -- We cleaned ourselves up a bit and then headed down the road to the house where Ella was staying with her extended family.  The dinner was delicious and we had a relaxing time visiting with everyone.  When Chelsea started to meltdown around 8:30/9, we left and headed back to the condo to get some rest.  Lee and Nate slept in one bedroom that had twin beds and Chelsea and I shared the other one (she was in the pack-n-play we brought with us).  The kids fell asleep quickly.  The adults didn't sleep very well.  Figures.

 Up at 6am!!  Typical for our kids.  We found some breakfast at a bakery and stopped at this park so Nate could work off some energy.

By mid-morning, Nate was dying to go swimming so we headed to the hotel pool while Lee and Chelsea napped.  The water felt great and the view was so beautiful:

Chelsea's nap lasted extra long,which was terrific since she'd be up late partying at the wedding reception later.  So Lee and Nate picked up some lunch for us and brought it back to the condo.  Not long afterward, we had to start getting ready for the wedding.  We needed to be out the door by 2:45pm.  Kiddos looking good here:

We caravan with the groom, best man & his wife, my mom, and 2 other friends of Eric's to the base of Mammoth Mountain.  After meeting up with my dad and Grandma Janet, we all climbed into gondolas and rode up, up, up to the top of the mountain.  I was a little nervous about the ride (I have a slight height phobia) but it wasn't bad.  There was snow on the mountainside the higher we went but the temperature was nice.  Very windy and only slightly chilly.

It only took a few moments to make some preparations before we waited for the bride and her family to arrive.  Also, a couple people needed a few moments to get used to the altitude (11,000 feet).  I wasn't bothered except that my legs got really tired really quickly trying to climb some stairs to the observation area.  Chelsea cried a little bit and immediately fell asleep in the sling I was carrying her in.  Lack of oxygen maybe???  She slept the entire wedding and didn't wake up until we were in the gondola going back down.

This is the view from where they said "I do":

Nate was the ring-bearer!   He did great.  You can see Ella and her dad in the distance and that's the Best Man, Dave, with Nate:

The wedding officiant was a friend of the future Mr. & Mrs.  Tony did a really nice job.  Love Ella's wedding dress!

Wind was not our friend at the mountain top:

Such a unique and memorable wedding!  And they had a few tourists watching too:

Family photos were taken and silly faces were made:

Gondola going down.  And look who's woken from her oxygen-deprived coma:

Next stop -- wedding reception.  The newlyweds chose the restaurant Skadi as their reception site and we had the entire place to ourselves.  It had beautiful windows that offered an amazing sunset view of the mountains.  And, since my brother is a music aficionado and has already been to more concerts that I'll ever go to in my entire lifetime, we had "admission tickets" to the reception.  So clever:

The food was fantastic but, of course, somebody was waiting the entire time for wedding cake.  Wonder who that was...

Beautiful cake:

Enjoying a nice dinner and getting to know each other better:

Nate loves his Auntie Ella.  Almost as much as he loves cake.

It was a lovely evening but a long night for our kiddos.  We headed back to the condo around 9:30/10 and immediately went to bed.  

Sunday morning -- up again around 6:30.  Why won't these kids let us sleep in??  Oh well, we need the time to start packing.  But before we do, we all head to Mammoth Village for breakfast at a cafe.  This is our last Mammoth excursion before heading home.  We pack up the car (a lot faster this time) and start the long drive around 10:30am.  I drove the first 3 hours and Lee took the last leg.  We only stopped in Lone Pine again and went back to the small park for a picnic lunch but it was just too hot (105 degrees) to enjoy being outside.  We were a sweaty, sweaty family.

I believe the temp maxed out at 115.  XM Radio played an appropriate song for our drive through the desert: 

Barren desert highway.  Zzzzzzzzzzz.

And that's it!  We got home about 5:30pm to a very hot and very smelly house (note to self: take out trash before leaving on vacation).   Poor Chelsea cried a lot the last hour of the drive -- if she could talk, I think she probably would have yelled "get me out of this car now!!"  Once we put her down in the house, she took off and crawled everywhere.  I've never seen her so happy!  Nate and Lee were happy too.  They're definitely homebodies.  I wasn't looking forward to the mound of laundry I had in my future but such is life.  Overall, it was a nice trip and I'm glad I can say we survived our first long road trip with the kiddos.  We have 2 road trips looming in the Fall, both of which are a lot shorter than this.  Piece of cake!  We're pros now :)

June

The month of June brought about:

A family wedding!  My brother is now married.  I'll post a separate entry on the wedding in a few days.

Summer school for Nathan.  He's signed up for 4 weeks each with a different theme:  camping, science, messy stuff, and music appreciation.  It's been fun to be around different kids, teachers, and in different classrooms at his preschool.

My 42nd birthday.  Not sure how I feel about that number.  I had to work the day of my birthday but I received a lovely cake made by Nate and some beautiful flowers from Lee.  Lee also gave me an entire day away from the house to sew.  I took my sewing machine to my mom's dining room and never looked back.  I was very productive and really enjoyed myself.  Thanks, hon!

We had AT&T come out and install a phone jack near our living room tv, finally!  We're debating wether to drop DirectTV and rely on the internet for our tv viewing (Netflix, Hulu).  It would save us a bundle in cash and might get us motivated to watch less tv at night and do more creative things.  The final decision hasn't been made yet.

My office took fancy headshots for our revamped website.  It was fun having my picture taken by a real headshot photographer.  

Chelsea is now very mobile.  She crawls and scoots. She sits up and moves around from one positon to another.  She's even started pulling up on furniture.  Chels really wants to walk badly.  Yikes.  Not ready for a walking Chelsea yet.  She's also moved into 9-12 month clothes.

We upgraded our inflatable pool!  It was time to say goodbye to our little whale pool and say hello to a larger pool then entire family could use.  Nate loves it.

We had our first official Summer Family Movie Night.  After Chelsea goes to bed, Nathan gets to cuddle with us on the sofa and watch a family-friendly movie.  We have popcorn.  The first selection was Disney's Robin Hood.  Animated motion pictures from the 1970s sure look dated compared to the fancy computer animated films of today.  But Nate didn't care.

Lee's first Father's Day as a dad of two.  He obviously had to get up early for church on Father's Day since it's a Sunday but we did our celebrating earlier.  The kids gave Lee a copy of comedian Jim Gaffigan's new book Dad is Fat.  It's a hilarious book!

Mommy's sun hat is a fun toy.

All 3 of our pools have had names.  Nothing super original but names nonetheless.  This one is called "New Pool."

Yes, we experimented with the slide from the swingset in the pool.  Yes, Mommy went down the slide too.  I have a bruised shin to prove it.

 

 

A man, his guitar, and his adoring fans.

A birthday cake isn't a birthday cake without sprinkles!!

Beautiful birthday flowers.  Dahlias are my favorite.

We play with blocks a lot while Chelsea takes her afternoon nap.

Happy Father's Day.  Chelsea's t-shirt is one Nate wore 4 years ago.

It wasn't cold on Family Movie Night.  Nate loves to wrap up in a blanket.  I was sweating!

An empty pool makes an awesome outdoor playpen.  Redneck or what???

We've reached the silly faces phase of childhood.

I'm still super excited that I finished my 2nd quilt in June.  Last pic, I promise.

Hey you.  Stop standing.  Stop growing.  Stay little.  I mean it!

Bye Google Reader.

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Don't forget that Google Reader closes its' doors in a couple days.  I started using Bloglovin a few weeks ago and have found it to be really easy to use and a lot of fun. 

Quilt #2

 My second quilt is finished!  I purchased the fabric before Chelsea was born and began working on it in October of last year.  I had hoped to have it done by last Christmas but knew that having a 2 month old at that point would probably hinder my sewing time. Ha!  Did it ever!  But no pressure.  Instead of being 6 months late, I'm going to say it's 6 months early for THIS Christmas.  Convenient, huh?  I created a Christmas quilt because I wanted to start the tradition of bringing it out every year right after Thanksgiving.  It'll reside in our living room during the month of December for evening snuggles.  Then, during the week of Christmas, everyone gets a turn having the Christmas quilt on their bed with Lee and I getting in on Christmas Eve.  Then the Christmas quilt will go back into hiding until the next year.  I have a feeling I'll be the only one excited about the Christmas quilt but that's okay.  

The quilt was intended to be lap size and measures upon completion 53 x 44.  Those are kinda odd measurements but I didn't work from a pattern and I wasn't comfortable going any bigger since this was only my 2nd quilt.  I used a layer cake of Kate Spain's Joy fabric line for Moda.  The back is also from the Joy line.  The binding is Flutter by Amanda Herring for Riley Blake.  When you see a larger panel of it, it resembles an old-fashioned glass ornament shape (at least in my head it does).  The front border is Kona Snow. 

I followed a tutorial for a double slice layer cake quilt and used that as the focal point of the quilt front.  It was SO easy to put those blocks together.  I actually finished those last November.  Then I couldn't decide if I wanted to add borders or not.  I like the look of the white against the colorful blocks so it worked out okay.  I had a lousy time making the quilt "sandwich" on this one.  I'm still a quilting newbie and probably should have spent more time making sure my bottom layer was free of creases and wrinkles.  When I went to do my straight line quilting, some parts of my back bunched a little.  It was frustrating.  I fixed some areas of it but left others because, uh, it adds character???  Lesson learned.  I may stick with baby quilts and table runners for a while before trying a larger quilt again.  Or I may have somebody else do the quilting for me on a larger quilt.  I enjoyed doing the binding this time and 3 out 4 corners are mitered correctly so I'm getting better!

Now I'm working on a wall hanging for Chelsea's room and I have a whole bunch of new fabric to play with.  Gotta get started!  It's great when you find your sewing mojo :)

Books

I have actually found time (or MADE time) for some recreational reading lately and it makes me so happy.  I miss always having a book to read at night or on my commute home from work.  Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around the library and the summer reading program (nerd alert) so consider this my plug for reading a good book this upcoming summer.....

I had heard about this book via a few mommy blogs.  Melanie Shankle is a blogger herself and a Christian.  The reviews I read raved about this book so I, of course, tried to keep my expectations in check.  Luckily, I was able to download it to my Kindle for free on Mother's Day, which was appropriate since the book is mainly about Melanie's adventures with motherhood. I gotta say -- this book was a delight.  Melanie is incredibly funny and some of her comments in the book made me wish we were best friends.  I appreciated her weaving Scripture into the text in places that were less about laughs and more thought provoking.  It's a short book and an easy read but very entertaining.  Melanie's got a bright future ahead of her!

 This book was purchased on a whim because Amazon was offering the Kindle version for under 4 bucks (this is going to be a theme with my reviews -- I am cheap!).  I wasn't necessarily interested in Hawaii but the book was "recommended" by my good friends at Amazon since I apparently like historical fiction (or so they tell me).  The Amazon reviews were mostly favorable so I gave it a go.  Sooo I enjoyed this book too.  The story introduces us to a young girl in Korea in the early 20th century as she leaves her homeland to marry a stranger in Hawaii.  The remainder of the book is about her life in Hawaii and how Honolulu changes dramatically over 50+ years.  Alan Brennert includes a lot of history in this novel to the point where it becomes a little too much -- that's my only complaint and other Amazon reviews said the same thing.  But if you like getting a history lesson while you read, then you'd enjoy this book.  I think Lee got a little tired of hearing me say "Did you know in Hawaii....." every night during our reading time.  I think he tuned out after the first dozen times I tried to pass along my new knowledge of Hawaii to him. 

Ahh, Adriana Trigiani.  I love you.  I love this book.  What's not to like -- Italy, New York, a love story.  I actually cried a little during one part of this book while I was reading it on the subway.   That's commitment, people.  I could keep gushing but I think I've already overused the word "love" here.  Read. This. Book.

I checked this book out from the library and because it is new (at least, to the public library) I had to read it in 7 days.  Yes, a 7-day loan.  Talk about pressure.  300+ pages in 7 days was a challenge when you've got a job, kids, and other obligations.  But I did it.  Wouldn't want to do it again, but I did it.  So as for this book -- The Aviator's Wife is about Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  Historical fiction again only this time, the main character is obviously a real person.  So that makes things a little trickier when you read a novel and wonder "did she really say that??"  I liked this book but didn't love it.  Whether it was because the real person/fiction thing was too weird for me or because Charles Lindbergh wasn't a likeable man, I'm not sure. Again, I enjoy learning about people, places, events, etc. while I read so that part of it was fascinating and I intend to read Anne's book Gift from the Sea soon.  I also think the Lindberghs had sad lives and maybe the disturbing nature of their son's abduction and the way the family was hounded by the press made me sad for them.  I suppose we don't have to always feel happy about a storyline in order to like a book (White Oleander!) but I think I prefer it.  I get so little time for recreational reading, I prefer to read happy books.

Hi again, Adriana Trigiani.  Another winner here, my friend.  Plot = a young, stylish clothing designer leads an interesting life in 1950s Manhattan.  A fun read.  Not a grand love story like The Shoemaker's Wife but there are only so many home runs in the literary world.  Enjoyed it.

So that's it.  I am trying to figure out what to read next.  Alan Brennert (Honolulu) has a new book out called Palisades Park that I saw at the library but it's a 7-day loan and you know how I feel about those.  What books would you recommend?  I'm thinking about adding some of these titles to my summer reading list:

May

May brought about:

A power surge that killed some lightbulbs and a few minor appliances.

Our first garage sale in years that yielded a paltry profit but was fun, none the less.

My first real haircut in over a year!  Eww.  About time.

Chelsea's first illness -- a cold.  Nate and I also got it.  It was mild but lingered.

An insanely hot Mother's Day.

I recall being barfed on about 3 times by 2 kids this month.

An insurgence of ants and spiders.  Double eww.

New flowers and plants in our front yard planted by yours truly.

Open House at Nate's preschool.

We have movement, people!  Chelsea is scooting around.

Praise the Lord! Goodbye ugly green linoleum in the kitchen. 

Nate's last day in Room 3 at BFUMCNS.  Only 87 days until Pre-K starts.

Chelsea turned 7 months and is in size 9-12 month clothes.

A move of sorts -- Lee and I now sleep in the den (long story).

Music Time. Maybe they'll be the next Carpenters. Yes, I am that old.

Happy girl showing off her dimples.

This is what happens when you take a picture just as somebody sneezes.

Kewpie Doll.

We water plants in our skivvies.

Sir Nathan of Cook Manor.

The King of my heart.

Angry Birds come to life!

I used to exercise on this trampoline when I was single.  Now my kid plays on it.  Story of my life.

Sunflowers 2013.  My 4th summer growing them.

She loves to wrinkle her nose at people.  We call it Chelsea's "stink eye" look.

And there she goes.  Gotta explore and put things in her mouth. Yea for us.

Roseanne Roseannadanna

I'm back!  The Cooks have been computer-less while our beloved laptop has been to see Mr. Fixit for the past two weeks.  How strange to be without a computer for 14 days.  We felt cutoff from the world.  My iPad (a gift from my former employer) kept us somewhat aware of goings-on but I don't care what Apple says -- a tablet does not replace a desktop/laptop!

So I'm suppose to be continuing with my post on photobook reviews but that'll have to wait.  I feel like I need to update this blog with activities in the lives of the Cook 4.  I have so many great photos of each of the kiddos, I feel they each deserve their own post.  Expect to see a "Chelsea" and a "Nate" post soon...

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this little gem.  Are you familiar with the term "Pinterest Fail?"  Well, I had one of my own.  I attempted to give my longer hair some beachy-like waves.  This is how it turned out:

 Which reminds me of this:

Guess I'll stick to wearing my hair straight...