Just about back on the right time zone from our trip to Cleveland to visit parents/grandparents and various other relatives and friends. And experience 20 degree warmer weather. Hello sunburns and bug bites!
In a cruel twist, the one direct flight each way each day between Seattle and Cleveland are timed to exacerbate the time zone difference, such that we left Seattle at 3 am Cleveland time and then left Cleveland at 6 am Seattle time (so…waking up around 3 am Seattle time). Sigh. Day 1 three of us wisely took naps and one just played until collapsing on the living room floor…
…where two other nap lovers soon joined her.
We had one big goal for this trip…getting C riding a two wheeler. For various reasons, she has been very reluctant to try this around our neighborhood. A used bike and new helmet were acquired, and Grampy set out with a rigorous lesson plan.
Success! It was an amazing moment when she took that first solo ride, a mixture of relief and pride. C herself welled with happy tears. She continued practicing through the week and is able to do some turns and braking as well now. Her fears have returned slightly now that we are home (nervous around other kids for some reason) but hopefully will continue to progress.
OK, just had to post one more. Little M was so proud of her big sis—jumped up and down when she rode for the first time.
The girls spent a lot of time at the pool and “beach” at my parents house, but no pictures of that unfortunately. Nor of friends that we saw or the zoo trip we took. However, a trip to a kiddie amusement park is fairly well documented. C was right under the 50” height limit and seemed a little bored on some rides but overall I think M’s enthusiasm made up for both of them.
Would you even guess that at age 4 C refused to go on any rides at Disney after riding the Toon Town roller coaster??
C mastered looking cute for photos…
M yelled “whee!” on almost every ride….
We visited G’s parents as well at their new home in a retirement community. The girls had the pool to themselves for an hour of “child guest” swim time.
Of course, any trip is preceded by panicked sewing on my part, this time matching dresses (pretty easy actually, just hacked off Old Navy tank tops and a ruffle fabric bottom).
(Couldn’t resist saving that second phantom hand photo…)
And then there are the forced photos with the grandparents and mostly failing efforts on my part to get everyone looking forward with their eyes open at the same time.
(The girls got hair cuts during the trip due to extremely long bang issues. However, I was not close enough when C told the stylist how short she wanted her bangs. Hair grows though right?)
A few last favorites…
