Moving Out

It has been a crazy week.  Last Wednesday movers came to start packing our house.  It's been stressful and emotional.  :'(  Our family is moving to Utah this summer - Scott has accepted a job transfer from his company's Sunnyvale office to their Salt Lake office.  I am sad to leave California and our little house, but trying to stay positive.  Scott spruced up our back yard a little before moving out.  Our peach tree is full of baby peaches and our grape vine is going crazy with teensy grapes.  I'm sad we won't be around to enjoy those fruits of our labors.  Our yard is looking nice.

Baby Concord grapes.  Things grow so well here.

After one day of packing.  Boxes, boxes everywhere.  The nice part of being transferred is your company pays for the move.

The kids found little treasures unearthed around the house in the midst of the boxes.  We were still staying in the house during all the packing.  Once everything was out and loaded on the truck we planned to move into a hotel for the last two weeks of school.

Day two of packing 

Grant came down with some kind of flu in the night.  Medicine had already been packed so Scott ran to the store for a new thermometer and children's Tylenol.  Grant sat in this couch in the corner resting for the last two days of packing.  The couches we were planning to leave here and take to the dump but one of the movers wanted them and we were happy to let them go.  They loaded the couch last so Grant could lay on it.  He was pretty sick - high fever that just kept coming back when the Tylenol wears off and vomiting.  It lasted about 48 hours.  And Grant had to miss his school 1st grade play that he was a part of.  I was sad about that but Grant took it in stride.  Over the next week three more kids would get the flu while staying in the hotel.  First Grant, then Emma, John and now Anna.  We're trying to keep Matthew safe and germ free.  He's the lone survivor.

On the last day of moving the kids had a short day at school, ahead of Memorial Day weekend.  We tried to stay away from the house and spent a long time in Target.  John and Emma told me this mannequin looked like me.  :)  Is it the blank expression or the pale skin?  I'm sure its just the gym clothes.

Anna fell in love with all the Target brand American Girl stuff.

Matthew and I messing around in Target

When we went back to the house they were just about done loading up.  Soon enough all our stuff was on the truck and off they went.  The boys headed off that night for a church fathers and sons campout at Mt. Madonna.  It's a campground in the Santra Cruz mountains only about 8 miles away from us.  So easy to get to.  Grant was feeling a little better by then (48 hours into his sickness) so he went too.  The girls and I packed up a few things at the house and went out for a little girls night.  

Here's Anna saying goodbye to some of her friends from the street

First stop on our girls trip, nails!

We all had fun getting our nails painted

Then we went out to dinner

This sign was up in the restaurant.  We'll miss our town.

At dinner

Showing off our nails

At dinner Emma started to show signs of being sick.  She didn't even want dessert.

After dinner we went to the hotel and she was really feeling sick by then.  Poor Emma!  This was a crazy day for me - running around with sick kids, doing house stuff and keeping kids away from the house.  I ran in the morning and didn't get a shower - that's why I look like a crazy person all day.  And actually I've looked and felt like a crazy person every day since.  Survival mode.  Just got to make it until the end of school.  Almost there!!

Meanwhile at Mt. Madonna (at the fathers and sons campout) - Grant had really rallied.  Here he is with his church buddy and John climbing on the redwood stumps

Matthew and some of his church friends

The boys even found a banana slug.  Can you see it in this picture?  The boys had fun on their campout.

And speaking of nature...the kids have two pet silk worms they've been taking care of.  And of course, the week we packed up the house they both spun their cocoons.  So now we have two silk worm cocoons in our hotel room with us.  I'm hoping they come out of their cocoons before we have to leave town.

The next day we had to go back to the house to take care of some odds and ends.  The kids had fun playing with these blue foam squares.  We've had these since Okinawa (9 years).  They became way more interesting once there were no other toys in the house.

Awww, our tiny yard.  I'll miss it.

Getting the last of our things out of the house.  We have a cleaning company coming to clean, a fix it guy to repair some wall scratches and marks and a carpet cleaner coming.  Still so many loose ends to take care of.  Ahhh!!  Stressed!

Back at the hotel...the kids are bummed 'cause the hotel pool is down for repairs.  We did find this basketball court.

As Emma was getting better, John succumbed to the sickness.  They were both sick over the long weekend.  The kids had Monday and Tuesday off school but we had sick people during those days.  Poor Johnny.  We tried to keep the well kids away from the sick ones.  But in the the small hotel room that was hard.

Trying to eat dinner around the table in our hotel room.

On Monday Scott had work off so we tried to venture out.  John seemed alright in the morning so we went to a trampoline place.  John jumped for about 30 seconds before he wanted to lay down.  He rested off in a corner with one of us parents (we traded off) while the other kids jumped.  Poor Johnny.  Saturday and Sunday we mostly stayed in the hotel room all day and it was not pleasant, so it was nice to be able to get out.

The other kids had fun and got lots of their energy out.

John resting at the trampoline place.

We went to quickly get some lunch after jumping and then took John back to rest.  Look at this poor kid!

Anna and I at Sonic before she got sick

So Grant was sick Thursday, Friday

Emma was sick Saturday, Sunday

John was sick Monday, Tuesday

Anna was sick Wednesday (today) and its not looking good for tomorrow

Matthew is still standing!!   Stay strong Matthew!!

And Scott and I haven't gotten sick either (fingers crossed) although we have both been running around like crazy getting things ready to move and sell the house.  I can't wait for school to get out so we can leave this hotel room!!  About 9 days to go!!

Epic Girls Trip

Last week I went on a cruise with four of my girlfriends from back home.  One friend I met when I was a baby - we lived on the same street growing up.  Two more I met when we all went to the same GATE magnet school in 3rd grade and the last friend we met at girls camp when we were high school age.  Yes, we are all LDS.  We all turned 40 this spring (our birthdays are all in March, April and May) and we decided to get together for a girls trip.  I have never done anything like this before and I was nervous about going and leaving Scott with all the kid duties (he was fine) but I'm so glad I went.  We had an amazing time. This is us - back row - Cindy (met in 3rd grade), Sally (met at girls camp - high school age), Melissa (met at age 1), Amy (met in 3rd grade) and me in front.  I've only been on one cruise before (with Cindy in our single days) and it wasn't nearly this nice.  We went on Princess Cruise line from LA to Vancouver, Canada.  Lots of our pictures have one person missing (the one who took the picture).  We also haven't all gotten together since high school.  There have been a lot of times when some of us have gotten together but often one person is missing. A lot of times its been me who is missing because they still all have parents who live in Southern California while I do not -  so they see each other on Christmas a lot.

A year ago we were all on the west coast somewhere but now we are starting to scatter.  Melissa lives in Hawaii now, Amy in Seattle, Sally in Orange County, Cindy recently moved to Virginia and now we are moving to Utah.  

Here are a ton of pictures of our adventures.

Our cruise started on a Wednesday afternoon.  Scott had driven me to the airport before taking the kids to school and I flew to LAX.  I met Cindy at the airport and we Ubered over to the cruise ship.  While we were in line to check in our other three friends who had stayed with their families in Fullerton (our hometown) the night before all showed up.  They carpooled together to the ship.  The ship was really nice - it was the Emerald Princess with Princess Cruise Line.  Its a ship that goes to Alaska.  They LAX to Vancouver cruise that we were doing is pretty much just to move the ship to Vancouver for the start of Alaska cruise season.  We got a good deal for that reason.

Lots of pools on this ship

Since there were five of us we stayed in two different state rooms right next to each other.  We got interior state room to save money but most rooms have a window.  Amy and I were in this room with two beds.  We were the last two to vote on which room we wanted so we got the more expensive option (it was fine - we enjoyed our one bathroom for two people).  Cindy, Sally and Melissa were in the next room that had two bunk beds hanging from the wall above each bed.  They folded up during the day.

Here we are at dinner our first night.  We had the option of going to a sit down dinner or a buffet.  There were some other food options like a pizza place by the pool and a little cafe that has salads and sandwiches.  There were also fancier dinner options if you wanted to pay a little extra.  We went to the sit down dinner the first night.  You show up any time during a 4 or 5 hour window and can be seated alone or with other people.  I thought the food was really good.  The first night I ordered an Alaskan salmon dish that was really good.   A lot of the others didn't like their entrees so we didn't eat there very much.

Dessert was good too

Sadly the first night things got really stormy.   In the night the ship started rocking and rolling...and that continued for about two days.  The captain came on the loudspeaker and told us we were going through some very rough seas from a storm.   Usually I am really prone to motion sickness but I didn't get too sick.  I took one motion sickness pill the whole week.  The rocking at night was kind of soothing (being rocked to sleep) but during the day it was a little crazy.  It was freezing with gale force winds outside and splashing all the pool water out of the pools.  The first morning I tried to run on the treadmill in the ship gym.  I made it three miles but had to keep one hand on the rail most of the time so I didn't fall down.  Then I got pretty sick afterwards.  Cindy stayed sick most of the time we were in rough waters.  It was a bummer.

The night before arriving in Victoria we got dressed up to go out to eat.  I didn't even bring a dress 'cause I didn't know we were doing that so I had to throw something together with a t-shirt and skirt.

We all got birthday serenaded at dinner and a special birthday cake dessert

And went to see a show after

By the time we got to the Strait of Juan de Fuca the seas had calmed down quite a bit.  When we arrived in Victoria, BC it was beautiful weather!!  Here we are just before disembarking.

We're in Canada!!  We walked around Victoria for a while...

Poutine

We got a little lunch in Victoria then made our way via minivan taxi to the Butchart Gardens.

The gardens were so beautiful

Me photobombing Sally

She gets me back later

We had a proper English tea

I ate everthing

We really enjoyed the gardens.  It's worth the trip and Victoria is so beautiful.  I want to move there!!

On our way back to downtown Victoria and the ship

Sally gets her revenge.  :)

We walked around downtown Victoria for a while, got a few snacks and walked through the neighborhoods back to the ship.  Here we are by the water.  We walked around most of the day and a couple of us (me included) got pretty dehydrated that night.  Got to drink more water.  We ate a late dinner on the ship.

Disembarking for the last time.  :'(

The next day we arrived in Vancouver and our cruise was over.  Her we are getting off the ship.

That's the back of our ship (this might be in Victoria

(Goodbye Emerald Princess!!)

We stowed our luggage with a company at the cruise port then walked around a little bit.  

We saw the steam clock.  Apparently that's a thing.

Then we walked too Granville Island.  I wanted to see the famous public market there.

And it was pretty amazing but pretty crowded - this was a Sunday and Mother's Day.

At the market I got a great sandwich with chèvre, Bosc pear and mango chutney on delicious bakery bread.  So good!  This was from A Bread Affair next to the Granville public market.  I really like food in case you didn't know.  I would like to go back to the market another time when its not a weekend holiday.

 We took a water taxi back from Granville Island to Vancouver.

After visiting the market we had to make our way back to the cruise port to start catching our flights and buses back home.  Melissa and Sally left first to catch their flights.  Cindy and Amy and I sat in a cafe and talked for an hour or so before saying goodbye to Amy.  Then Cindy and I took the SkyTrain to the airport (very convenient and cheap).  Then I said goodbye to Cindy who had a layover in Canada so she was in the domestic terminal and I was flying international back to San Jose.  It was so fun to hang out with my friends.  We mostly just talked and talked the whole time and it was so great.  I think we should do this more often - like before we have our next big milestone birthday.

And I have also definitely been won over to cruises.  Princess Cruise Line was so nice.  I want to do the roundtrip Alaska cruise from Seattle with Scott.  I'm trying to talk him into it.  Probably won't be able to for a couple years but maybe someday.  Thanks girls for such a fun trip.  Miss them already.  :'(

Bonus Photo

Here is a slightly edited picture of us from girl's camp.  That's me in the middle.  

Yes, I am trying to make a weird face.  :)