Day 3

October 3, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 1 Comment

Today has been… interesting (to say the least).

We got up this morning. Let me back up. Steven got up this morning, hearing running water. He assumed it was the neighbors, or maybe a sink got left on… something normal. Instead we found a spray from the sink and a flood in the bathroom that grew by the second.

(carpet shouldn’t be reflective…)

Remember, the babies sleep on the floor in their cool sleeping mats.

We waited until the last minute, woke them up, and pulled them from that bedroom to the living room to watch cartoons. The lodging people came to fix it quickly, and other than that little incident the stay was actually really nice!

And, on the bright side, cool wet vacs are awesome to 2 year olds!

Then, we got on the road. Grabbed gas from base first, and DUNKIN DONUTS!! Seriously. 3 years since we’ve had that amazingness. How did we survive?!

And then we drove. And drove. Left New Mexico, crossed Texas (thankfully it was less than a day this time as opposed to my last drive through there which took 3 days), and entered Oklahoma!

Needless to say, the fun didn’t end with a broken pipe. Let’s just say that GPS and Oklahoma City are not friends. At all. First, it took us on a weird offramp where people are stopped and look like they’ll drive straight into you and you can’t figure out if you’re going the wrong way or just need to cross the road or what. Then the address we had plugged in for the lodge took us to a not-so-city like area, with run down houses, lots of broken down cars, and some not-so-friendly looking people. Back to the interstate we went, and we finally found our friends.

That’s right – friends! Thanks to the good ole’ Navy, we have friends in the middle of Oklahoma! Seriously. It was incredible to meet up with them, and rejuvenated the spirit like nothing else could. Their daughter babysat Aiden when he was little, and the last time we saw them I was giantly pregnant and about to deliver babies.

Then to the lodge. I have to say – not as impressed. But as long as a pipe doesn’t burst I’ll survive the night 😉

Restaurants I’d forgotten I’d missed (in no particular order): Steak N Shake, Chick Fil A, Dunkin Donuts, McAlister’s Deli… (to be continued)

Miles Traveled: 516
States Traveled: New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma

Day 2

October 3, 2013October 3, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 1 Comment

One more day down! Highlights of the day…

We passed 4 national parks/monuments that we couldn’t go to (thankfully they weren’t on the agenda or I’d be more upset).

But the best part? Crossing into our third state of the trip, a new time zone, and realizing how awesome the Air Force is in taking care of its’ families. Our TLF (temporary living facility) is a 3 bdrm house bigger than ours in CA was, for $63/night (making it cheaper too). There’s a minimart 24/7 with more alcohol than even a parent of multiples needs. And running paths as far as the eye can see. 😉

Miles traveled: 536
States traveled: CA, AZ, NM

Day 1 (on the road)

October 1, 2013October 1, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 1 Comment

Well, one day down! We have survived a long one to get *almost* to the border of California. Not sure if it’s irony or just coincidence, but we drove on the interstate parallel to Route 66 today, passed a Mack truck while driving a mini van, and got lost on a turnaround (to which I replied to Aiden, “We’re not lost! I using the GPS!” when asked). All while watching “Cars.”

I wish I could say this was day 1 of travel entirely, but we started hotel living 8 days ago now. Yes, it was WAY better than living amid boxes in a cramped space, but definitely not ideal. It could have been worse though! Glad to be on the way to the Northeast and our eventual home for the Navy-has-yet-to-determine-length-of-time.

Miles traveled today: 496

Farewells

September 17, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 1 Comment

As happens so often, we leave a place right as we’re starting to get used to it. And we always find one or two last things that we hadn’t managed to get around to while in that place, that we say “Man, why didn’t we do this more while we were here?!”

Beach bonfires are definitely on that list. Granted, I’m not sure we would have enjoyed them a month ago, much less a year ago. The kids are finally self sufficient enough that we can let them run and play on the beach and since it was so big there was no fear of them making it to the water. It was great to hang out with a couple of friends that are also leaving this quarter.

They fully enjoyed running and having freedom. There was a huge set of stairs to get down to the beach and we realized… these kids haven’t really ever done stairs by themselves (not more than one or two, anyways). That’s definitely going to be a learning point when (if) we move into a 2 story house!

We made Davey Crockett bars for the party. Essentially, they are yummy chocolate chip oatmeal cookie goodiness, but when you’re trying to clean out a panty you have to make do. So white chocolate and cherry morsels it was! They actually ended up surprisingly good even with that change, but a little sweeter than normal. Jacen didn’t mind though…

Aiden was enjoying showing the babies around and exploring. They found a cool drain pipe that we were glad wasn’t ground level or we were sure they might have crawled away in it.

The girls decided to play chase. Unfortunately they didn’t want to take the picture the way I wanted, but it worked!

Mountain climbing was also a favorite activity. Turns out that when the mountain is a sand dune, though, it’s not as easy to climb you’d think.

And Aiden practiced his snow angels for when we move. Sand, snow, same thing!

As much fun as it was, I’m glad that we didn’t try it a while ago or we probably wouldn’t have had such a fond memory. They avoided the fire, listened (fairly) well, and had a lot of fun. We were sandy and tired out after and they were asleep before we made it out of the parking lot. Fond memories of Monterey!

Military life and friends

August 26, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 2 Comments

Sometimes it astounds me the close relationships and friendships that resound in the military community. We arrive in an area, make lifetime friends within weeks (who we hang out with as if we’d known them forever), and a couple of short years later we move on. Sometimes we keep in touch daily (THANKS Facebook!), sometimes weekly, sometimes it’s months on end before we talk. But when we do, it is immediately like they still live or work right next door, and we haven’t spent a day away.

We just were blessed with such a reunion last week with a dear friend from Washington. The funny thing is, we knew him for less than 4 weeks up there. Had never actually met his family (though had heard of them and read their blog so I felt like we “knew” them a little bit). He was one of our NICU nurses. I remember bonding over quoting Princess Bride at, I believe, 3 am (or so) one day. I remember his personality and gentleness with the babies. And his true love for his job and the little tiny infants in his care.

The last time he saw the babies!

We kept in touch. An email here. A Christmas card there. A phone call to the NICU around significant dates in their lives and/or holidays. And then they decided to go on a family vacation. And it conveniently was to the area where we live. I was ecstatic. Jumped for joy. Literally. Pretty sure I scared my husband when I shrieked after hearing they were coming here. And got excited. And then waited. And waited.

Well, they visited last week. It was absolutely a joy to meet them. Part of the fun is that the babies are 2 now. He got to see them with personalities (temper tantrums and melt downs included). And since they have 6 kids of their own (only 2 came), I didn’t feel as stressed about the chaos that is our lives with them witnessing! We did amazing things. The aquarium, and with the extra help (his children are a delight) the babies got to REALLY experience it. They walked. They explored. They touched the animals in the touch pools. There was a 1:1 ratio (or more) at all times. How cool is that?! Aiden got to hang out with an awesome teenage big brother, and you could see it in his temperment and personality that he was enjoying having an older kid to look up to. Their youngest was so gentle and sweet with all of the kids, and they absolutely loved having a big sister to play with.

It was funny, having visitors means you go and do things you haven’t yet. Even though you’ve been somewhere for 2 years. We found the Carmel Mission (very not-stroller-friendly) and were able to really enjoy it with the extra hands. I had a “proud parent” moment when we walked into the mission (granted, only the gift shop so far) and Aiden looked at me and asked, “Mommy, is this God’s place?” Why yes, my dear child. Yes it is.

Fr. Serra’s tomb at the Carmel Mission

We laughed. We toured. I’m pretty sure there was crying and screaming (normally due to the lack of a toy, or a stolen toy, or a mean parent who forced them to put clean clothes on…), but his whole family took it in stride. It was such a blessing. And if we can keep in touch and stay friends a thousand miles and two years later, what’s a silly little move to the Northeast? It’s just a few more miles the emails/texts/phone calls have to travel!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

January 16, 2013January 16, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

So I’m finally getting around to the Disneyland post. Sorry for the delay! Honestly? It was an absolutely amazing 3 days. A bit crazy at times, and far different from the Disney experiences of teenage and college years, but worth every minute of it!

We made amazing time headed down there. Boy do car trips go better when you have toddlers who don’t require a bottle every 3 hours! There were a couple of monkey-related issues, but otherwise it was a issue-free trip. We might need to get one of those grabber things for Aiden so he can retrieve toys for us (like this) in the future!

We got there in such good time, in fact, that we arrived before the room was ready. You know, the big giant room where they had to move a small table so that we could fit three cribs. That room. It was pretty awesome, though, and now I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture. There was a curtain to seperate a lowered area of the room where we put the cribs, so we were actually able to put them down early and not have to sleep ourselves quite yet (though we did anyways).

We waited around a little bit, got into the room, unpacked, loaded up the stroller, and off we went!

Once in the park we were off! One of our good friends from Washington was actually in town at the same time so we lucked out and got to spend a lot of the first two days with them, which was wonderful!

We, of course, had to find the Star Wars area. Aiden said that he wanted to do that ride first, and daddy didn’t object. I think I saw a beam of pride as well. The Storm Troopers were out and found his R2D2 sweatshirt immediately and took to him!

In past trips to theme parks, it’s always been ride after ride with nothing in between except waiting in line. With four kids? You start to enjoy more of the magic of it. The parades were a big hit (Jaina wanted to take off after them). And the kids really enjoyed the music and lights!

Of course, there were rides as well.

There was actually only one ride that Aiden wasn’t able to do, but that was okay because the line was over 2 hours long for it anyways! We had a lot of fun enjoying the kids rides with short waits, and took turns taking him on rides while the other person hung out with the kids.

Part of the fun going was that it was still decorated with all the holiday goodness. There were lights, decorations, and the cars in CarsLand were wearing Santa Hats. How much cooler could it get?!

Day 2 began nice and early and we had to rock the princess dresses and mickey tights. The first day we didn’t do too well with the napping in the stroller, but by day 2 even Jacen gave in and decided some sleep would be worth it!

There were a lot more rides, some more time spent with our friends, and a lot of fun to be had that day. The benefits of the park hopper pass and Disneyland is that you can actually go back and forth between the parks all day, so Aiden got to ride the Buzz lightyear ride ~~umpteen~~ nine times while still enjoying our fastpasses in California Adventures.

Back track to how we told the kids about the trip – we had Aiden open up a package with some Mickey and Minnie shirts that a friend had made us. It wasn’t as effective as they make it look on TV (no jumping up and down, no screams, no real excitement at all actually until we explained it), but they were adorable for our last and final day there!

We even managed to get a family picture or two, which is pretty unheard of. It was quite nice to have all of us in a photo!

Overall, the magic of Disneyland still exists. It was there for the children in the music and rides and parades. For us in watching their faces light up as they tried to comprehend why the characters from that magic box at home that makes noise and shows movies were full size and standing in front of them. It was there for the newly engaged girl who had just been proposed to in front of the castle (in the group of people behind Aiden’s head in the picture). It’s so much better this way than just running ride to ride. While you are more frustrated by tourists and crazy people in the mobs of people at the park, it’s also refreshing to see all of the laughs and smiles from kids and adults alike. I mean, it’s the happiest place on earth, right? I can’t wait to take them back in a few years and see how much it (and they) have changed!

Two years ago (yesterday)

January 8, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ 2 Comments

Life changed. And not in that simple way of “Oh, look, we got a puppy dog!” or “Oh wow, we got a new car!” But in that completely insanely way where you go from thinking, “WOW, we might have two kids!” to “Holy S&@*! How did that happen!?”

This is what we saw:

And by “we,” I mean me, the doctor, two nurses, and Aiden.

Steven got to hear about it from the submarine captain.

In the Navy, there are people who will come and go in and out of your lives. There are the coworkers who you remember fondly. The shipmates who you are glad transferred quickly. The shipmates you’re glad to transfer away from. Some bosses you like, others not so much. Just like in the civilian world. But, just like any major news-worth event, you will always remember certain people for something that happened while they were on watch or held a certain position. I will never, ever, ever, forget our ombudsman and CO’s wife.

Normally, when one finds out they’re pregnant, the first person to find out (other than them), is a best girl friend or husband or mom/mother in law. In the Navy? The first phone call was to the Ombudsman. They are a wife’s best friend during a deployment – they have the contact info for the boat, they are your liason, your lifeline to your husband while he’s gone. When her phone went to voicemail, I left a hurried message that I’m pretty sure sounded like ~~someone had died~~ ~~been shot~~ ~~been run over by a car~~ ~~gotten lost~~ something really bad had happened. The next call? CO’s wife. For if there was ANYONE that the CO would call should they be able to, other than the ombudsman, I figured it’d be her. Or at the very least maybe she was with the Ombudsman and could have her call me. Or call the powers that be. Or ANYTHING. In this case? They were my lifeline to make sure my husband found out quickly and didn’t have to read it in that night’s email (which likely would have been screened and blocked anyways).

Now? Thousands of miles separate us; weeks go without talking/face-booking/emailing. But never, ever, will I forget those ladies. Or January 7, 2011.

The important things in life.

January 7, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

So we just got back from an amazing trip to Disneyland. It was the second visit for both Aiden as well as the triplets, and boy what a difference a year makes!!

I’ll get a more detailed post (with photos!) up soon, once I go through the 400+ pictures taken, but in the meantime, a few notes that I learned.

A year makes a WORLD of difference. A year ago, we had to drag Aiden onto rides, often kicking and screaming, where he’d then come off the other side happy and glad he did it. But the anticpation was a killer. This year? He dragged us through line after line, often on rides I had no idea he’d like (Splash Mountain again, anyone?). The babies also got to enjoy the wonder of Disney for real. They rode some rides, enjoyed the sights, and loved listening to the crowds and music everywhere in the park.
No matter how many lovies you have, you never have enough. Take Dino for example:

We brought two of every animal with us (except monkey, because we cannot find the extra monkeys). We weren’t worried about losing Monkey because, well, Valerie will let us know if it ever leaves her grip. Seriously. If you hear screaming and MAMAMAMAMA coming out of her, she dropped it. Probably in the last 5 miliseconds.
Dino, on the other hand, is not as highly demanded. We lost it. Twice. Lost the first day. Found at lost and found day 2. And lost again day 3. How did that happen? I’m not sure. But we’re ordering a replacement as we speak (and two extra Monkeys. In which case we’ll find the two missing ones in the house).
Nothing can compare to bubbles. No matter how many toys he saw in the park, how many cool Disney exclusive goodies, all he wanted was a silly bubble blower that you can get for $1 at Target. Finally he relented when I promised him that we’d buy him one when we got home.

Seriously. $2.99 online. $20 at the park. Not happening.
No one ever gets too old for a Disney ride or for a Mickey mouse pretzel. Or for screaming like a little kid going down Splash Mountain. Thankfully he got soaked and I didn’t.
Triplets can, and will, run in three directions. I think it’s a given. The cute hand-holding siblings on TV? It’s staged. They cannot and will not do that voluntarily. It’s like it goes against their very being.
We gave many twin parents a boost during the course of the weekend. More than once we saw a twin parent look at us and get a smile on their face like, “Wow, if they can do it I guess we can suck it up too!” And then there was the twin parent with the twins as children #4 and #5, with a bonus baby #6 who was barely old enough to hold it’s own bottle. Man, if she can hold it together, I think I can for a few more hours! We had a deja vu moment in the restaurant as a family with twins who were 3 months old sat near us, which was just how old ours were last year when we came. It was amazing to think back that far and see how far we’ve come since then (Cue the screaming and fork throwing!)

2012: A year in review

January 1, 2013 ~ hunt2005 ~ Leave a comment

2012 was a pretty darn good year, I’d say.

It featured a lot of stability, which was a blessing and nice surprise in the Navy life. It’s not often that we go an entire calendar year in the same house, with no orders or changes to current orders, with a husband who was home EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. of the year (except for a day or two at the Rose Bowl, but I’ll forgive that!).

The year started with us having a 3 year old and three 6 month olds. Big brother didn’t know his alphabet, couldn’t read numbers (though he could count pretty well), and was a little toddler still in his mama’s eyes. The babies? Well, they still stayed where we put them, and ate pureed food and drank from bottles that we mostly had to hold for them.

One year later, we have three babies who walk, run, and climb their way around the house. A big brother who counts, sings, runs, plays, and is more of a boy than a baby now. We hear sweet little voices all day long as they talk to each other and us (or yell, or scream, or cry… but that’s a topic for another post). Big brother takes an active role in helping them (sometimes too active). We have children that I can refer to less and less as “babies” and more and more as toddlers and kids. It’s kind of scary!

Last year I pledged to finally recommit to running in earnest. And I did. Sort of. I definitely accomplished more this year than ever before. My first triathlon. My first road race. My first of many post-babies half marathons. Faster. Stronger. But I was still a bit lackadaisical with it all. Why bother training for a half? I’ve done 6 before! Well, let me tell you, a triplet pregnancy later, and having been up with children in the night before, leads to a half marathon taking more effort than it has in the past. But we made it. Steven and I survived our first half together. And we can only do better next time!

This year? We’re ready. Bring it on. January is starting out right with a trip to Disney (Remember, kids under 2 are free. When half of your family turns 2 in just a few short months, better go now while it costs half as much!). February brings big boy turning 5. FIVE. HOLY CRAP HE’S TURNING FIVE. That’s like… a whole hand. Seriously. How did that happen?!?! March brings the big 3-0 for a certain daddy in this house. April? Submarine birthday ball. I think I’ve already planned more for it than was done by March last year. Thank God for that! Olympic triathlon in May? Scheduled. June? Three little ones have a sweet little birthday. July? Our last school break before daddy finishes school here and we head on the road to who knows where. August? Kindergarten. Need I say more?? September? Graduation from NPS. Marathon in October? Hopefully, depending on orders and what happens (welcome to the real Navy again!). November? Hopefully we’ll be settled in a house that is bigger than the one we’re in, or at the very least isn’t any smaller. And December? Goodness, another year, another Christmas, another 365 days without deployments.

How can it get any better than that?!

How to carve pumpkins…

October 29, 2012 ~ hunt2005 ~ 1 Comment

… when you have four extra sets of hands.

Step 1) Strip all small children naked. Cut the top of the pumpkins off to ensure full messiness can be achieved.

Step 2) Let the oldest of the children remove the insides of the pumpkin. Have parent #2 finish entirely scooping the second pumpkin out in the time that the oldest child manages to get one seed and a few strings of pumpkin.

Step 3) Let other small children play in the pumpkin gunk. Older son wants nothing to do with the ickiness of it, so let the other three make up for his lack of excitement.

Step 4) Let younger brother show older brother how it’s done.

Step 5) Quickly carve the shapes on the pumpkins and let older son help every few minutes to include him, yet ensure that pumpkins are done before it is too dark to see anymore.

And there you have it. Pumpkin carving with 4 under 5.

And Babies Make Six

adventures