The Blandford Family: October 2013

Happy wet, rainy Halloween! Like every other holiday that we really celebrate for two-weeks straight, Halloween has been no exception. Lucy had a party at her dance class last week (first official costume break out), spent the weekend at Bill and Chris' and did some trick-or-treating there, and of course today we were in full costume. We went out to Carol Stream so Lucy and Leigh could see the girls in their costumes. It rained and was cold, but the girls were adorable running around the neighborhood and the rain didn't seem to bother kids...they were just having too much fun to care about being wet. It turned into a big party with chili, my parents, Bob and Neici, Stina and all the kiddos. Both girls passed out just in time for the Switch Witch to come take their candy and leave a few gifts. Wonder how many years I can pull this off. And, just a note, I notice the inequality in the gifts. I struggle with this....it doesn't mean I love Leigh any less :)

We just returned home from an incredible trip to Cali for Matt and Asal's wedding. The girls traveled amazingly well (despite the 2 hour time change which meant we were all up at 4:30 am every day) and we learned that traveling as a family of 4 is really pretty easy. Our hotel, the Sheraton in Carlsbad, was a short block walk to Legoland, which is where we spent a lot of our time. We didn't do much research on it beforehand, and both expected a little children's museum-type place that we would play in one day. So wrong! We didn't realize it was a huge park filled with hundreds (literally) of rides and some live shows, boat rides, etc. Lucy LOVED it. And Chris too - who seemed to like it as much as any kid there :) We also did some swimming, went to the beach two mornings, had lots of wedding activities and of course the beautiful wedding Saturday. Honestly the best part of vacation - for me - was the time to just hang out with the girls with no distractions, even just playing and watching movies in the hotel. And, the room service which we probably ordered from for 3/4 of our meals since it was just easier than restaurants with the girls.

The wedding was beyond beautiful - Persian weddings are the craziest and most fun. They love their dancing! By the end of the night - thanks to lots of wine - we were all dancing a little Persian-style. Asal looked stunning and Matt looked so happy all weekend. And, of course having Joe and Lucy part of their wedding was so special. Lots of great memories and tons of photos but just a few highlights (and what I will call lowlights too):

Highlights:
- Our first night there Lucy and I swam in the hot tub and it was fun just having "girl chat" alone in the pool
- Taking the girls to the pool at 5 am our first morning there - it was 7 am back home :)
- Taking the girls to the beach. Lucy LOVED the waves. I realized Joe needs to get out more because he was so worried Lucy would get pulled in, while holding our hands about 2 inches in from the shore.
- Seeing Lucy have so much fun at Legoland - she was so brave to try lots of new rides and wanting to go on rides that were too old for her. She may be more of a dare-devil than we thought.
- Running along the coast. Wish I could do that every morning.
- And of course the gorgeous wedding - a beautiful outside ceremony and one of the most fun receptions I have ever been to. I wish I was Persian. The entire day/night was perfect.
- The day before the wedding, I went with Asal to get her nails done. It was fun spending one-on-one time with her on such a busy weekend.
- Car service - we had a car pick us up and take us home since we had so much stuff (two car seats, a double stroller, 3 suitcases) and it was worth every single penny. Not having to do the shuttle to our car was so nice after a 4 hour flight.
- Watching endless movies in our hotel room, something we don't do much of at home. But with the time change, the girls were up at 4 am in Cali and nothing opened until 10 am. Thank god for the DVD player.

Lowlights:
- Learning my drivers license was expired 2 days before we left. Woops!
- Seeing the wedding coordinator running down the stairs a few minutes before the ceremony. Hoping she wasn't coming to get me, but knowing she was. "Lucy is trying to take off her clothes." In my head I was thinking of all the things I was going to have to use to get her to keep her dress on for the ceremony - no ice cream ever again, no watching movies ever again, etc.
- Taking both girls by myself to Legoland for an afternoon while Joe was at a wedding lunch. Every ride Lucy wanted to go on required an adult, but a baby wasn't allowed on those. So, it was sad news, after sad news as we walked along. My guilt ended us up in the souvenir store for more lego sets.
- Finding a can of powdered formula had opened in our suitcase en route home. Powder over everything.

We loved Cali and had a great long weekend but we are happy to be home!!

We made it!