Turquoise Anniversary Part Three (of FOUR)

The grounds between all the many hotel rooms at our resort.






We did a LOT of walking because the scale of the resort was enormous. I loved all the walking.



The grounds of our hotel were beautiful and the courtyard was gorgeous. I loved seeing the trees, shrubs, and flowers that made the Dominican Republic so attractive. The senses really come to life in a new place with new smells, colors, and textures to discover. As if being on vacation weren't awesome enough--throw in the excitement of a new country and the feeling of paradise and well, one could explode from the grandness of it.

The weather was spectacular--sunny with occasional clouds over the horizon that were so dramatic only a paradise could create them. It was warm, very warm, but a luscious kind of warm.

Ahh, have I mentioned I want it back?

Turquoise Anniversary Part Two

The man and my JOY.


Turquoise toes.


The sand here was fabulously smooth and white. No rocks or other hard bits--just soft sand!




Coco Loco--our new favorite drink (coconut cream, milk, ice, cinnamon).

I have only been home a few days but I have already reflected often on our little anniversary trip. Jamie was perfect in every moment. Actually--I want that time back. I want to relive spending endless hours in the ocean and pool with minor interruptions only to pump or eat. What a life.

I did miss my kids a lot and I felt very far away from them...but I was comforted knowing they were being loved by my mom and Jang. In fact, due to one night's worth of light sleep training compliments of my mom, Maeve is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Please cue celestial rays of light and angels singing. I'm still in shock because this officially makes Maeve the BEST baby babe in the WORLD.

Anyway...back to the vacation. I have decided to employ 'the list' to describe my observations and feelings about our trip.

1. Jamie is fun and kind and hilarious and sweet.
2. Mangos that melt in my mouth are my favorite.
3. Endless refills of Coke Light are my favorite.
4. I am the only woman in the world who wears a one piece swimsuit.
5. Russians love their rat tails and speedos.
6. Russians also don't mind letting their little girls swim topless.
7. Apparently, the shorter the shorts the better, regardless of cellulite.
8. I went to the gym TWICE in four days because going whenever I wanted truly felt like being on vacation. I ran a 5k on the treadmill in a hardly air conditioned gym!
9. Bossy Pants. Best beach read ever! I'm laugh EVERY time I think of the 'Bret Michaels' method of breastfeeding.
10. Sleeping through the night.
11. Sleeping past 7:30 am.
12. Jamie ALL TO MYSELF.

Turquoise Anniversary Part One

Turquoise everywhere! See Jamie's head?


I tried marginally hard to lose the baby weight in time for this vacation and got within three pounds of my goal. It works.


Sigh.


I want back.



You had no idea that I had declared our ten year a turquoise one and better--you had no idea this post would have photos of me in a turquoise swimsuit, right? I love turquoise and saw it everywhere on our trip to the DR so that's just what I decided to name it.

The turquoise water was amazing--both the ocean and the pool. The sky was also turquoise. Jamie's shorts were turquoise. I was in HEAVEN. I wish I could get back in that ocean water and that pool water--both were blissful. There really is something both sensual and comforting about being in water--that sense of weightlessness allows one to truly shrug the burdens of the mundane and just live in the floaty fun of the moment.

Four days went by fast--like as fast or faster than the rate at which kids grow up. Sigh. I loved EVERY minute--from leaving the house at 4am to catch a plane to waiting several hours in the air conditionless Punta Cana airport to head home. It was all precious time with Jamie and I celebrated every second of it. More to come.

Signage

I loved coming home to this sign (my mom and kids are the best!) and these boys.

Anniversary Installation

I surprised Jamie with breakfast from Best Buns bakery this morning. Fun!

When he came home this evening I had a "ten" themed art installation for him.

Ten year anniversaries are fun! We are leaving tomorrow for a quick trip to the Dominican Republic. Four days of just Jamie, beach, virgin piña coladas, sleep, and perhaps even some reading are going to be a sweet reward for an already sweet decade's worth of marriage.

Ten Years

Ten years ago today Jamie and I were married. Looking back on that beautiful day it's fun to recall how ecstatic we both were to finally get married and start an exciting family life together. I never could have imagined how dynamic and exquisite the first ten years of our marriage would be--I mean, I knew it would be awesome but I just didn't have the imagination to envision the joy that so much daily happiness and eventually the introduction of children would bring to our lives.

Jamie and I were laughing last night as we remembered driving across the country with nearly all of our possessions fitting into his tiny red, air-conditionless car. When we got our first apartment we had ZERO pieces of furniture so we slept on an air mattress for months and used a borrowed folding table to eat our meals. We did have Jamie's trusty 13 inch tv-vcr combo so that was cool. We have certainly accumulated a lot, admittedly TOO much but in the accumulation of children, happiness, memories, and love I have no complaints. The past ten years have been the happiest of my life and I am eternally grateful to Jamie for loving me daily with such generosity. I am thankful for the ease with which he expresses his love and I simply do not have the words to describe my gratitude for the extraordinary children he has given me. I look at them and I see him and I am so excited that they are our children and that I am their mom.

Jamie surprised me the other night with a most luxurious and generous gift: diamond stud earrings! He sat me down and started to count the ways he loved me (much like the way he proposed) and then he presented me with a little box. When I opened it to find princess cut diamond earrings--much like my wedding ring, I was absolutely shocked and wonderfully surprised. He told me that I had double his happiness and that I was his double happiness. He is so thoughtful and sincere.

I have a gift for Jamie but it suddenly seems lame, paltry, and thoughtless. Oh and it hasn't even arrived yet. I did get him a book of poems by Sue Ellen Thompson. Have you heard of her? Her poems are lovely. I'll end this post with one of her poems--actually, the poem that made us a fan of hers.

Terms of Endearment

Sweet biscuit of my life,
I've been thinking of your smile
and how I'd steal a little bite
of it if you were here; of the delights

I've known in the alleyway between
the whitewashed storefronts of your teeth;
of how I've pressed one smithereen
after another of mille-feuille, mousseline

of late-night conversation upon your lips,
forever poised at the brink of kissdom,
their slightest sigh enough to lift
a tableskirt. Perfectest pumpkin

in the patch, your heft on mine
is what I crave, your brows so fine
I could not carve them with a steak knife.
You have the acorn eyes

of the football season, the ass
of an autumn afternoon, of boys en masse
in soccer shorts. Yours is the vast
contained candescence of a Titian under glass,

it is the gold leaf laid
by February sun, the lemonade's
pale wash in August. Should you fade,
like sun on windowsills crocheted

with shadow, then suddenly gone dark,
your face will leave its watermark
upon this page, which is already part
of love's confection, our little work of art.

Jamie--thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you forever.

Shorter

I last got my hair cut when baby Maeve was only TWO weeks old. I remember sitting in that salon chair trembling a little bit from the tenderness of my physical and emotional state. I felt fragile both from the aftermath of a c-section and postpartum depression. I also had the innermost ache of being separated, if only for 45 minutes, from my precious newborn. Ultimately I was grateful for the careful way Mark handled me and for the beautiful cut he gave me that would sustain me for the following SEVEN months.

Sitting in that same seat seven months later I felt a bit of tender nostalgia for that brutal time following Maeve's birth. I also felt absolutely grateful for a recovered body and mind. Mark complimented my outfit and sent me on my way with what he described as a 'gorgeous' cut. Since I only get my hair cut twice a year it is such a luxury to step away from the salon with the bounce and style that will only be repeated the next time I make such an exit. Don't you love the days (in my case, THREE) following a good cut?

Anyway...this post was really just an excuse to share a photo of my frumpy hair and that SWEET MAEVE. Can you even believe her blue eyes and her burgeoning blonde hair? She is so amazing.

H street

Taylor Gourmet, Atlas district.

French industrial cool!

Yum!

Happy!

So many fun choices!

Impressive head on the root beer!

Saturday was, shall we say, busy. I had a 9 am salon appointment, 10 am birthday party, 1:30 pm hair cut in DC, 4 pm ward party, and 7 pm date with hubs in DC. Phew. At least it was all fun!

For our date, Jamie and I went to the H street area of DC to try a sandwich shop I had been wanting to visit for ages. We had never been that part of H street before so it felt like we were visiting an entirely new city. I loved that feeling! It was the perfect mingling of DC ghetto and the rise of the hipster class. We saw equal parts hobos and hipsters. What astonished me the most was the number of beautiful pregnant women I saw! So many! H street is fertile.

We parked only two feet from Taylor Gourmet and felt pretty smug about our turbo parking spot! We both enjoyed our sandwiches but naturally I thought mine was better than Jamie's because 1) mine was toasted and 2) his had skankrooms (aka mushrooms). My simple sandwich had broccoli raab and super sharp provolone--nothing else! The star of both sandwiches, however, was the imported Philly bread. You guys! So good! What we loved almost as much as our sandwiches were the fountain drinks! Have you ever seen Boylan Soda on tap? I hadn't and I loved it. The black cherry soda with a splash of lemonade was my favorite but the straight up creme soda was super satisfying too. I love date night.

After eating we strolled along H street for a bit and were amused and confounded by the bar culture. We heard one woman tell a potential patron that the wait for a table was 90 minutes. What the? We couldn't even tell what was behind the dark door--must have been something pretty amazing for the imbibing types.

After the smell of sewage and fish fry proved tiring we hopped in the car and cruised to the NW side of H street. We hoped to see a film but all movies were sold out. We walked around the city instead and I reveled in the chance to occasionally hold hands and just talk with my hubs. The night was beautiful and DC was the perfect place for our date.

Growling and Standing

The standing, the breathing, the growling, and the bouncing make this baby babe ineffably irresistible!

Stand if You Are Cute

Fancy pants Maeve pulled herself up today! She showed off for Jamie and pulled this stunt. She obliged by showing me too. There is no end to the cuteness and turbotude of this baby babe!

The Pains of Growing

Asher and Soren went to their friend Luke's pirate themed birthday party so they were sporting pirate 'staches all day. So cute.



You can't see it due to Asher's hair line but he has a massive goose egg on his forehead. The boys were playing out front while I tended dinner when I heard desperate sobs. I ran outside to find Asher crying hysterically and Soren looking dumbfounded. Asher has a way of getting upset about minor things (hence his baby nickname: Mr. Academy) so I didn't know the nature of his tears. I couldn't get any details out of either of them. In fact, when I asked what happened--I heard only crickets chirping. Sigh. Asher must have tripped on the sidewalk because his knee was banged up and during bathtime I discovered the enormous bump on his head. When I saw it I couldn't help but freak out a little, which caused Asher to say, "It's okay mom. I'm okay." I'm glad you are okay little man because I am NOT.

Later that evening after Maeve was in bed I took the boys outside to search for fireflies. In his excitement to get outside Asher somehow pinched himself between two chairs at the table. He cried hysterically again and I winced in pain for him. He ran to me and in a super high pitched voice said, "I'm okay." I ached for him. He was trying so hard to not be bothered by the pain and the interference of getting hurt. I am tortured by how painful this growing up business can be. When we got outside the boys were sprinting up and down the sidewalk in search of fireflies and every time Asher took off I cringed a little and pleaded in prayer that he would not fall!

When will I stop cringing every time I see my kids run?

I absolutely adored my outside time with Asher and Soren. We were mutually enchanted by the surprising sparkle of fireflies. During the quiet times when we didn't see any fireflies, Asher was busy harvesting corn (read: tall grass) for his babies and Soren was singing a song about planting then harvesting corn. They are such sweet little guys--always talking about taking care of their baby animals and throwing parties. I felt like I was having an out of body experience watching them and listening to their kind voices. They moved me with their tender innocence. I cling to these moments because they sustain me during the not so tender moments.

Sometime during the middle of the night (I know because I was nursing Maeve) Soren fell out of his bed! I heard a dreadful thud and a moan and instantly I knew what had happened and I was agonized that I could not run to him! After I finally got Maeve back in bed, I checked on Soren and found him sleeping on the floor in a tangle of blankets. I helped him back into bed and tucked him in.

I know falls, scrapes, scratches, and bruises are unavoidable as a kid but I wish they didn't have to happen SO often and with such a sting.

Maeve's Favorite Food

Mango! She is definitely one of us with her instant love for mango!

Baby Driver

Baby drivers are my fave! Maeve seemed mildly interested in the Cozy Coup until she started to honk the horn and growl and then I new she was a fan of the baby driving gig. It makes me happy to see Maeve in new situations. Sometimes I am startled by what she is capable of doing and then I look at her brothers and then I nearly pass out because they are SO grown up.

Google Reader trick

If you are an active Google Reader participant then read this! Changed my whole experience!
http://whoorl.com/archives/5498

Bedtime Cutes

This baby girl and her indefatigable cuteness are such a joy! Her toothy smile, happy growls, baby planks, controlled rolling, busy crawling, sonar chirps, hand wringing, arm flapping, and excitement over her brothers make her the most pleasant baby babe!

I also adore how much she enjoys my company! When she sees me she will fling herself towards me or crawl or do whatever it takes to get to me. I am flattered by this and I wonder if she will be like Soren and always want to be near me or if she will be like Asher and just not care as much. I love watching her personality develop.

Lazy Sunday

Sunday was a warm, wonderful day. We heard thunder and the allure of a summery rain took us outside where Asher and Soren shielded themselves from the few raindrops in their cozy coups (or--coobie coops to them).

My weekend was full of mostly highlights but even the startling lowlights could not puncture the satisfaction I felt most of the time. I made time for each child and was able to single them out for long, uninterrupted hugs and play time. Collectively my children amaze and overwhelm me but individually they absolutely charm and even humble me with their innocence and sweetness. They are phenomenally patient with me and very forgiving. I stumble frequently through motherhood and as often as I feel clumsy--I also feel uplifted and sustained by the love of my children.

June Cuties

Every time I put a new outfit on Maeve I want to take her photo so I can remember forever how cute she looked! She wore this little yellow/navy blue number to church the other day and I loved it with the two clips on her headband.

Asher is obsessed with the 'Fire Team Rocks!' shirt (size 24 months) because it has a firetruck on it. I seriously think he feels like a firefighter when he wears it. His chest puffs out a bit and he really tries to channel mister firefighter--it is cute...until he has worn the shirt five days in a row.

Asher and Soren are both obsessed with cats--not sure why. They like cats so much that they try to convince me that the cat that bit me last summer was a 'nice' cat. Yeah right. Their love for cats is one reason they regularly request to wear the BYU cougar shirts. I never dress them matchy matchy but they occasionally enjoy wearing the same thing together.

This has been a nice June so far. We've been to the pool a few times. I even braved the pool solo and the 3:1 (kid to frazzled parent) ratio only proved hazardous when I had to 'run' from the middle of the pool to the steps where Soren was happily dunking Asher under the water. Poor Asher man was choking and freaked and I could NOT get Soren's attention because of all the pool noise. I eventually came to Asher's rescue but not before he gagged on the water in his mouth and was genuinely terrified. Poor Soren had no idea his play was so perilous. I'll go again with the three by myself but I will stay within an arm's reach of my boys!