Photos From Pensacola

We hit a milestone this year at the beach...both kids tolerated the surf and the sand. I know this is not the first time I have commented on my inability to comprehend how some families can stay on the beach for 6, 8 and 10 hours at a time. I hear stories of sandy sandwiches and sunny naps and bronzed children who won't get out of the waves and I remember my own childhood and am sure that we were just like that, that I climbed on a raft at dawn and drifted until the sun set. I do not know if there is some revisionist history going on or if we really did spend hours on end at the beach, but I do know that there was a point last summer when I decided that I would never have that experience with my kids, that they were simply not 'beach' people.

Until this most recent trip, our visits to the actual beach were somewhat brief, always involved whining and begging for the pool, and occasionally ended (and sometimes began) with tears. Not this time. Nope. James decided that the sand was cool and was even amused by the salt water and Luz decided that she loved building sandcastles, riding waves and collecting seashells. Sure, there were a few touch and go moments when James needed a nap and, yeah, we were not out there for hours on end...but our stamina has improved, thankfully. Who knows...next year we might officially have kids who are 'beach' people.

Cleaning her shells:


Working on her sandcastle (that's another thing...where do these people learn to build such incredible sandcastles...mine are always pathetic in comparison):


Watching Luz and the water:


Collecting shells:




Enough:


With Mama (I was there too, see):

Growing Up

This is what stops me in my tracks, knocks the wind out of me, and makes me think that life is going by way too fast:

Jamesy, in the morning sunlight - Pensacola, Florida
2009:


2010:


2011:


Luz was a little envious of the photo shoot and made herself irresistible, as usual:







*Note the incredible ikat duvet. I could dedicate an entire post to it, but I will spare you. Suffice it to say that I have wanted one since the first time I saw it! It is just one of the many fabulous things that make me smile at the beach condominium that we have enjoyed for the past few years thanks to the Renton family.

Beach Weekend 2011

We just got back from a three day beach trip to Pensacola. There are so many things about a weekend at the beach that I love. In fact, I cannot imagine a summer without a little sand and salty water...it just isn't summer without a bit of both as far as I am concerned.

This year was a little different though...it rained from sun up until sun down on Sunday...4 inches...the most rain in one day in Pensacola since 1988. What luck. But it was precisely because of the deluge that we finally checked out the Naval Aviation Museum - something we have talked about doing for years - and it was A-mazing. In fact, we could not believe we had been missing out for all these years.

I am already looking forward to a return trip when the kids are a little older so that they can ride in the simulators and I can actually read a bit more about each exhibit. I will tell you more about it soon, but I am busy with work and dealing with the logistics for the last few weeks of summer...so in the meantime, here is is a pic of Luz and James, ready for some sun:

Kiddos

Luz and James are back after a week of nothing but fun in Atlanta where they did exactly what kids are supposed to do during the summertime - have fun. Most days, it looked about like this:

Summertime

Luz and James have spent the past week doing precisely what kids are supposed to do during the summer - swim, stay up way past bedtime, eat hot dogs, watch fireworks, spend time with grandparents, pal around with cousins, and have a sense that days can last forever. Those are things I remember and love about summer as a kid.



So, while the kiddos are off in Atlanta doing summery stuff, I have been busy working, and tidying up around the house, and catching up with old friends I don't see enough of, and going to fancy movie theaters, and running, and watching what I want to watch on t.v., and working, and working and missing this:

Catching Up

Summers are supposed to be long and slow and lazy, but as long as I have had children, summers have been quite the opposite. The pace around our house has been unusually hectic despite our best efforts to keep things long and slow and lazy. I have not quite figured out the math behind the equation but somehow the things I pick to do to make memorable summers end up just adding to the frenzy.

There are so many different things to tell you all about but I have not had time and clarity of thought (see above). I have been riding some great big highs (Luz's 6th birthday and a recent trip to NYC) and suffocating under some lows (the death of Loki, my first real responsibility and the best running partner I will ever have) but so it goes with life.

We are looking forward to some time in Atlanta with family over 4th of July weekend and then a long weekend at the beach. Summer just isn't summer without sticky, salty hair and sandy toes. Soon enough, though, I will have time to catch you up to date and share some pictures and thoughts with you.

Until then, I leave you with a picture of the Empire State Building in all of its rainbow glory on pride weekend just after NYC passed their marriage equality bill. It was quite a time to be in NYC.

Happy 6th Birthday Luz

I cannot believe it!

For Christian While You Are Away

Weekend With Nana

Christian and I spent a few hours together after I arrived (late) from TN on Friday night and before he left (early) Saturday morning. What could have been a rather chaotic 48 hours was eased with the arrival of Nana.

The weather was nice and we had nothing in particular to do this weekend so we packed a few things and headed out to Thibodaux for some swimming, sun, golf cart rides, time with the horses, visits with family, and rest. We had a few rain showers, but the timing was always right and Luz was able to spend a ton of time in the pool practicing her jumps, dives and strokes.

Here are a few pictures of the kids from the weekend:

Tiny Dancer

Luz and I spent the evening at Loyola watching one of the metro-area ballet schools perform Hansel and Gretel. For the most part I tend to become rather bored when thinking about all things ballet. With the exception of Black Swan and many of the years when I was a ballet student, the idea of watching ballet induces narcolepsy. But Lucy has such a deep appreciation for ballet and a love of the performing arts. Even at 8 o'clock at night, after a long day of fun in the sun at camp, she sits perfectly still, totally fixated. She did it last week at Shrek! with mom and then tonight at the ballet with me.

It reminded me, though, I have not posted some of the pictures from her ballet recital last month. Like I said, things have been rather busy around here.

Backing Up A Bit

There have been so many things going on around here for the past few weeks that it is tough to keep up. At the end of the day I am totally drained and it is a toss up - tell you all about what exciting (or rather mundane) things have been happening around here at the Vaicius house or pour a glass of wine, throw on an old t-shirt and watch some mind-numbing Real Housewives of Wherever. Sometimes my will to be creative and create a journal for Luz and James is beaten down by laziness. Other times, I think about a moment that made me smile, something that I want to freeze in time, a memory I want to share with the kids but know I will forget before it could ever mean anything to them.

Here is a moment a few weeks ago at their friend, Sadie's, birthday party. 2 year old peer pressure v. 5 (almost 6) year old terror. 2 year old peer pressure won. Almost 6 year-old put on a brave face but you can still see the fear...poor boo:


And this one, just before a 'look Ma, no hands moment'



Salt in wounds, one would think, but for her it was more like 'are you crazy, you could fall and hurt yourself...kids have to fall off of these things all the time...they seem so incredibly unsafe.' There is nothing wrong with being risk-adverse, with hedging one's bets. Perhaps she has a future as an actuary. Or maybe she has had to sit through too many of my war stories.


But you cannot fool me. I know there is bravery inside of that almost 6 year old. I see if every day and so does he, which is why he made her sit beside him.

FINALLY!

The first tooth...


Here is the note she wrote to the tooth fairy...not particularly polite, but so be it.


I took a poll in the stands at the softball game tonight and the going rate seems to be $10 for the first tooth. Yikes.

Remembering Pop

Right after Pop died a friend of mine shared his own experience with losing his father. This was something that happened frequently after Pop died and I appreciated it even when I grew weary of the gesture and was done with depressing stories of loss and grief. But there was something simple about this particular story, the point of which was nothing more than to prepare me for what was coming, to let me know that I would, in no uncertain terms, miss my father every single day of my life.

It has been two years since my father died, 730 days of missing him, some of those days with a smile on my face, others, like today, with heavy tears.


Here he is with my Aunt Kate, clearly having a great time (which was generally his goal, and an admirable one at that):

Heart Ache

It has been a rough month on the 'dogs we know and love' front. Two of Loki's 'cousins', dogs he has played with for years, died recently because they, like Loki, just got old.

Loki's medical situation has been tricky, and heart breaking, and anxiety inducing. It has caused a few heated conversations, many tears, a few laughs, but mostly deep sadness. We stopped testing after spending what we agreed was a reasonable amount of money and getting a second opinion. At the end of the day more testing might have given us a diagnosis, but it might not have...and Loki is almost 13 years old.

He has been suffering with some sort of illness that makes it impossible for him to retain protein. His appetite remains steady (although his diet has changed - only 'soft' foods) but his ability to keep weight on is long gone. He is a shadow of his former self...all skin and bones and hollowed out eyes. He looks like a malnourished dog...so much so that a neighborhood busybody started leaving bowls of food and water and (gasp) even called the SPCA (they were totally professional, apologetic and sympathetic once I explained the situation). I can see that the neighbor was acting from a place of goodness but I the message was not so well-received by Christian and it certainly confused and saddened Lucy.

It has been a mix of emotion for the kids - they obviously see that he is sick since he does not move around like he used to...and perhaps Loki's slow death is a blessing...it is very peaceful, mostly pain free and it is giving us all time to come to terms with the idea of life without him around. He started distancing himself from me three months ago when he began to opt out of our morning runs. I am used to running solo now, though I will always miss what was probably the best running partner of my life.

I guess this is all just to say that I am sad about Loki every day. When I wake up in the morning I am on pins and needles until I am sure he is breathing. When I see his chest heave I wonder if it is his last breath...and then still sometimes he will see or hear me and I will use my sweet 'Loki boy' voice and he will thump his tail just to send me a reminder that he is still here, taking it all in, waiting for a few more sticky kisses from James, to lend an ear to me when I want to complain about my day, to sit protectively while Christian putters around in the yard, and to lounge patiently through one last heart to heart with Luz. Thank you boy for breaking it to us gently.

This is the most recent picture I have of Loki. It was taken over Easter weekend at White Plantation. It is amazing how much weight he has lost since then. I will take some pictures this weekend for comparison:


And if you are wondering where all of this is coming from...plain and simple - dogs are awesome. Here, see for yourself:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110526/us_yblog_thelookout/dog-with-two-broken-legs-finds-owner-after-storm

I guarantee you Loki would hobble home to us on two broken legs. No question.

School's Out

Remember this little girl...here she is starting her first day of Kindergarten:



Well, she turned into this girl starting her last day of Kindergarten:


and it made my heart ache that she was so grown up and that there will be no more 'white dress' days at ASH until she graduates in 2023:



Someone please feel free to step in and show me how to make it stop racing by...because I cannot keep up.

Cousin Time

Nana and Papa-T surprised Luz and James when they showed up with Liam and Pete for a weekend visit. We managed to pack a ton of activities into 48 hours and capped off the weekend with Luz's birthday party - a swimming party with some of her friends from school.

I apologize for the sporadic posting but the chaos of the end of the school year coupled with the chaos at work is challenging. By the end of the day I can barely muster the energy for thirty minutes of mind-numbing television. I promise that more regular posts will be the rule again soon enough. Until then, I leave you with a little taste of what this past weekend was like.

Here is yet another attempt at a shot of all of the cousins. Clearly I was mistaken when I said this would be easier to capture as the kids got older: