Kids and Such

Elliott Escalante, Hazel Montgomery, Caiden Escalante, Jade Montgomery

Aren't kids funny?  That's pretty much all I have to say about that picture right there.  Yah.  See?  I tried.  Nothing came.  Oh, that's a little plastic wobbly head turtle that Hazel Rei is holding.  Caiden and Jade have food, of course.  And Elliott?  Well, he's probably wondering whether his clothes are dirty.  I'm serious.  He's really paranoid about it.  You know how people talk about the care-free days of their youth?  Those memories won't exist for Elliott.  He never has such a thing as a care-free day.  I love him to death, but that boy gets stressed, I'm telling ya.

Here is a fun little factoid for you.  All four of these kids have some Hispanic blood in their veins.  No kidding.  My kids are the extremely white boy and the little bit more tan girl in the pink flower dress.  The other two girls are my brothers.  My brother and I both married people who are about half some kind of Hispanic.  But look how non-Hispanic looking all of our kids turned out.  There's only one brown haired one out of the bunch!  Interesting.  My mom had very strong genes.  You should see the six of us kids line up together.  We're all pretty much identical... To each other and my mom.  Sorry, Dad, you only get one look-a-like.

I find this so very interesting.  I always thought it would be so amazing to be able to check some other box other than "Caucasian" on those survey thingies.  I would love to have a fascinating heritage to talk about.  My great-grandfather's last name was "Bruce"  and for so many years I clung to the fact (well, I'm not really sure its a fact) that I AM RELATED TO ROBERT THE BRUCE.  And I would actually tell people I had some royal Scottish blood (I no longer do that, nor do I condone those who do).  So when I found out that my husband was an interesting mix I hounded him about the race box.  "So what box do you check?" I wanted to know.  He always checks "Caucasian."  Oooo, I used to yell at him for that.  I so wish I could check another box and he actually can, but doesn't.  I've since learned to let it go.  You know, breathing is supposed to really help? 

Now my kids actually have some interesting heritage to trace back--to Spain and such--but nobody will ever ask them about it, because you can't even tell!  But maybe, just maybe, they'll want to check that other little box.

My Dad: Super Cool Tractor Guy

How cool is my dad?  I'll let you decide after showing you what my dad does for a living.  This is another installment of my retelling of our adventures in Connecticut this June.  Enjoy.

My dad is super cool.  My dad fixes things for a living--you can't get much more optimistic than that.  That's not to say that both my dad and I are not grim, we are.  We're both the more serious and thoughtful sort that tend to notice the fact that there is liquid missing from the cup, you know, the glass half empty sort...  But I digress.  My dad fixes things, BIG things...

See that tiny man next to that gigantic tractor?  That's my dad.  Isn't he cool?  I think so.  For as long as I can remember, my dad has been a fixer.  He used to build houses, too.  But now he's just a mechanic.  He lends out his services to any number of his many children and their spouses.  I guess you could say he's a superhero of sorts.  There was only one little incidence where my dad's superpowers got away from him.  That was when he lent me his mechanics version of a "batmobile," that had been jimmy-rigged with special equipment in the trunk for fixing things and my kids stroller hit the special superhero switch and started a fire and made lots of smoke and I had to bail my kids' out on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.  But he was sorry and promised to keep better track of his powers from then on.

If you're starting to think that my dad is cool, you haven't seen nothin' yet.  You should see his forehead crinkles... They're amazing!  I used to lay in bed at night when he was tucking me in and beg him to show me his forehead crinkles and then I would cry because I didn't have any.  Anyhow, this is the shop where my dad works.  He has the late shift right now--3pm to 11pm, which is why I was able to get a tour and take some photos when nobody was around.

Look at this.  My dad likes to call it the "Pit of Despair" like from The Princess Bride.  This is where the oil guy works.  All the oil from the huge trucks gets emptied into that pit.  And a guy works down there... Cool, huh?

This is on the inside of my dad's toolbox... He's pretty clever, too, just like me.  Also, he's creative.  I don't have a picture of it, but that wooden box below is something he attached to his toolbox to make a nice little tray attachment thing that all the other guys at his work are jealous of since they paid like $700 for something similar.

As I said, my dad is more serious-minded, but that isn't to say that he doesn't have a sense of humor.  Quite the contrary.  My dad has many a thing that makes him chuckle in his own little way.  The above image is a prime example.  In my dad's mind, its satisfyingly humorous--in his own way.  Its hard to explain...

My dad also has an excellent memory.  He's sort of like an encyclopedia for unimportant facts about people.  You can watch any movie with him and he will have some interesting fact to tell you about at least one of the actors.  He definitely has a great imagination.  He used to tell me the best stories when I was little.  My kids love him.  He and Caiden were thick as thieves this trip.  It was really too cute.

He's so fun!  My dad just has this kind of mind that... so easily makes any situation fun or funny.  Like here on the slide... He's pretending that he's really scared and proceeds to throw his hands in the air and yell as they all slide down.  Who does that?  MY DAD!  I'm telling you:  he's really cool!

My dad has this basement that is every boy's dream--filled with toys and tools and all manner of curious things and...its a basement.  After I suggested that maybe Elliott should refrain from his daily/hourly trips down there because of his allergies, my dad proceeded to explain to me that I might as well castrate my son and prohibit him from being a boy.  "Every boy needs a basement." he told me.  Or a "man cave" as my step-mom puts it.

My dad just has such a full heart.  Boyish even.  He's so full of love.  And you know what?  My dad thinks I'm awesome.  Not just because he has to.  He really, actually, truly, literally thinks that I'm the best thing since sliced bread.  And you know, that just feels really good sometimes. 

That's my dad and his wife, Terrie.  Aren't they sweet?  We had such a fun time staying with them.  My dad says you can tell its going to be a great day when you wake up and Terrie has made coffee.  Otherwise:  "This is going to be a rotten day, I can just tell!"  Its funny--to my dad.  In his own way... Its hard to explain.

Gosh, there's so much more to tell about my dad, but... This will have to do for now.  I love you, Dad.  And I really, really miss you.  Come visit soon!

Here We Go Recap: Flight

We're gonna start out raw here. No editing, just naked photos. That's right, I admit it. I sometimes cheat... I let the professional photographer do all the fancy editing for me. But since he's pretty busy at the moment and I haven't picked up much in the way of Photoshop skills yet, (hey! I finally just got the whole concept of how the aperture works with the shutter speed...) I'm just gonna wing it for now. (Check out Pioneer Woman's "What the heck is an aperture" series, its a great little tutorial with humor.)

Our flight(s) to Connecticut turned out to be a 14-ish hour affair, including driving time and time spent in the airports. But all that is to be expected when you fly into good ol' CT. For some reason you just cannot find a non-stop flight from CA to CT. So we had a layover at JFK in New York City. But it was worth it! The night view we had of the city was amazing. It took me a while to get my settings right and focus without much light, so I didn't get to catch all of the magnificance, but I did get a shot or too of the city near the water line.

This trip is about 7 hours of flying time, total. So, needless to say, its pretty tough on little munchkins. I didn't buy a ticket for Caiden since she's still able to be an "infant in arms," so we did our share of wiggling and whining, but over all, it wasn't too bad. Here's my list of must haves or just good ideas if you can manage it for long trips with kids on planes...(long enough title?):

1) Kiddie headphones! We got ours from ifrogz but their link isn't working, so I linked you to Amazon.

2) Technology! (We brought the iPhone for games/movies and an iPod, too for videos, but do what you can...)

3) Lollipops! (for take-off and landing) I loved these Yummy Earth Organic Vitamin C Pops. (found 'em at Whole Foods)

4) Snacks (Lots and lots and lots of snacks of varying variety, please. You don't want 'em bored with the same old snacks, you know.)

5) A new toy

6) Spill-less water bottle (try Camelbak, we just used the sports/bicycle one, but they have many varieties)

P.S. Whatever you do, DO NOT give your kiddies apple juice from the cute little stewardess'. WATER ONLY for munchkins on a plane. You give 'em apple juice and you can pretty much garauntee you'll be tapping on that sleeping man's shoulder next to you so that you can scramble to the on-board bathroom in like .02 seconds after they consume it!

Those are all things that I found invaluable on this trip and was SO glad I brought along, besides the basic stuff like diapers, etc.

So, we gazed, we fidgeted, we whined, we rushed, we dragged, we wriggled, we cried (just a little), we stretched, we nibbled, we watched, we yawned. Heck! We even laughed a little, and when we finally reached Grandma's and Grandpa's, we crashed!

We're Back!

So...  we went to Connecticut.  Did I tell you that?  No, I didn't.  You know why?  I'll tell you:

I didn't tell you about Connecticut, because I haven't been blogging much these days (but you know that), because I've been digging in more to God's Word and will for my life and finding that it leaves less time for...blogging, and because I finally gave in to Facebook which makes me feel more connected which lessens my drive to write my blogs, and also, we got a new desktop computer and have been switching things over to it and then it didn't have internet, so I would upload my photos, but had no way to transfer them to my laptop which does have internet, and my husband usually edits my photos for me, but he's been really busy (what with trying to get the new computer dialed in--this thing is a beast!) and then I went on a trip to Connecticut, and so on and so forth.  BUT.  I want to come back and so this is just a little hello from little ol' me with a little picture of Elliott and his beautiful cousin, Hazel, who lives far, far away in Philadelphia.  They had a wonderful time together and they're such cuties, I thought you might like to see this photograph I made of them.  Hopefully there will be more to come if I can ever get my photos into my husband's busy queue.  "Here's lookin' at you, kid!"

In the Belly of the Truck

Red Truck!  Fire Truck!  Farmer's Market!  Yay!

More interesting posts to come... promise.