moms need to learn how to do new things

For Barry’s birthday I got him a rock climbing rope and some other gear he didn’t have. He had been saying that he really wants get into climbing now that we live by mountains again. We’ve taken the kids several times– me chasing Ian, bouncing Hunter and taking pictures, him belaying. Our best friends from college came last weekend with their 5 little girls and because of some stroke of insanity we took 10 children under the age of 10 rock climbing. Let me just say that our hands were a bit too full to get many pictures of that adventure.

Yesterday we got to go with other grown ups with fewer kids, so I actually got to give it a try.

Good thing this picture can’t show my legs totally shaking.

I learned that I need to have shorter fingernails.

My arms are a bit sore today.

(For pictures of the kids climbing click here.)

birthday at Tahoe

On Wednesday I turned 31. That sounds so grown up. I am now in my 30s. Geesh. When I was younger I had this idea that I would accomplish amazing things by the time I was 30. You know, like have art hung in galleries throughout the world, a book or two published, things like that. I guess what I have done– being married for nearly 11 years, given birth to 5 kids, lived all over the country– are pretty good things, especially that being married part and having all those little humans. Those books and art gallery exhibitions will just have to wait their turn.

To celebrate my birthday I got to do my favorite thing– walk around outside in an amazingly beautiful place with my very favorite person in the whole universe.

Barry spent part of the week being a judge at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Reno, Nevada. We found a babysitter for the four biggest kids so that Hunter and I could tag along. I had my first casino experience (our hotel was a casino, so we got to walk through it over and over) –not too impressive, just really disorienting and stinky. Other than that, the trip was so relaxing. I got to do things like nap and shop for jeans that actually fit, and best of all drive up the mountain to see Lake Tahoe, the lake of amazing turquoise water.

I didn’t think to bring Hunter a hat. He did have a burp rag on his head most of the time, just not for pictures. You know, having just one baby is a piece of cake. He was so good.

I have a friend who grew up here by Lake Tahoe. Her dad just decided that he needed to raise his family in a cool place, so he packed up his wife and 8 kids, moved to a little town by the lake, and started a business doing accounting. They had a tiny house for such a large family, but there were those mountains and that water– way better than a big house. While we were driving around we tried to figure out how we could get that plan to work out for us. When we got home Barry checked zillow.com. Um, well, I think $3 million- $16 million is a little out of our price range. A girl can dream though, right?

Happy birthday to me!

(All of these photos were shot by Barry, the non-babywearer on this trip.)

getting out there

It seems winter came just as it was officially spring. We had weeks of beautiful weather in the upper 60s and lower 70s in late February and early March, but Hunter was so freshly hatched then I just wasn’t up for much. Once that spring equinox came and went we had snow almost every weekend. Things have taken a long time to get green, but I think now it is safe to say spring has finally sprung.

The driveway has become a maze of rocks and chalk-drawn rooms.

The animal houses are extending into the lawn, too.

Along with 4 rabbits out front we spied the first strawberry blossoms. Now to figure out how to keep the strawberries safe from all the rabbits.

And we’ve got lilacs in bloom! I didn’t miss the biting gray misty gloom of Ohio in winter, but I must say now that it’s spring I’ve been longing to see redbuds and magnolias crowned in pink, so the lilacs in our backyard make me smile.

If you’re wondering where we are, we’ll be outside.