grandparents

Sunshine State

| patmcg

To celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday, the family met up at his favorite place: Siesta Key, Florida.  Phil and Noni flew in from Houston, Uncle Tim and Aunt Cindy came down from DC, and Kit, me, and the girls flew in on on our first family flight since last summer to the two Washintgon’s.

What you’ll find below is lots of pictures of this great but brief family gathering.  We all stayed in a cozy off-the-beach house together.  We had only one full day all together, and a couple of nights, but it was really amazing to have everyone together, especially for an occasion like my dad’s big birthday.  His official birthday meal was a “taco bash”, which meant a huge volume of taco meat, shells, and fixings delivered to enjoy on the sunny patio, truly Phil-style.

A few quick notes, and then on to the pictures…

  • Claire was fanatical about swimming on the beach.  She was brought almost to the point of tears when we had to leave each night.
  • Molly was fanatical about the beach toys that came with the rental house.  Her favorite was her little plastic beach wagon, which is featured prominently in the pictures.  There was also a little plastic dinosaur, which Molly named Rexi.  Molly built entire sand castles for Rexi and carefully took him around everywhere.  Tragically, at some point Molly lost Rexi to the sea.  She handled it pretty well, and we hoped that a mermaid might adopt it.
  • Molly also had a project make the ocean “less deep” by dumping one tiny shovel-full of sand at a time into the ocean.  She got her little scoop of sand from a spot about 20 years inland and carefully carried each scoop to the sea, making sure not to spill any until she actually got to the water.  She did this for nearly two hours.
  • Besides Rexi, we also lost two pairs of goggles (mine and Claire’s) during the trip, plus Molly’s at home just before the trip.  When Claire lost her goggles to the sea, she was in a near state of panic because it meant lost ocean swimming time.  After some negotiation, Molly kindly agreed to share her replacement goggles with Claire.

Spring Break 2014

| patmcg

The girls got to visit Grammy and Grandaddy in Corpus Christi for the last few days of spring break.  They visited the beach and parks, flew kites, and played with play-dough and Legos.  Sounds like a great time!  I mean, can you possibly top that?  I’m attaching a couple pictures that Joyce texted to us.

Saying goodbye to Ross
   Saying goodbye to Ross

 

Fun at the "little beach"
Fun at the “little beach”

Kit had some time off for the first (and maybe last) time ever over spring break this year.  Everyone she works with wants this week off for South By Southwest.  This week is apparently in higher demand than Christmas.  So we resolved to take advantage and see some of the music in town.  We showed up a little late for a free showcase at the Four Seasons for the KUTX live broadcast starting at 7:00 am.  Just in case we were in danger of resting up too much, the next morning we somehow showed up at 5:45 for a 6:00 am (“stupid early”) showcase at the W Hotel for KGSR.  That night we saw Lucinda Williams at The Roost outside of town.  Then we were done, wiped out.  In all, we saw Lucius, Typhoon, Rodney Crowell, Ages and Ages, Nicole Atkins, Rhett Miller, Jeremy Messersmith, The Mowgli’s, Robert Ellis, G. Love, Phantogram, and The Hold Steady.  We heard some amazing, almost free, music and discovered new bands.  

Also, we got Kit a new car.

Quick Trip to Houston

| patmcg

With Kit on vacation this week, we were able to make a quick trip to Houston to see my parents, for the first time in about a year (they had been to Austin several times, though).  We were able to leave Friday after school and spend two nights at my parents’ house.  This gave us all of Saturday in Houston, where we went to Hedwig Park, had Mexican food, and visited Kit’s cousins Cindy and Duane, who were in town at the medical center.

Claire was anxious to go swimming while in town “because it’s a tradition.”  It is true that we have had many great swim sessions at my parents’ big, warm community pool, but this time it was February and not warm outside.  I was not enthused, which is rare for me and swimming, but we brought along our swim suits and tried swimming at Cindy’s apartment complex.  It was maybe 60 degrees outside, and the pool was too cold to be fun.  We all dipped our feet and legs in the pool and eventually, much to Claire’s disappointment, called it a day, opting to explore the apartment complex in bare feet and swim suits instead.

We’ll get back to Houston in the summer sometime, so we can swim and splash in the warm water all day!

Christmas 2013

| patmcg

We had Christmas as usual in Austin.   In addition to Kit, the girls, and myself, we also had Kit’s parents, my parents, and Kit’s Uncle Bob.  So it was a party of nine.  Us adults can get pretty boring at Christmas, but not so much with the kids in the mix.  The sneaking around to hide presents, stuffing stockings, leaving cookies and milk for Santa were all still in play this Christmas.

Claire reminded us several times in clear terms that Christmas is not about the presents.  It’s about togetherness, Claire says, and she is right.  At one point for fun, Claire and I asked Siri on my iPhone what the true meaning of Christmas was.  Siri said it found a related article on the web.  That is always her lame answer!  Claire and I had a good laugh at that.  Siri is great, but she should know the true meaning of Christmas from her heart, not some web page!  😉

For her part, Molly basically is a Christmas elf.  She has exactly the right size and energy as an elf.  You don’t get to have an elf join you for Christmas every year.

Even Molly didn’t ask for presents for Christmas, and she didn’t snoop and poke at the presents under the tree.  That may be because there was basically nothing under the tree until December 23 or so, as is our tradition.  By the time Kit and I had agreed on what to get everyone, bought all the gifts, wrapped and labeled them, and transported then down to the tree, it is a miracle that Christmas has not passed by already.

Probably the best part of Christmas was seeing the girls have nice long days with all their grandparents, doing art projects, games, cooking, etc.  It was almost perfect.  Then there is the overlapping sound of different TV shows, music, etc. on the TV, the computer, someone’s iPad, etc.  Kit made a rule that only one show/sound could be played at a time.  In general, World War II documentaries dominated the TV.  At one point, Kit and I resolved that there was going to be a goddamn Christmas movie on for Christmas.  We put on White Christmas or something.  Within an hour, it was back to the war documentaries.  But that’s okay, at least it was one sound, and we all settled into it.  And the kids had already seen plenty of Elf and The Polar Express in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

 

Okay, so we have established that Christmas is not about the presents.  You can stop here if you don’t care about presents.

Okay good, since presents don’t matter, I shouldn’t even mention them.  But since they are kind of a time capsule, here are a few highlights… Both girls got sleeping bags for camping.  They also each got a big fancy box from Santa to keep their stuff in.  Many of Molly’s favorites were actually from Uncle Bob, including a 530-piece (!) paper activity set and some plastic princess shoes which Molly calls her glass slippers.  She also ended up with a giant floor piano you play with your feet and a musical marble stacking/rolling thingy.  Claire got some cool sets for designing clothes and making her own custom dollhouse.  She also got her some shoes and roller-skates for her beloved Fluttershy stuffed pony.  And a sewing machine that doesn’t work so much, or at all (oops!).

So there it is, Christmas 2013… Sometimes a little too fast, sometimes a little too slow.  But this was still a real kids’ Christmas full of magic and togetherness.  See the brief Christmas video too.  Also, the girls’ very sweet present to Kit and me.

Claire turns 8!

| patmcg

Claire’s birthday fell on the day after Thanksgiving this year.  For the first time in years, we went to Corpus Christi for Thanksgiving this year, and we all stayed and celebrated Claire’s birthday down by the Bay.  All four of Claire’s grandparents were there as well as (great) Uncle Bob.

As you see in the photos, Molly was crying for Claire’s official candle-blowing-out.  She had been asked to vacate the seat at the head of the table to make room for Claire.  Molly did not agree or consent to this plan and let us know.  Later, Molly made up a brief story, possibly as a sort of apology.  She said the main character was Jonny Jakes.  The story was called “Jonny Jakes, for Heaven’s Sakes!”  In the brief story, Johnny Jakes messed up his big sister’s birthday party by making a scene.  Everyone said, “Jonny Jakes, for Heaven’s Sakes!” and Jonny was sorry.  The end.

Presents included two nearly identical My Little Pony Rainbow Dash dolls.  It was a clear and obvious choice!  We later exchanged one Rainbow Dash for Pinky Pie.  Claire also got a big Playmobil Santa’s workshop.  Uncle Tim mailed in a painting set with dolphin scenes, thus combining the recommended topics of art and dolphins.

Off to London

| patmcg

Kit and I both turned 40 in the last year, and it was our 15th wedding anniversary.  So we decided to celebrate with a week trip together.  Grammy kindly and bravely agreed to watch the kids wile Kit and I ran off to some corner of the world for a week.

Kit and I decided to make the most of this unique opportunity to go pretty much wherever we wanted.  We decided early on to go international.  California, New York, Florida, etc. all sounded great.  But they also sounded like something we could do with the kids.  After some vacilating about where exactly to go, we picked London, beating out Venice and maybe a Caribbean beach resort as the other final contenders.

It was a great trip.  Some details and tons of pictures can be found on a separate post in the new non-kids section.

Back on the home front, Grammy and the girls held up very well while we were gone.  They survived some flooding and the school carnival in Austin.  We got a text message from the girls every day.  Claire, in her messages, always wanted to make sure we were having a good time.  Molly, who apparently thought we were in “Lindon”, went so far as to say, “I hope you come back.”  (TODO: attach the messages.)  Grandaddy stayed on the weekends to help out too, especially with the crazy school carnival.

As fun as our trip was, it was really great to see the girls again.  Man, those girls are ridiculously cute and cuddly when you have not seen them in a while.  They greeted us with a big “Welcome home!” sign, plus a happy birthday sign and homemade cake for my birthday.  And there were lots of hugs.  The girls got a treat too.  They really liked the souvenirs we brought home from the British Museum: a glittery Union Jack notebook with matching pen, some “London landmarks” school supplies, some British chocolate coins, plus some leftover real coins.

It would be really fun to take the girls to England one day, but we’ll have to wait a few years to handle the long, cramped  flight, the tedious lines at customs, and the jet lag.  That would not have been fun for anyone right now.  Hopefully we’ll get them to Florida or California one of these days, though.

Many thanks to Grammy for taking great care of the kids for us while we explored the world a bit.

Noni’s birthday

| patmcg

The girls’ paternal grandmother, aka Noni, aka my mom, is turning 70 this month.  To celebrate, we took the girls for a weekend trip to Houston.  My brother Tim and his wife Cindy fly in from Virginia.  My mom seemed delighted to have everyone together in the same house, if only for one night.

We had about 24 hours together.  All we did was hang out in the house and at the pool.  There was lots of swimming.  We topped it off with a great birthday feast at Harvest Grille. The girls had lots of fun swimming and playing with Noni’s special toys and crafts.  Molly even enjoyed her new inflatable travel bed (no more Pak ‘n’ Play!).  It really was great getting everyone together, and the car trip was not too bad this time around either.

Below are some pictures.  One of Noni’s friends took some family pictures on Sunday morning, trying to beat in the August sunshine.

Birthday feast

Noni and the girls

Molly asleep on her new travel bed

Off to Anacortes

| patmcg

The girls took their big summer trip to Washington state this year, to visit Grammy and Granddaddy and their namesake boat, the Molly Claire, in Anacortes.  I was all set to go on this trip, but ended up staying back in Austin at the last minute to make a big push on my secret project.

Claire was rightfully upset that I was not going, saying, “This is the worst plan in the world!”  But we all knew she would end up having tons of fun up in Washington, exploring islands, riding on boats, escaping the Texas summer heat, and of course, seeing her grandparents.  Molly is at that lucky age where she did not especially care (or understand?) that I was not going along.

Kit was brave enough to fly out there with both girls by herself.  The trip out sounded like it went pretty well, but the trip back was a little tricky, including turbulence that kept Claire buckled into her seat and caused her first peeing accident since she was a baby.  Yikes!  The girls arrived back in Austin jet lagged and urine soaked but in very good spirits.  They made quite a loud, happy racket in the airport when I greeted them, and I ended up with two girls hanging off of various limbs all the way to the car.

Since I did not go along, I can only post pictures of the trip.  I am sure the MV Molly Claire blog will cover it, though!  BTW, this is both of the girls’ first visit to Washington state.

While Kit and the girls were up galavanting around the islands, I took advantage of a huge amount of time — six full days — and got more work done on my project (80+ hours) than I had in about the last five months of working on Sunday afternoons.  I missed everyone greatly, as did our dog Muffin, who seemed “off” and confused with the house so quiet.  By the time the girls got back, I was pretty worn out from solitary working and definitely ready for the silliness, smiles, and yes, even all the yelling and stomping that comes with the girls.

Huddling with Grammy Huddling with GrammyTossing stones Tossing stonesClimbing on the rocks Climbing on the rocksExploring the harbor on the dingy Exploring the harbor on the dingyClaire sketching away on the ferryClaire sketching away on the ferry

Picking strawberries
Picking strawberries

Molly on the Molly ClaireMolly on the Molly Claire

Welcoming the girls back home
Greeting the girls at the airport

 

The Molly Claire

| patmcg

Grammy and Granddaddy have a new boat in Anacortes, Washington.  They have been sailing there for years and recently got a new boat which is apparently friendlier for kids, etc.

They have now officially christened their boat after their grand girls!  The boat is called the “Molly Claire”.  It turns out that “Molly Claire” just sounds better than “Claire Molly”.  The girls will get a chance to sail on their namesake in July.