Friend farewell

Today we also had to say "bye for now" to our dearest friends in Raleigh. We've had loads of fun together in the past 2 years. Amazing how it seems like we've known them much longer than just these 2 years. But I am thankful that we met (connected with them via Kari) them on nearly day 1 and just clicked. 

Tough chick! (don't worry, it's a bb gun)

These 2 have had loads of laughs and fun together. Writing this now (nearly 2 months later), they have fun facetime calls together and it's as if they are in the same room. 

Aaron was spent. 

Ohio

This weekend, my grandma passed away at 91. My Uncle John (her youngest son) went on a road trip to clear his head. He ended up down in Raleigh so he stopped in for a visit. Aaron immediately took to him and declared him his best friend. One of my earliest memories was probably about the same age as Aaron when Uncle John came over to our house, picked me up after my nap and took me in his hotrod car over to the pool. That memory has stuck with me. Anyhow, Aaron hadn't seen Uncle John for almost 2 years (last time was when we drove through Ohio on the way home from Thanksgiving and Kyle got so very sick and Aaron was 2 at the time) but you would have thought they saw each other every day. 

Storytime

Aaron, Emily, and I drove up to Ohio to attend my grandma's funeral and made our first stop in Columbus at the Hofbrauhaus. My dad, Kristin, and I at at the Hofbrauhaus in Germany when we first went to Europe and have some great memories there. The kids and I met up with Uncle John there. And Aaron was right at home with Uncle John. He just climbs right up to him to be near him. 

Aaron saw the band at the Hofbrauhaus and he points and says, "look at the wizard!". 

The house that I grew up in until I was 7. 

In an attempt to have a little fun on the trip before the heavy parts (and in between long drives), we spent the morning at COSI. This is a fabulous children's / science museum. The kids got to take apart a computer. That was fun until Emily sliced her finger on one of the sharp metal parts. 

They toured history. 

Emily delivered the news. 

Emily lifted up a car. 

And the kids whispered to one another from 100 feet apart. 

Beach visit with Alice

We spent tons of time together in San Diego at the beach so we thought it would be fun to hit the beach here on the east coast together. Aaron and Alice picked up right where they left off. And so did the big kids with boogie boarding and surfing. The weather was great. It was very warm out and the water was incredibly warm too. We were very pleasantly surprised to not need wetsuits in the water. It was bathtub warm. We would never have said that about the Pacific ocean in San Diego.

The kids all caught great waves boogie boarding. I was able to surf a little bit. I took Em and Ian out to surf as well and they both caught some waves. The day was great. Until the end of the day when we should have gotten out of the water instead of going for one last ride around 4:30. Mind you, there have been shark attacks at North Carolina beaches all summer, but not any that week. All of a sudden, Kyle starts screaming in pain about his foot. He was inconsolable saying his foot, something was stinging his foot. We didn't see anything so my thought was that he pulled his achilles or something. We carried him out of the water to find sting marks along his ankle and achilles. From our professional google searches, he was most likely stung by a jellyfish. Aaron and Em happily provided some pee (in a cup) to pour on his foot to help relieve the pain. It doesn't work. After about an hour and advil and benedryl, he could walk on it and wasn't in terrible pain. A few weeks later, he still had scars from the stings. Not sure if they are still there 1.5 months out (yes, I am really behind in writing).

Nevertheless, we had a great time at the beach with our best beach buddies. 

Em in from boogie boarding

The kids heading to catch waves

Group selfie (minus AJ). Betsy brought a selfie stick. 

Em & Ian walking along the dock near the intercoastal area. 

San Diego zoo and farewell for now

All good things must come to an end. And so must our awesome vacation skiing and then time in San Diego. By Friday, flights were still getting cancelled due to weather across the country. The flight we were scheduled to be one was good for the first leg, but the second leg was already cancelled at 9am. And the last thing I wanted was to be stuck somewhere in-between San Diego and Raleigh with the kids. Far better to be in San Diego where we know our way around or home in Raleigh. I called the airline to see what our options were and they said Sunday (to not be on a red-eye). At this point, it was getting a bit crazy and everything was backed up. I asked about a northern connector (which we had been avoiding thinking that was even riskier for weather delays / cancellations. We snagged the last 4 seats on a northern route for that day, until Sunday. It was a bummer to leave, but seeing how everything kept getting pushed and cancelled, we felt it best to take these seats to get home before Jeff truly wondered if we would actually ever return. He's lucky he was at home or else we may have just stayed. :-) It meant leaving a few hours earlier than planned so we didn't get to say another goodbye to friends, but did save us some tears. Funny thing happened though when we landed after our first flight. The board announcing our flight to Raleigh didn't show the last one of the evening, just the one for the next morning. My heart sunk thinking we had run into one of the scenarios we were trying to avoid. Thankfully, it wasn't cancelled and we made it home after a long day of travel. 

Before leaving though, we used our unexpired zoo passes one last time to visit the squirrel monkeys who are always entertaining. 

The evening before, we had dinner with Betsy, Alice and family. We loved spending so much time with them and it was sad to have to leave. Thankfully, we know we will see them again. And in the meantime, we have FaceTime calls quite frequently. 

This is such a fun crew! Lots of kids, but lots of fun!

Zoo finale, San Diego finale

Today the packers arrived. That meant we had to get out of the house. I needed to get out of the house for my own sanity and emotional well-being. Nothing like a bunch of strangers putting everything into boxes and clearing out your house to make a move get very real. 

So we went to the zoo. A place I have always loved. And it was on my San Diego bucket list to visit before we left. So we hit our favorite spots - the Skyfari (Kyle used to be terrified of this), the meerkats and the spider monkeys. 

Aaron had been asking to ride the train outside the zoo for some time. Today seemed like a perfect day for that. :-) So we rode the train. And Aaron loved it. Check one off Aaron's San Diego bucket list. 

Aaron had also been asking to ride the carousel near the zoo. Again, what better time to check one off his San Diego bucket list than 2 days before we left. 

Yea, then there's the move... it's still emotional seeing these pictures nearly 3 months later. I know this is just stuff, but the "here's your life in boxes and a home that holds so many memories" part is what gets me. 

That evening, Emily's best friend Haiden invited us over for dinner. They made a delicious meal for us all to eat together and the kids got to swim together for a long time. It was a welcome distraction to the move (on our last night sleeping at our house) and a wonderful time with wonderful people.