Washington DC

Day 1 of our trip was all airplane travel.  We had 3 flights, with a 40 min layover between each on... let me tell you, we were hoofin' it across those airports!  But are children did amazing!  We all got to sit together because the planes had 3 seats on each side.  We arrived in good spirits, and somehow managed to get on the metro rail and find our hotel.  Jesse's work put us up in the Marriott Warden Park hotel right by the national zoo.  It costs $500 a night, but we were less than impressed.  Service was rude, everything was so expensive I wanted to die, and they told me we could not use the sink... due to it being plugged, and then they graciously told me it would be a hassle to move me to another room, because they were a busy.  : (  No bueno.  And every day we were there, service people called at least every 30 hour for some silly reasons, and woke my kids up from their naps.  This was also not good.  They didn't have continental breakfast.  Laundry was available, but not to do yourself, you had to pay... lets just say to wash  a pair of socks was $4.  But they did have a pool, which was nice.  It didn't have steps... so Lyla had to spider monkey it on the wall, and Spencer was glued to my hip.  We basically ate McDonalds for 3 days straight because everything else around the hotel was mighty expensive.  My kids got the runs from so much grease.  

Day 2 was our first day without Jesse, and we decided to brave the world alone!  It was a dismal failure.  For all you who read my facebook post... we all broke down and cried multiple times before noon.  First off, we hadn't anticipated all the stairs!  Starting with McDonalds... we couldn't even get into the restaurant with a stroller... it went down hill after that, or should I say uphill.  The walk to the zoo was supposed to be .3 miles, but it was more like .7 miles all up hill!  Which was a great work out, but by the time I got to the zoo I was too pooped to actually walk around it.  The zoo was free!  Hooray, and ray of sunshine.  And it was so green and gorgeous, and lush, and empty of all animal life.  We saw zebras, and after walking over a mile to find the hidden entrance to the panda exhibit, we saw 1 panda.  This was the highlight!  And needless to say our zoo expedition ended there.  We tried to buy hot dogs for lunch, but the girl couldn't work the register, and the man said they weren't really ready anyways... so we got stuck eating a super power bar that was putrid green with raisins in it... it cost us $5.  Oh, and we also shared a cup of cantalope... also $5.  And the bathrooms we went to after our "lunch" were not stroller accessible, oh joy!  By that point my kids had sweat out half their bodyweight, so we headed back to the hotel for some solace.  The room phone wouldn't stop ringing, and finally because I would not answer, they knocked on my door and woke up my children.  They got maybe 40 minutes of sleep.  Yuck!  But I did meet a neat lady at dinner that was there with her two kids as well.  Same ages as mine.  She had attempted the zoo too, and had lasted 6 hours!  Wowzers... I think we lasted 2 tops.  

Needless to say, this was our only picture from Thursdays zoo adventure.

Day 3 I learned my lesson.  Stay at the hotel.  Don't take a stroller anywhere!  Swim in the pool as much as possible.  And lastly we hung out with the groovy gal we had met at McDonalds the night before.  No pictures of this perfect day.  Jesse got out of his conference at 4, and we headed downtown to the hotel we had for the remainder of the stay.  Comfort Suites!  Oh comfort suites how I love you!  They have warm otis spunkmier cookies at all times in the lobby.  Everything was awesome, and they even had a facility to do laundry for only $2 a load... beat the heck out of Marriott!  And it was a close to everything we went to go see!  We ate ethiopian food this night, and it was amazing, go try it... right now!

Day 4 was great.  Jesse was there to help me lug the stroller around, so it wasn't so hard.  We planned to do the Smithsonian museums on Saturday, which is what we did.  We started at the castle, and made our way around to the other side, ending with the Museum of American History.

 Waiting for the Subway train! 

 Riding the Smithsonian Carousel on the National Mall

 Air and Space Museum, that is the original airplane made by the wright brothers.

 Warning:  Do NOT feed the squirrels at the sculpture garden... they will attack you when you stop feeding them, Jesse barely made it out alive after trying to defend us from this little guy!

 After lunch we soaked our feet in a fountain.

 Museum of Natural History, Super cool.  The kids loved the discovery room best.

Sunday was day 5.  We went to church at the Chevy Chase ward.  Both kids loved nursery.  Jesse was engaged in a casual conversation with some random guy, when the guy asked what he did.  Jess replied he was a CPA, and to be polite asked the man what he did.  "Oh, I'm a senator."  Jesse had been talking to Harry Reed, but hadn't known it!  It was pretty funny.  After church we went to the National Archives and say the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights... along with some other neat things.

Afterwards we went back to the sculpture gardens and killed some time

 Lyla was gracious enough to snap one of me and Jess

 We started walking over to the memorials as it got dark.

 We finally got to the Lincoln memorial, just as the sun was about to set.

 Here is Honest Jess hanging out with Honest Abe

 This is what the kids looked like on Sunday night after trekking around the 

mall to see the monuments lit up at night.  Look close, the white house is in the background!

Day 6 was paddle boats (which Spencer hated) and going through the white house visitor center.  We bought the kids commemorative white house ornaments for this upcoming Christmas.  We buy them an ornament every year.  So we thought this was a good place to get them!  After that we went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  As soon as we got a block away, police swarmed the block and shut  everything down.  Apparently there was a bomb threat at the holocaust museum.  Jesse was so peeved.  The Bureau of Engraving and Printing was the top place he wanted to see, and you had to have tickets, which we did, but if they didn't let us through soon, we would miss our time slot.  He kept saying "Who would want to blow up the Holocaust museum?  There are so many other better places to blow up!"  Anyways.... right in time, they arrested a guy, and we got to go on our tour!  It was neat... we got to see the new 100 bill they will be coming out with in a few years (Spoiler Alert!!! It is blue).

Paddle Boats, with some wicked wind.. I thought we wouldn't make it back to the dock!

 Jefferson Memorial from the paddle boat

 Bureau of Printing and Engraving

Day 7 was all about capitol hill.  Jesse went into the Capitol building while I stayed outside with the kiddos.  You couldn't take in water or snacks... both which resided in my backpack.  We then we to see the Superior court building, but it is under construction.  Lastly we went to the Library of Congress.  That building is breath taking!  It was really amazing.  I felt like I was in Europe.  All flooring and ceiling were little mosaic masterpieces!

 After the Library of Congress we picked up our luggage, and went to the airport.  Spencer really enjoyed seeing the planes taxi in and out.

So would I do DC again... YES!  With toddlers.... NO!  Not because they didn't enjoy it, they did.  The city layout is too hard to navigate with children in tow.  It was such a pain, and very exhausting.  I would say any child that can walk well on their own (8 and older)  would make the trip way more convenient!  

We did an insane amount  of walking, which actually didn't bother me at all.  I felt great the entire time.  Although, when I got home, I had an appointment with my midwife, who said the baby's head is now fully engaged in my pelvis, probably due to all the walking and stairs, and because of this will probably come early.  Lets hope not!  I'm not ready!

Well I hope this wasn't a bummer read, it was a great trip minus the first 2 days, so hopefully I didn't complain to much in my post.  I really loved the trip, it was amazing to see all that history!

Saturday's adventure

A few months ago my mother gave us a solid cast iron wheat grinder. It was full of rust and needed some TLC, but I didn't feel up to the task. It sat forever untouched, then I tried taking it to a machine shop to be soda blasted... But they said it could ruin the moving parts. I was going to chuck it, but decided to do a bit of research first, apparently it is one of the highest quality hand grinders in the world... So then I felt guilty and couldn't chuck it. It went back on our to do list, and out of our minds, until Saturday!

We took it to jesse's parents house where I disassembled it into all it's pieces, Jesse was kind enough to thoroughly scrub it down with a rust eating solvent. We then washed it several times with dish soap, used an air compressor to dry it, and oiled it with olive oil. After reassembly, we took it for a test drive.

And so did all the kids! Everyone sat around as we tried to get it to work properly. It was a lot of fun and lots of calories burned. We can't wait to grind some fresh flour for some home made bread! It makes about a cup of flour a minute... If you don't take a break :)

Due to its massive size and weight, unfortunately we have nowhere to keep it. I voted for bolting it to my kitchen counter, but everyone else thought that was a bad idea :) eh, tomato, tamato.

I joked with my in-laws that next week I was bringing my old butter churner for refurbishing... But alas I don't have one of those!

There and Back Again: A Tucker Tale

So we finally went on our first real vacation!  Exciting, I know!  We traveled to California to see lots of family, and did fun things on the way.

Stop 1: My cousin Meghan's House.  She just had her 5th, darling baby... who was so good, that most of the time I forgot he was even there.  When we stopped by, the baby was less than two weeks old, and my cousin had an entire BBQ ready for us, and a clean house, and sparkling pool for us to splash in!  It was so much fun.  She even had two little turtles living in her pool!  Talk about crazy!  I didn't know turtles could acclimate to chlorine.  Sadly, we didn't get a single picture here : (

Stop 2:  My Nan and Papa Merl's House.  Nan is the candy keeper, so needless to say, my children were in   heaven with all the sweet treats!  They just moved into the cutest little place in El Centro, and have really done it up nice.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures here too!  My Dad and brother also came to stay there while we were there, so that worked out fun.

Stop 3:  My Aunties Houses.  My Dad has a brother and sister.  They live right next door to each other, and have a gate connecting their backyards (neat right!).  We decided to drop by for another BBQ and splash in the pool, where I did remember I had a camera!  We saw all of my Dad's family... minus a few people.  It was so good to catch up, and see everyone.  Jesse and I always leave there thinking, "wow, they are such down to earth good people, we love visiting!"  

 

Stop 4:  We then headed up to San Diego, where lucky for us, the temple was open on a Monday because it was a holiday.  Hooray!  So Jesse and I took turns going in and doing initiatories. It is a beautiful temple.  When I went in the lady at the inititory desk apologized for the lack of organization... they were alittle crazy because of the busy holiday.  I laughed, because there was no wait time, I had a booth and 3 ladies completely to myself, and I did 5 names in 15 minutes.  I made the comment that they weren't that busy.  My temple district was Mesa, Az, and you can't do initiatories there without at least a 30min-1 hr  wait!  They thought I was kidding.  I assured them.... I was not.  So here is our little family in front of the temple!

Stop 5:  La Jolla Beach!  Where else would we go in San Diego?!  Ok so Lyla and Jess had a blast!  Spencer slept through it all on the sand ( I kid you not).  And I sat there sifting through the shells my kind hubby brought me from the ocean!  I am a mountain person.  I love the smell, the sounds, the feel.  I am not a beach girl!  I find it smelly, and crowded, and sandy, and salty, and all around pretty unpleasant.  My dislike for the beach is  probably due to the fact that I have super sensitive skin, and stepping in the water burns like I just stepped in to acid!  I hate it.  And it continues to burn after I get out of the water, for like 15 minutes!  So I did not enjoy the freezing acid water, but Lyla did.  She was very wary at first, "Mom, I can't go to the beach until I am older and bigger, I might get lost in that big water!"  But she warmed up to the waves right away.

 look hard, there is a Spencer in there!

 Stop 6:  LA, where Jesse's grandparents live.  This was a neat stop.  I was a little apprehensive because his grandmother has Alzheimers, and I wasn't sure how things would go.  It went great.  My kids didn't even mind giving Grandma hugs and kisses every 3 minutes!  Until day 2, when Lyla and Spencer put their foot down.  Lyla: "No I will not hug you again, but you can play my IPAD with me." Spencer: "Don't do that!" every time she reached for him.  It was such a wonderful visit and the weather was wonderful!  Jesse's grandpa has the best sense of humor, and we all laughed alot.  The only run in we had was Jesse's grandma "cleaning up" the bathroom counter.  She took his contacts and his glasses case.  We searched for about 2 hours, but alas, I do believe they are gone forever!

 

Stop 7: Back to San Diego to visit the Olea's.  The Olea's are basically grandparents to me.  They are neat people!  And they have a super groovy patio, where we sat and let the kids play to their hearts delight.  We had tuna sandwiches, lays potato chips, and 7 up.  Does summer get any better than that?  No!  Even though we only stopped for a bit, it was wonderful, and we had so much fun.

Stop 8:  Yuma, to visit my Dad.  This stop was wonky.  We enjoyed my Dad, but he lives in an apartment, so we were all  in tight quarters, and with 2 kids that was almost disastrous.  But lucky for us, he plans on buying a small home soon, so the next time we visit, perhaps we won't make him sleep on the couch!  He took us to the river and that was a blast.  The colorado was running low, so it was only a few inches deep for lots of the river where we were at, which the kids loved!  And we were right under the Ocean to Ocean bridge, so every time a train went directly over us the kids were enthralled.  We let them dry off in by playing on a playground, and then went to eat at Pizza Hut.  It was wicked hot in Yuma though.  I know I live in Tucson which isn't much better, but let me tell you... there is a huge difference!  This pregnant lady could tell.  At least it is cool in the mornings and evenings here.  It was like 100* at 7:30 in the morning there...ugh!

Stop 9: Back to the old homestead, which was so lovely to return to.  I am a homebody, and while I like to travel a bit, usually 2 or 3 days tops me out, and this trip was almost a week long.  But I must confess, my kids were champs!  They didn't cry once in the car.  Well Spencer whined twice for 5 minutes when he was overly tired before crashing out for a car nap.  But other than that, we scraped by relatively unscathed!  Now for a 3 and 1 year old, that is pretty good.  What can I say, I have good kiddos, whom I love so much.  And a dear husband whom I am blessed to have snagged!  We got home on our 4th anniversary.  May 31st.  We talked about how it feels like we've  known each other forever, yet it feels like we just barely got married yesterday!  He is the light of my life, and though we didn't do anything extravagant for our anniversary (because we were pooped)  it was nice to sit next to him on the couch, in our own comfy home, and share the moment and reflect about all the love between us, and what a lovely family and life we have created!

Adventures into Holistic Medicine

CAUTION:  Severe misspelling will follow.  Please bear with me.

Well as you all know, I'm very fond of new ideas.  Recently I had the bug to take my children to a "holistic" pediatrician.  Lately I've been fed up with the way my pediatrician prescribes my kids antibiotics (azithromyacin no less, because they get a rash from amoxacillan these days) everytime I visit.  HELLO, EARTH TO DR.  you just said my child had acute bronchitis... which is viral my friend!  I don't need to be handed a presciption to be happy, just tell me my kids are fine and send me on my merry way.  I just want to make sure they aren't on their death bed with phnuemonia or something.

So needless to say, I'm not a big fan of drugs anyways, especially heavy duty ones.  And I am always googling home remedies.  So when Spencer started getting these blister like lesions on his scrotum and penis, I was very concerned... because they would look like they were about to clear up, but then come back worse.  I didn't want to self diagnos and treat his man parts, so I thought I would take him in.  But I refused to go to my regular pediatrician: the last thing I wanted to hear was, "oh, it must be from the cloth diapers you use, just switch him to disposable for a while and it will clear up."  UGH!

So off I went to find a Holistic doc that would see infants.  Low and behold, there was only one in town.  Super.  I called, not only did I have a nice hearty chat with the receptionist, she had the doctor call me back, and we spoke on the phone for a half hour.  He said he could see me anytime, so I scheduled an appointment for the next day. 

I cart my children into this herbal smelling, and might I add very dirty office.  But office aside, the trip was just that... a complete trip!  The guy came out and I didn't know if he was the doctor or a homeless man.  He had long grey hair, but was dressed nice... although, I'm not sure he had shoes on. 
And he took me back to a small room, where he proceeded to hop onto the exam table (and sit cross legged at 65+ years old). 

But, I was totally digging the experience, so I went along with it.  First he helped me get familiar and comfortable with holistic medicine, then he proceeded to question me about everything!  And I mean everything.  My pregnancies, the births, the children's diet, their routine, their sleep, how they teethe, how often they poop and pee, how often they get sick, what they normally get sick with.  He felt them all over their bodies, and asked them questions.  We were there for an hour.  He was very thorough.  He also said in 30 years of practice... he had never had to resort to antibiotics for a child (I was astonished, and quite happy!)  And in the end he said Spencer had a localized skin irritation, and he would whip up a salve.  So he turned around and whipped up a herbal, botanical, salve (which is guacamole green no less) and slathered it on him.   And gave me the rest to take home, which was quite a bit, and told me I could put it on just about any skin irritation on the body.  I kid you not, the skin irritation was gone in less than 24 hrs, and he had 4 big lesions!

After that he said he was almost sure Spencer had a food allergy, because he had some slight puffiness around the eyes, and also his lymph nodes were more swollen than is normal in healthy children.  He said that would also explain his tendency to get bronchitis very easily.  He encouraged our entire family to go on a elimination challenge diet to help find Spencer's allergy.  He gave me all the material I needed for reading and then told me to hold on.  He left the room and came back with the most awful smelling "tincture" he had made for me.  He said if my kids ever had a cold/flu/cough/bronchitis/etc.  to put a dropper full in their water 5 times a day, or up to every hour if needed, and it would nip it in the bud. 

Well, I must say... I haven't found the courage to do the elimination challenge, which would be eliminating all wheat, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, oranges, peanuts, and like 7 other things from our diet for 2 weeks!  Yikes.  I am collecting recipes first!  So if any of you know any good recipes for preparing a filling, nutritious meal from air, please shoot it over : )

I really enjoyed the experience, and got some good tips on how to boost my childrens natural immunity to help prevent further needs for doctor visits.  The Holistic Medicine Man also told me to go get a home remedy kit at a health food store, which carries lots of different holistic medicines in them, and to call him for minor illnesses and he can diagnos over the phone and walk me through mixing my own medicine right from my kit at home.  Neat-O right?  At least I thought so.  I hate when I know what my kids have but I have to go to the doc just to get a prescription!  So all in all the experience was fun and enlightening.  And totally far out there!!! Even for me.  But I have really enjoyed how well the holistic medicine has worked for our family... it seems to work magic around here.  We even tried the tincture for a cough Lyla had. 

My one complaint... he encouraged us (children and parents) to give up dairy completely.  He said contrary to popular belief, it isn't really that healthy at all, unless fermented into yogurt or kefir.  I totally didn't believe him, but after reading some scientific journals, and research studies... it seems he is right.  There are tons of not so great side effects from consuming dairy.  Mostly because the dairy we consume has been homogenized and pasturized.  Apparently raw goat milk is the best option.  So I guess my chickens will be getting some new playmates sooner rather than later!  Good thing I love goats anyways, right?

But for now, we aren't going to give up dairy completely... cut back, sure.  Make sure we are consuming healthier forms of it, why not.  Limiting the amount my children get in their sippy cup every day.... yes!  But give it up, not at the moment.  I like milk... and well life without cheese really wouldn't be life at all : )

I'm not sure I will use the Holistic Medicine Man for my normal form of treatment all the time... I've been raised too mainstream to deviate so quickly.  But it was nice to have the experience.  Perhaps next time I will just try Osteopathic medicine, which is a more "whole" approach, integrating modern medecine with homepathic medecine.  Treating the whole person not just symptoms... that sounds good.  But be cautioned:  if you ever get the bug to try holistic medecine, they charge a small fortune.