We had an art date with our friend Nina in her garage studio. She is so very talented and we have a few of her paintings. She also teaches kids’ art classes in the summer at Country Village and Aiden was old enough to attend this past summer.

We did our usual roam around Redmond town center, riding escalators and buying snacks.

We were able to coordinate another Team Awesome gathering with almost everyone from our team but Laura who had move to California. This was a great group of people that I started my career with (and became parents together) and we couldn’t have had a better Team Awesome leader.

We never missed an opportunity for bubble tea and milk powder buns (for me it was usually a corn and ham bun or red bean mochi).

We hung out with our neighbor Arshan, and Ishrat made a beautiful and delicious going away dinner for us. She is a wonderful cook and we spent many mornings having tea together on the weekdays.

We spent a lot of free time with Connor and Genevieve who were a few houses up the street from us. Moving away from them was a little easier because they would be moving only a couple months after us to the Chicago area, and we were excited to be within driving distance of each other. Aiden and Connor both love chai tea and are always building train tracks together. Oliver and Genevieve are great little friends who love each other.

We played at the park and slumber partied with Tom and Emily. Several of our other friends came to hangout throughout the day. We had a lazy morning with bagel breakfast sandwiches, coffee, and The Lion King. We had one more dinner with them before the kids left. The picture was full of smiles and then afterwards it was nothing but tears, tears, tears. It hurt my heart to leave these two (three).

I squeezed in several working coffee dates with Hanako when we could find time. We almost never take picture of ourselves but manage to take many pictures of our coffee and snacks. We usually required a work break to run through Ben Franklin for some craft inspriation.

We had a lot of boxes piled up, Andrew and the boys hopped on a plane to leave them in Indiana with our parents where they had a fun-filled week of grandparent and cousin time, and I kept on packing.

We were also lucky enough that the timing meant we were home to meet the newest arrival to the Hampton side of the family.

Our family helped us coordinated getting a few items to our new house and had air mattresses, blankets, and pillows for us so we could slumber party in our new, empty house after we closed. While prepping our house in Washington to sell, we boxed up and shipped a car load of stuff via Amtrak. I don’t remember how much it was, but I remember thinking this is a great deal. The downside is someone has to be at your destination to pick it up from Amtrak (which for us was doable).

We toured the Eastern State Penitentiary. We did the self-guided audio tour which I’d highly recommend. There was a lot of good info about why it was initially designed a specific way and how the use of the facility evolved. At the end, there’s an installation about the modern prison system which was enlightening.

We reserved a time to visit the Magic Gardens, a 3000 sq ft outdoor, mosaic art installation run as a non-profit by Isaiah and Julia Zagar. I would definitely go here again.

Our self-unplanned walking history tour involved Elfreth’s Alley, Ben Franklin’s Grave, The Betsy Ross House, Christ Church, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. We had a list of ideas and places, but didn’t really have an agenda for our days.

We met up with Sarah Sunday evening for dinner and, then Monday morning we wandered the International District for lunch before heading to the airport.

We found and ate very delicious food… and drinks all weekend.

There were murals every where, over 3,600 in fact. This wasn’t even close to one of the best, but I like the perspective. I would have captured more murals, but I was far more occupied with the doors throughout the city.

Casey picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to lunch where we toasted the start of our weekend together and gorged ourselves on sushi.

I got to meet Carl and his baby, Jack. Both of whom I was very nervous to meet because what if they didn’t like me instantly and I was only there for a short time. Would Carl bark at me all weekend, and Jack cry every time I looked at him? Turns out, I didn’t even have to use the dog treats I brought on either of them. They were both immediately my BFFs. Carl did destroy the toy I brought him within 24 hours but I’ll take that as a compliment. Jack only got clothes but he still let me hang out with him.

I think maybe I’d been at the house about 2 hours and after getting the tour we decidedly we could definitely, absolutely paint their guest bath vanity before I left on Sunday. We also replaced the faucet and re-grouted the tile countertop. We did all this while Nelson golfed, we had a Saturday ladies’ night out, and we fit in a little shopping (beside our many Home Depot trips). It was a great little mini getaway weekend!

Hopefully Nelson didn’t mind the madness I may have instigated at their house

Christmas breakfast with cousins…

Aiden and Oliver each got one present early before everyone arrived.

Then we opening presents with everyone but Ali who was sadly home very sick (we all got struck by the sickness eventually, luckily it was only a 24 hour thing).

This is how we’d find the boys when we went up to bed.

Yoshi would like to come in and eat with us. Instead he rests his tongue on the glass and hopes we’ll feel bad for him.

Reading, movies, and snuggles… plus the guys being total guys.

Aiden took Granny’s Christmas present out for a test drive in the snow.

All of us adult kids got a night out to see Jeff Dunham!

We played at the Greenwood Community Center. Aiden and Graham made their way through the climbing tree. It look a little persuasion to get Graham back out.

Ali and I worked on some string art.
The guys helped with some very guided assistance from us.

This was Oliver’s first flight with his own seat! Despite paying for an additional seat we got a whole row to ourselves and the boys weren’t all over each other because I sat between them. It was a pretty pleasant flight.

Aiden has his first ice skating experience and loved it. He used the little walker for a while but by the end he didn’t even want to hold our hands for help.

We visited the Holliday Park Nature Center. We saw a turtle, owl, frogs, snakes, squirrels and a Woody Wood Pecker.

We also went to the Plainfield Library for story time. After reading 999 Tadpoles, the boys got to make their own pond with 999 tadpoles using dobbers. Then upstairs they had a life-size candy land game.

Sarah was in town for the first half of our trip. We managed to escape the littles and do a little painting.

Aunt Sheryl and Malachi came over to spend the day with us.

We went to the Hernandez’s for New Year’s Eve and played with “baby AJ”. We brought her one our favorite toys as a gift, magna-tiles. Aiden and AJ built with magnets while this other little monster hovered happily around the food table.

The boys got to open one present and their Christmas stockings before Christmas.

We had our whole family Christmas on Christmas eve. Aiden was very patient pacing himself with Oliver’s gift opening speed.

Sharing snacks and playing together…

We snuck out with dad one evening to get drinks while MeMe and the little went to bed.

After Sarah headed back to Philadelphia, Andrew and I started on Mom and Dad’s Christmas present. Andrew’s getting ready to start cutting and double checking my measurements. We got super lucky that the tile did not need any horizontal cuts.

We got to the end and were short 2 little tiles and had to make a run to the store before we could finish up.

Here’s the finished project (it took us roughly 2 half days). We also added under-cabinet LEDs.

This is myself around Oliver’s age. I was comparing with pictures at my parents house. I’d say he has my looks and Andrew’s personality.

My first morning there we walked the ocean front and up a bit of a hill that jutted out to give a really nice 360 view of Pacifica.

Listening to the huge ocean waves was so relaxing. I specifically noticed the sound of the  sand/rocks as the waves fell away. It was like a listening to a giant rain stick.

The views on my flight home weren’t too bad either. I love seeing the trail of mountains in the distance when it’s super clear. We did however have to attempt the landing in Seattle twice because of “traffic in the runway.”

]]> http://blog.solanis.net/2017/09/new-orleans-girls-trip/ Thu, 21 Sep 2017 07:33:13 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/?p=5185 Read More]]> The Hampton ladies all met up in New Orleans for a little vacation (while Sherri did some work).

We ate, drank, brunched, shopped, and walked our way through the French Quarter and a few other places.

We drank at the carousel bar (because Vogue told us to, it’s one of their top 20 bars in the world). It rotates and the only way the bartenders get in an out is by jumping over the bar. We drank the signature Sazerac. It was not delicious. Pimm’s Cup was definitely my drink of choice in New Orleans.

Desserts are my favorite and this place did not disappoint.

Here’s Bourbon St during the off season

I got some cool views on my way home.