Trampoline Boys

Nathan loved jumping on his friend Grahammy's trampoline in Oakland, so he's been thrilled that the Hausman's have one, as well.

The Auntie/Nephew Bond

So, Nathan was a bit of a mommy-centric baby, and my poor sister, who, by circumstances of living far from us, has only gotten to see him a couple of times a year since he was born, has been a bit disappointed to find that he tended to be a little standoffish with her. We were all a little surprised, because her first son, Tommy, is the type of kid that connects with most everyone, and so he and I had an instant auntie/nephew bond from day one. We all assumed that my first son would be the same with his auntie.

However, sometimes, like a fine wine, things need time. And so, we're thrilled to see that now that Nathan's at least sticking his beak out of the nest a little, he's more willing to forge a strong relationship with his Auntie Michelle. The two have had some really cute moments on this trip, not the least of which was an hour long "preschool" session this morning where Auntie Shell went over the calendar, did a story and lesson on circles, a cooking class, and helped Nathan draw some pictures. He was completely mesmerized by his "teacher."

This video clip is an earlier part of our trip when we left the museum and Nathan held his aunties hand without complaint for the first time.

Can you name this movie quote?

"Son, you got a panty on yer head."

And even more silly museum pictures

Don't Jump, Jen










Auntie Shell reads Nate The Art of War











Pattycake, pattycake










Steve discusses the plan














Then we ran the Fayetteville Marathon, just for fun

More Silly Museum Pictures

Not far from the tree

My sister is working towards being as impressive a host as our mother. Our mom is the type of hostess that keeps the guest bathroom fully stocked with extra toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, shampoo/conditioner, etc., in case you might have forgotten a sundry or two. She always has a snack and cold drink waiting for you when you arrive. And she keeps a TV and DVD player in every room, and has a DVD collection to rival a Blockbuster store, should you want to relax with a movie.

My sister, as a hostess, is a marvel when it comes to offering options of things to do. Every day that I've been here, she's provided me with a multitude of possibilities of places to go to or eat at that will suit everyone's desires and needs. She really is quite the tour guide. I feel like I'm getting a very good overview of Fayetteville. And she saved me from eating deep fried fat back at the crazy southern buffet restaurant we went to last night. I thought they were weird french fries.

One of our first stops when we arrived here was the Airborne and Special Operations Museum, (which she made sure to plan on a day when Steve was still here, per her thoughtful master hostiness) and thankfully I was indulged in my desire to carry on a personal tradition I have of taking goofy pictures any time I'm in a museum.

The Hausmans steal our kids

I've really been quite terrible about updating my blog while hanging out in North Carolina with Michelle and the boys. It's just that we're all having so much fun hanging out, on top of which, I've become mildly addicted to Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and I've just found myself drifting back into late summer mode - the kind I used to have as a kid when you could stay up as late as you wanted and sleep in, and float from meals to video games, to board games to swimming to watching a movie to running errands... It's been a nice flashback to some great times I had with my sister growing up. And such a trip that we're both moms now!!

So the next several entries will be NC photo/video heavy, and then I'll back track to St. Louis and the rest, and by then, Steve and the boys and I should be on our way to Maine.

Fayetteville Arrival

So, it looks like I'm going to have to fast forward, and then work my way back, eventually, as Steve needed to take our laptop with him to Maine, and on it are the most of the rest of the photos and videos through St. Louis, Indianapolis, Bowling Green and Knoxville. However, I am now having an amazing visit with my sister Michelle and my nephews Tommy and Ben, while Steve gets his barings at the new job and tries to find us a house to rent in his spare time.

So this is our arrival in Fayetteville, North Carolina:

St. Louis Bound

I started feeling a tickle in my throat and sneezing up a storm in Kansas last night, had a restless night's sleep as my throat got increasingly painful. NOOOO!!! I can't be getting sick!!! We're on our way to visit my gay boyfriend David who lives in St. Louis, and I'm stuffy and achy and this just stinks!!!!!

Junction City, KS

From Denver, we made the long drive to Kansas. One of my favorite moments of the drive is when you first cross over from one state to the next, it’s called Kanarado. Now that’s creativity!!

We made it all the way to Junction City, where we got a surprisingly nice and clean room at a Holiday Inn Express. The humidity in Kansas was pretty stifling, but we were excited to have a Cracker Barrel just across the way.

If you haven’t been to a Cracker Barrel, it’s lard infused, sweet creamery butter drenched, cheesy, salty, gravy soaked goodness. And to top it off, it’s cheap and they have a really cute gift shop.

My sister first introduced me to C.B.’s when she lived in Colorado, and the highlight is their cheesy hashbrown potato casserole. And to my delight, they serve breakfast all day, so I ordered myself up a nice artery clogging Oldtimer’s Breakfast – two eggs overeasy, grits, biscuits and gravy, hashbrown casserole and thick sliced applewood smoked bacon. Not a low sodium, low fat, low cholesterol item on my plate, which is the smart thing to do when you’re embarking on a sedentary adventure of driving 400 miles in a day.

After that, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few essentials and do a sociological observation of the Junction City locals, who, by and large, seemed like a group of people eager to escape the confines of a town too small to offer them a whole lot in the way of excitement. At least that’s what I thought until we made our way to the parking lot and saw a man yelling at his wife with a golf club over his head, threatening to strike at any moment, just one row over from us. Perhaps we should have stepped in, as altruistic citizens of these United States, but since we had the kiddos in tow, we got everyone buckled up at lightning speed and high-tailed it back to the Holiday Inn, realizing life was much more exciting in Junction City, Kansas than we originally thought.

A little sign from Grandpa Joe

My wonderful grandfather (Joey's namesake) passed away this past March. He was full of great stories. Among them, one of the most famous was that my grandparents had decided to leave New Hampshire with 3 small children, pulling a trailer cross country to live and settle in California. (I have noticed a parallel or two, however opposite, with our situation and the timing of it in our lives.)

Anyway, Grandpa Joe talked many times about a place called Stuckey's, that was probably at the time one of the few roadside stops, as opposed to todays endless gas stations with foodmarts. As my grandpa would say, just when you had driven so many miles that you felt like you couldn't drive another one, you'd see that Stuckey's in the distance, pull off and have an amazing chocolate shake, and buy a pecan roll for later. He'd always end the story with a gleam in his eye, and you could tell he was back there for just a moment as he'd say, "boy those shakes were good!"

So, when I saw the red roof and the sign on the outskirts of Colorado, we just had to pull off and take a picture, since I felt like Grandpa Joe was giving me a little hello. :)

Colorado Scenery

If there's any confusion as to why Steve and I are so attracted to Colorado...

Nathan Sings Feist

My dad made us a great CD for the trip of mixed songs, and one of them was that IPOD commercial Feist song. Nathan's still partial to John Mayer, but he digs the Feist, too.

Bye Deb and George

Awwww!












Just like the 8th grade yearbook!!!

Goodbye to Denver

We had so much fun with Deb and George on Wednesday that we talked them into dining with us one more time. We went to Red Robin, for the kid friendly factor, coupled with Steven's addiction to Buffalo Clucks and Fries, and Nathan was totally idol worshiping George.

George: I'll have a root beer.
Nathan: I'll have a root beer too.

George: I'll take a cheeseburger.
Me: Nathan, they have macaroni and cheese!
Nathan: (Pointing to George) I'm having a cheeseburger, like him!

We were sad to say goodbye to the Aragon's, and Denver, a place that Steve and I both hope we will visit again, and maybe even live one day.

Candy Pulling at Hammond

Hammond's Candies

We spent a good full day in Denver, exploring mostly, and to my delight, taking the free tour of the Hammond candy factory. It was not as big and impressive as Jelly Belly, but cool to see all the candy being handmade. Oh, and there were lots of samples. I'm not the hugest hard candy fan, but I found a confection or two to enjoy, and those that were not my speed, I just tasted and then spit out, much like wine tasting.

More pics from night 1 in Denver

George, Deb, Nathan, Jen and Joey

Going down to the basement




Caught in the act of triple desserting

Dining with Debbie in Denver

The drive from Utah to Colorado was long. We got a late start, and had a bit of pressure to get to Colorado by evening, because we were set to have dinner with my childhood best friend, Debbie.

Debbie and I became joined at the hip in 1st grade. We remained that way up through junior high, and people often asked us if we were twins. We were even voted “best friends” in the 8th grade yearbook Who’s Who. We posed for the picture in Park View Junior High’s front office, each holding a phone.

We went to different high schools, but remained good friends, until we made a pact to find each other boyfriends at the opposite schools. The story I would tell you at the time is that I held up my end of the bargain, hooked her up with Jeremy Perkins from my Spanish class, and as soon as they got “serious” she dropped me like a hot potato, and stopped calling or wanting to hang out.

There was surely some truth to that, but I always used to leave out the part that I was teenagedly in love with Jeremy Perkins myself, and that he was clearly not interested, so somehow I thought it was a great idea to fix him up with a close friend. Was I insane? Of course, I was seething with jealousy, and she could have called me every 5 minutes and I still would’ve found a reason to be mad at her.

After that, though, we unofficially stepped back from BFF (best friends forever) status and moved on to KIT’ing. (Keeping in touch). I visited her once when she was a student at UC Santa Barbara, and went to her wedding in Cambria, but I believe it was My Space that started us catching back up. Then, a year and a half ago, when we passed through Colorado on our way to Kansas for Thanksgiving, we met Deb and her hubby, George, had breakfast and explored the Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver.
I definitely felt a shift at that point, from just KITing to becoming friends all over again as adults.

When Debbie stayed a night with us a year ago, on her way to a conference for work in Oakland, we even further cemented our grown up friendship transition with lots of reminiscing, laughter, a peanut throwing/beer swilling dinner at Quinn’s and ice cream at Tucker’s.

So, when passing through Denver became possible, I knew that getting together with Debbie and George was a must. Sweetening the deal even further, Deb offered to cook for us, and a homemade meal of salad (made with lettuce grown in her own garden) and lasagna was just what the doctor ordered for these greased up travelers.
We had an amazing time hanging out at the Aragon house, and Deb and George both treated Nathan like a king. What kid wouldn’t be wowed by big boxes of legos, and three desserts in a row – a popsicle, an ice cream bar, and some really great toffee.

Perhaps the best line of the night was when Nathan was sampling this high quality candy that George and Deb were sharing with us, and George said, “don’t have any of that, Nathan. You’re too young to appreciate it.” So I said, “Nathan, tell him you’re a connoisseur.”

So Nathan promptly marched over to him and said, “George, I’m a dinosaur!”

When I told people of our plans to turn our move into a two week cross country family adventure, many looked at me like I was crazy. “ A three-year-old, a year old, two cats and a very full car. You really think that sounds like fun?”

It did, and it is, however, I am definitely getting why people think it sounds like a crazy endeavor. Joey and Nathan are both so far off schedule that we spent 2 ½ hours getting them to sleep last night. Steve and I were both so frustrated, but at times, we just had to laugh.

The cutest part was when I realized Joey was too hot in his footy sleeper, so I stripped him down, and he suddenly discovered his belly button for the first time. Every 10 seconds for about an hour he’d go back to looking down at his little tummy and pinching himself.

He was just in this zone of not wanting to go to sleep, even though he was obviously so tired. He would almost be completely asleep, and then he’d throw his little eyelids back open, say “da da” at the top of his lungs, and sit up and start crawling around again. Then he’d hurl himself into me because he could barely keep his head up. I’m covered in bruises from the neck down, and fairly certain we might have a future NFL linebacker on our hands.

Meanwhile, poor Nathan has been a little under the weather and just wanted me to snuggle him to sleep, so he forced himself to stay awake. It was 10:30, Colorado time, and Joey finally relented, but once I settled in with Nathan he went into question mode again, and wanted to ask me about the fire alarm on the ceiling, if I like Dodge Durangos, and if my sunburn from 4 months ago was okay.

Jen's a clutzo!

And then there was Starbucks.

So, we didn’t get any coffee this morning, because we overslept after Nathan’s 4am wake up call, so we stopped at a Starbucks on the road, and got two big Pike’s Places – mine creamed and sugared, and Steve’s splendidly Splendad. We had to pull over to rearrange and throw out some trash, and Steve had his drinkholder filled with a big ice water. So, he handed it to me and asked me to hold it.

Since I had nowhere better to put it, in my infinite wisdom, I placed it gently on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat. We did what we needed to do and got back in the car. Continuing to use this great big brain of mine, I gingerly lifted the coffee cup by the lid, which was not properly attached for some reason, and thus his splendidly Splendad Starbucks was spilled all over the car mat.

Our car smells like coffee, which is fine now, but I’m afraid it might be comparable to a Vegas Extended Stay in a few days.