Living in Munchkinland

Today, my blog is eight years old. I've done 910 blog posts and written consistently, usually at least once a week, for eight years. In my first blog post, we were living in Arizona with a 22 month old and a two month old. I've printed eight blog books for posterity. I am the historian for my family. Sometimes I slog through it. Sometimes I ignore the blog. But too often, over the years, I have looked something up in it, referenced how we did things or when or even why. Sometimes I think I will shift the focus or give it up and I might. But it is what it is, and I have worked really hard, and put lot of heart and soul into it and even written a few posts I'm really proud of. So happy anniversary to Living in Munchkinland, let's raise a glass!

We had an amazing weekend in Port Aransas with our friends, Cheris and Rob and the kids. The weather was gorgeous, sunny for the first time after two weeks of dismal cold and grey. We are such good friends, and we've done this vacation so many times, that we fall into a rhythm of fun. The kids play well together too. We played two new board games with the kids, which were really fun. One day we took them to the park in the morning to ride scooters, look for dolphins, play with Tito and Nico and fly kites. We ended up staying all day! The grownups played horseshoes and chatted. We had lunch at Fin's with amazing red snapper tacos. Tito and Nico's abuela took all of the kids on an hour long ferry tour that she had arranged through her TXdot connections. We went and drank with Beto and Elizabeth at Giggity's and eat mussels. It was a long lovely day. That evening we drank and ate tacos and watched Into the Woods with the kids and then put them to bed and got in...

This post is going to be pictures. Lots of lots of pictures. I can't help it. San Juan was picturesque. We spent two nights in Old San Juan in a small house we rented online. It was on Calle Sol and was absolutely gorgeous and authentic. We had our kitchen and dining room in the courtyard and Davis and Samuel slept in a loft above our room which they adored. We ate fabulous tapas, we visited both San Felipe del Morro Fort and Castillo de San Cristobal. The forts were fantastic. We walked through the tunnels and saw the dungeons and climbed on cannonballs and took pictures of the views through the turrets. We flew a kite on the grounds of the Morro fort twice. We walked the blue cobblestone streets of Old San Juan and shopped. Michael and I visited a hat maker and bought hats. We walked through the gates of the old city walls and bought Passion fruit sorbet from a street vendor. We bought mallorcas and espressos in the plaza and sat on a park bench while we ate them. T...

I love being with my family. Today we were riding along in Michael's tiny blue car, warm, insulated from the world. Michael was driving, the kids in the back seat were trying to out do each other with monster stories. We were laughing. I was purely happy. I love these moments. I need to find ways to make them happen more often in our regular life. They are easy to come by on vacation, but real life can be magical too, and I need to focus on that. My new year's resolution is to find beauty and satisfaction in the now and in the present. I know that I am overwhelmed with life some times. I know that being a care giver is very emotionally draining job and that I need to find balance. I also need to find joy in the moments so that I have more balance. Losing someone to dementia is a very isolating experience. I don't feel like I can talk about it except to other people who are living it. I don't want to. It is a disease that takes the person you love away whi...

The next day we slept in and then loaded our beach bag to go ashore in St. Maarten. We love St. Maarten. Half of the island is french and the other half is dutch so we can get great wine and great cheese! We walked off the ship and out of the cruise terminal and caught a taxi to our favorite beach, Le Galion. We had visited this beach on our NCL Epic Cruise and had loved it. We got there mid day and grabbed a couple of lounge chairs. Michael promptly went to get us some excellent french rose wine and the kids went to rent a kayak. The weather was amazing and warm and perfect. The water was shallow and clear and full of children playing. The government had added blue partitions at the end of the cove to make a swimming pool and the kids loved it. We spent the day on the beach, sunbathing, swimming, playing, eating fabulous food at the cafe, surfing the free internet and making friends with the people around us. The next day we decided to not get off the boat again. We stayed...

The next day we were tired of getting off the ship and so we skipped St. Thomas all together and enjoyed spending a day on the ship. The kids went to the club, Michael and I went to the spa, we laid by the pool, we read, Michael and the boys participated in a paper airplane contest on the pool deck and Michael won! We tried to take a long nap, but the kids only laid there silently and Michael and I actually slept. We gave the kids an early dinner at the buffet and then dropped Davis off at the club. We dressed up and went out on the boat for New Year's Eve and formal night. We took Samuel to see the magic show called iMagic which used lots of technology. (Davis went to see it with his friends from the club). The show was really good and Samuel was truly impressed. After the show, we took him to the club and then went out for the night with Michael. I have to say that this was probably my favorite NYE ever. The ship really did it right. It was so fun to be all dressed u...

We woke up early on day four to get ready to go ashore in St. Lucia. I was really excited about this one because I had never been to St. Lucia. I had booked a private tour with Discover Soufriere. We exited the cruise terminal and met our guide standing with a sign. He walked us a few blocks over to his car and we loaded up. Our guide drove us all over the island. We stopped and tasted banana products (bananas are their main export) and rum products. Michael didn't do well with this at all as he wasn't feeling well. I loved it and bought banana ketchup and banana barbecue sauce. We also sampled the local bananas. Then we drove on to visit a banana plantation and stopped for some amazing views. We purchased some cute banana leaf grasshoppers for the kids and took lots of pictures. St. Lucia is gorgeous! We wound around and around the island through the mountains. We got out of the car and admired the beautiful Pitons. We stopped at a little shop for cassava bread...