Vacation Day 3: HIKING...

Saturday arrived and WE got up early and had a great time together before my little guys got off to the races.  In love - that's all I can say...in love.

Off to HIKING in Santa Fe, Bandelier National Monument.

G kept asking "what doing mama" when I would say "Hiking Baby" then he would say "what doing mama" or "huh".  He obviously had no frame of reference for hiking.  However, by the end of this day he was asking to "hiking again" the next day.

It took us approximately an hour, or more, to actually start the hiking process.  Toddlers move at their own pace, sometimes full throttle and sometimes REALLY SLOW.  We played in the dirt, went to the bathroom, debated on taking the back pack, changed diapers, jumped off rocks, took silly pictures - it was all quite comical.

Finally ready to go...

T looks unsure.

G is all ready, doing his silly hip swing run - which I LOVE.  This pace lasted all of about 5 seconds before he got distracted by a rock.

Family of 4 3 - Track was on my back, but got cut out of the pic..poor baby.

So as you can see above, Graham got off to a slow start - to the point that we sent Mike back to get the hiking backpack - GOOD IDEA.

Ladders, stairs, caves...AWESOME.  How cute is this picture...G is screaming "Hey Mama?".  He hiked about 4 miles on foot before he asked to "carry me".

Graham said "Hey Mama?" this day no less than 60 times.  Thankfully Mike and I were both in a great place so it was hilarious and not the least bit frustrating.  Now that is God's grace.

This is G whispering to Mike and I "hey mama? - theres a "pana" bear over there" and "hey mama? - "wook" at that giraffe and "hey mama? - there is lion "ROAR" right over there - be careful" and finally "hey mama? - theres a tickle monster in your pocket".  Hilarious, especially since we did not see one living creature the whole day.  That's a good imagination.  Oh and there definitely was a tickle monster in my pocket.

Backpacking babies - Have I mentioned that I LOVE carrying the boys any way possible.  I still sometimes try to get G to get in the Ergo, but he won't do it...SAD.  Mike and I had to get really close to get all parties in the shot.  Love these guys.

Love this picture.  G was so excited to be in the fire pit deal.

LOVE this picture.  Look at my little guy peeking up in the back.

A random BIG hug for no reason.  Phew...I wasn't sure if Mike was going to recover from the Toddler love fest - this is a great stage.

All and all, this day was amazing.  The kids were great, no one cried or had a break down.  We had no where to be, no celly's to check, no emails to answer.  Just the Hummel 4 conquering some ancient ruins - I actually have no idea what we were exploring I was too busy watching the boys take it all in and have such an incredible time with mom and dad's FULL attention.

We will do more trips like this.  We will find a way to be more "unplugged" and see/ feel the joy of each other and the kids the Lord has so kindly blessed us with.  It was a good great day.

Let's Hear it for Whoever Lived in those Caves

Vacation Day 1 Night and Day 2:

So we get to town on Thursday, everyone survived the travel and we get settled into our VRBO, which was really awesome...3 bed/ 2 bath with amazing views.

Mike had a work event that night, so it was just me and the little guys.  We had dinner on the porch while T took a nap.  I love this first picture...this child had A LOT to say.  I love having conversations with him.  This one was about not touching cactus and getting band aids.  PS.  My big guy with typically curly Texas hair had pencil straight hair because it is SO dry in New Mexico.

After Dinner Graham wanted to "swim" in "Miss Darweens" (Darlene - the owner of the home) jacuzzi bathtub.  Although he was terrified of the actual jets, which who can blame him...the bath tub at home doesnt typically shot a jet so strong it could blow him across the tub.  I give him kudos for letting me turn it on.

Both boys went to bed fairly easily...which I was pretty worried about, but I think with all the traveling and change they were both tired.  Granted Track did wake up to eat once or twice, but hey that's nothing new for this child.

The next morning Mike had breakfast with us...

and then he had to go do one more work thing and he left me with these, matching jammie,  guys...

This day, Friday, was by far the most challenging for me.  Even though I packed lots of activities, trying to entertain 2 boys in a home with no toys and a landscape that you can't really play in (cactus, rocks, stickers, and critters - so says miss darween) was tiring.  We rolled through my centerpiece activities in about 2 hours and watched an hour of monkey movies, then it was a waiting game for Mike to come home and TAKE US SOMEWHERE.

Of course when Mike got home, G was ready for a nap - so 3.5 hours later when he woke up we headed out to dinner.  T decided to skip his second nap this day, so we did a lot of looking at each other, which was hilarious.

Ok, so off to dinner at a local restaurant that had great reviews and authentic New Mexican food.  We arrived to be told we had an hour wait - AND WE DECIDED TO WAIT....I know you are asking yourself right now - WHY?  I don't have any idea...terrible decision.  We made it through the waiting part, by passing T around and jumping and throwing rocks with Graham.  We finally get seated and order and Track is D-O-N-E.  I don't think he has EVER lost it in public, but all of our normal tricks we rent working, so I took him out to the car and spanked him drove around until he fell asleep...all of about 30 seconds.  Mike got our stuff to go and we went home, got the boys to bed and sat down to eat our food. 

Only to open the boxes to this...

Is that food?  I'm STARVING at this point.  It WAS as disgusting as it looked.  This is supposed to be a stuffed sopapilla.  The box weighed about 3lbs and was filled with papitas, which I think it potatoes.

So, as you can see it was a higher stress day and my attitude was frazzled.  Lesson learned...I need to prepare ahead of time and make sure I get a regular decent meal or I am a bear.  I should have learned this from my friend Carie.

I was excited to go to sleep and wake up to a new day and Mike was done with work and he had big plans for Saturday.

If I had this day to do over again, I would have gotten up EARLIER to read and pray...that would have made all the difference. 

Let's Hear it for Food and Prayer

Vacation With 2 babies...

We just got back from a 4 day adventure (tag along to Mike's business trip) vacation to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Before we went I was asking myself if it was really going to be worth the HARD WORK it is to get all four of us packed up, out the door, on a plane, entertained and settled in a new place for such a short amount of time (and all to repeat process when it is time to come home).  Mike and I talked it out and it could have gone either way....DISASTER (never traveling again with babies) or DECENT (hard, but doable).  I would venture to say now that we are back...it was work, but completely worth the memories made.  I'm so glad we took the plunge and decided to try to travel with two little ones.

This is what packing looks like to travel with two adults and two cute baby boys.

Giant suitcase for boys, smaller suitcase for me, even smaller suitcase for Mike, Double Bob Stroller, hiking backpack, Ergo, two Carry On bags full of activities, snacks, diapers and extra clothes, two car seats, one brief case and one purse.  PHEW.  Good this the woman we rented from had a Pack and Play.  We were out of room, arms and energy.

And all four Hummels are on the plane...It is actually HILARIOUS to fly with two little ones (if you have the right mindset and set your expectation low (REALLY LOW).  The pictures below sum up out first, family of four, flight.

DaDa - stressed, G - non-phased chillin in his chair like a BIG MAN

Need I say more...

"G put your bottom in the seat", "but I want to see those peoples" - Bahahaha

This guys was tired, but this was about the last 10 minutes of the flight...the other 2 hours and 20 minutes were spent passing him back and forth, feeding him stuff, trying (fruitlessly) to entertain him, and finally giving in and letting him zone out to Praise Baby.

Dear Southwest -

One of your flight attendants mentioned to another "guest" that this plane was brand new.  Nice new leather, sparkly silver tray table knobs, glossy laminated brochures and the like.  I would like to take this time to apologize for spilling apple juice in not just one but all THREE of our seats.  We were being negligent parents to order our two year old ANYTHING to drink.  We are also sorry that our littlest child choked on a puff thing and puked all over the floor.  One more item....we are sorry both the boys gummed the brochures to the point of needing replacement.  We really got our monies worth and you really got the raw end of the deal.  Please forgive us.  Next time we fly the boys will be older and we think that will make all the difference (however, Lord willing we will likely have an even smaller Hummel - sorry  for your sake in advance).  You always say we have choices when we fly.  Thanks for letting us choose you.  Sorry you dont get to NOT choose us.

Sincerely,

Jike, Jara, Jraham and Jrack Doe

(maybe they won't recognize us)

Oh Hey Guys...its my first flight and I am all smiles.

Reading Curious George "Snowy Day" and watching Praise Baby.  Excellent multi-tasker...he IS my child.

So, we made it...a bit of a mess, but I don't even think anyone else even knew the kids were on the flight.  They were great - just a lot of managing for mom and dad.

G and all the bags.

Highlight of this guys day - the rental car shuttle. 

G - look out for that size 13 coming your way.

Everyone needed to burn a little energy, so the boys played around int he car while Mike upgraded us (sang like Beyonce) to a fancy Infinity SUV.

Boys-

We were both very impressed and loved sharing this new experience with you. 

Love-

Management

Let's Hear it for Southwest