prez day weekend

I didn't quite get all those posts done while on spring break.  We were too busy boiling snow and building fires during the power outage.  Haha!  No, seriously.

Let's rewind to the weekend we celebrated G dub-ya's and old Abe's birthdays.  Aren't we lucky that our first president and arguably our most prolific president were born near the same date?  That makes for a nice long weekend.

Devin, Quinn, Scott, Sarah, Mason and I headed to Mendocino where a cabin, hot tub, cards, puzzles, and a beautiful coastline awaited us.  It was supposed to be cold, cloudy and rainy for the entire weekend.  Strangely, it rained to the north and south of us but was clear, sunny and in the 60s the whole weekend in Mendocino.  I'm trying to think of witty and sincere language to capture the spirit of the weekend.  I'm failing, so I'll let this montage of photos reflect the weekend instead.  Our first official Tendall-Zapotocky and Morrison/Kelly tradition has been established....look out Mendocino!

spring break 2011!

Funnels of beer!  Manscaping and board shorts! Bronzed, sculpted bikini-clad bodies! Shots of tequila!  Sleeping until noon and waking up to a beer and eggs!  YES!  SPRING BREAK IS HERE!

Although we'll be doing the we're-in-our-early-thirties-with-children-under-2 version of spring break...a secluded cabin a half-hour outside of yosemite overlooking a vineyard with a hot tub.  Yes, please.  The weather forecast is rain almost every day; the kids (we'll be spring breakin' with our friends scott & sarah and their son mason) are learning to eat and to sleep; and we're all on a put-good-healthy-wholesome-foods-into-our-bodies kick.  And in light of all that, we cannot WAIT!  March definitely roared in like a lion for us and is calmly rolling out like a lamb.

No cell phone reception where we'll be but there will be wi-fi so I'm hoping to get a few posts up next week.  The goal is to catch up the blog to vacation time (although that goal is lofty).  Some previews of what's to come: presidents' day weekend in mendocino, brunch bunch at morrison/kelly abode, and Q's loss of the noodle nose and growth of a second belly button (say what?!?!).

erin go braugh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!  

Boil up your dinner, enjoy green beer if it suits you, and be safe!

around the house - post #100

Holy cow!  Post #100!  That's probably an average of like 2 a month or something equally unimpressive.  Nice round numbers always feel good, though.  So high-fives for post #100!

It's a boring one.  But I have to keep the momentum going....and we need to edit pictures from the camera before I can post more eventful musings.

Tape...more than just a way to tape your NG-tube to your back.

Quick!  Take some pictures!  No tube!  This was happening about once every 2 weeks by the end of the February.

It wasn't really the tube that was bothering her, but rather the tape that kept the tube attached to her face.  Some mornings the tape was under her chin instead of on her nose.  She didn't mind it on her chin...just not on the nose, please.

Quinn and Maleni in all their glory.

Quinn's favorite little person.  The conductor of the train.  Although she prefers him to conduct her newly budding teeth.  

klaus casually letting maleni know who's the boss of her sock.

portlandia

It has probably been one of the most taxing weeks for us in terms of energy (I resorted to reading an article from the New Yorker about cyber espionage and cyber war in a kid-friendly voice to Quinn during a feeding...she'll tell you the difference between the 2 and the one you should be more afraid of, if you ask her) and stress (devin and I probably consumed a combined total of about 100 grams of fat and 7,000 calories on Friday).  All is well; we just had a LOT on our plates this week.  Almost more than we could swallow.  Kind of like after Thanksgiving dinner when you just need to unbutton your pants to feel a little more comfortable.  Okay, enough of the food metaphors.  More to come on our monumental week in a few days, but for now, let's get back to our game of catch-up.

Last January (2010), we had planned a trip to Portland to visit friends and to bask in the utopia of bicycles, trams, hipsters, and food carts.    Then we got a phone call about a kid in the NICU who was looking for some parents and we totally ditched our trip to Portland.  Then we planned to go to Portland in October.  This was the peak of Quinn's hunger strike and lack of weight gain and we knew that hospitalization and a noodle nose were imminent.  So we bagged the trip again.  FINALLY, we nailed down a weekend this January (2011), booked some Southwest airfare with the travel credit from previously scheduled trips, and were on our way to the gloomy gray winter of Portland.  The dreary weather was no match for the bright sunshiny home of our gracious host, Susan, and it was a much needed respite after the holidays and before devin was deep into the throes of school and work.  

The weekend was perfect.  Pizza and beers, scrabble and qwirkle, visiting bay area friends and meeting their 5-month-old baby (shout-out to kristen, scott, and jonathan!), visiting friends from baltimore that dk went to nursing school with (shout-out to alana and stef and max!), a proper night out sans kid (shout-out to jess!), an amazing brunch, and more scrabble and qwirkle.  We enjoyed every minute and as always, left Portland wondering if maybe it was a reasonable and ideal "move to" place.  And as always, we decided that luckily we have no choice for a "move to" place for at least 3 years (when dk finishes school).  

kristen and jonathan

Last time we saw these guys we were all playing poker, sipping whiskey, and taking each other's money.   This time we sipped some whiskey and swapped diaper stories.

Q and J

Jonathan's post-poop bliss

Ol' Captain One-Eye Winky

Quinn and Susan gettin' their dance on

Stef regulating Max while Alana soaks up some Q-time

Quinn's first official pat-down courtesy of TSA

Quinn is getting the lady's name so she can make a formal complaint.