West Point Farewell Tour 2018

Coming back from Florida, with pre-moving to-do lists a mile long, would have crushed us.

Luckily, Turtle Mountain Middle School's loss was our gain, and Jayne's retirement meant she had a couple weeks to help us keep things together as we hurtled toward our PCS date. On top of regularly scheduled chaos, and as if June wasn't nuts enough, I had to go back to the SJA Course in Charlottesville.

Grandma time meant I also got to enjoy trail runs and local beer instead of being saddled with working-Mom guilt.

(Although nightly facetime is always pretty gut-wrenching.)

Jayne even helped clean out the garage, and by clean I mean "took directions from Seth and did pretty much all the heavy lifting." Now that's a Mother's love.

Having extra hands meant that, in between fits of moving prep and long days trying to wrap things up at work, we got to spend some time enjoying our last few weeks at West Point. (Although maybe not as much as Ford enjoyed this burrito at Seth's office farewell.)

We got to sneak in trips to Round Pond, since it had finally gotten warm.

We got to hang out at the Calway RV and say goodbye to this incredible group of friends,

have goodbye pillow fights and dance parties and

beer pong (yes, really) at the Ryans',

and crack up when we caught this guy getting into the girls' nail salon party. Even if meant serious clean-up.

We are grateful indeed for the bit of breathing room we got during this absolutely insane time.

Jayne left just in time to spend Father's Day with Tony, and to perk everyone up we made trips to the Big Bounce (a bounce castle which was hot and terrible and adored by both kids),

and because I'm a glutton for punishment (and it was Father's Day weekend), I let Seth talk me into this terrible "fun park" on the New Jersey border. Which was exactly as awesome as it sounds (although he and Finley, two peas in a pod, had the time of their lives.)

The kids also really nailed it with their Father's Day gifts this year, and everybody's been shooting everybody with these plastic bows for days. Apropos, I think.

My parents arrived last night and the movers show up Thursday... it seems that this move is really happening. For now, we're soaking it up while we can. Obviously. (See photo of the week, below.)

Mini-vacation in Tampa

In this busy season of PCSing and working up 'til the last minute and tons and tons of moving parts and goodbyes to friends and trying to squeeze in farewells to all of our favorite New York things... I have gotten woefully behind on sharing our adventures.

We've been back from Tampa for two weeks, for instance, and I am just now posting this unbelievably adorable photo of Finley in her first turn as flower girl, at Ashton & Leah's absolutely stunning wedding.

Finley's excitement at the prospect was contagious (rehearsal dinner shenanigans on the left), and (hilarious photo on the right notwithstanding), Ford decided he loved Jewish weddings.

We all did.

We were beyond lucky to have Jayne join us to help wrangle kids (and celebrate her retirement!) in at the stunning- if owned by a crazy person- waterfront airbnb we stayed at for the long weekend

where the kids grew gills in the pool

and discovered water guns,

we threw this unbelievable pool party with all of our Tampa friends,

and I even got in a morning paddle or two.

Our mini-vacation (the last bit of real relaxing we would get in before the move) really hit the spot. And reminded me how grateful I am to have kids who are terrific travelers. I flew with them alone, since Seth was still in a wheelchair and opted to drive both ways (in the most heroic act of friendship ever.)

This is what they look like in the airport. It's my favorite thing about parenting to date.

Except maybe for this (Finley exploring downtown Tampa with her "nap," looking like the ultimate tourist.)

And these last few photos of the week, of Ford doing what he loves on vacation. Boating with Uncle Mike, and ingesting large quantities of carbs.

Memorial Day Weekend, and Five Years

This is how Ford kicked off the long weekend. In a towel, in Mom and Dad's bed, eating waffles with Nutella. In my next life, I'm definitely coming back as one of my kids.

I hate hate hate missing out on a big trip for one of my favorite holiday weekends, especially since we originally started a tradition of going back to Maine, where we got married, since the 28th is also our anniversary.


Unfortunately, USMA graduation kills Memorial Day weekend, and we didn't even go since it was about 105 degrees. I did get to participate in the commissioning of this kid with some spectacular Army girlfriends, which was awesome, and Seth did a commissioning for one of his mentees.

Still, the traffic was crazy and there were porto-lets everywhere, and on Sunday we fled for incredible Stepping Stones Children's Museum in Connecticut. Which was obviously awesome.

Even if all Ford wanted to do was drive this bus. (And check out Finley the astronaut!)

After which we had rainy day clam chowder on the Norwalk waterfront at this incredible Irish bar that had bar table-height high chairs. Our kind of place!

We spent the rest of the weekend, despite the crummy weather, as it was meant to be spent. Riding bikes outside,

remembering the fallen (here, adding rocks to the cairn on top of Popolopen Torne),

and being conned by the people we love into doing things we absolutely despise. And by "we," there, I mean "me." And by "things we absolutely despise" I mean "Dave and Buster's. With toddlers."

This is how we spent our anniversary. Plus the Disney store, which was too frenetic to get pictures but resulted in presents for both of the spoiled beasts. And Seth and the kids had so much fun, I couldn't do anything but crack up (and worry about sensory overload, and wonder what they had on draught.)

Five years (!!) in, life on Team Nieman continues to be a crazy, unpredictable, sometimes tough but always full of laughter, ride. It would be silly to say we wouldn't change a thing- we'd love for everybody to be up on two feet, for e- but we never stop feeling grateful.

Especially for these little crazies. This might be my favorite of the week. Finley the Star, singing Taylor Swift in a fisherman's hat and loving the "microphone" at the Children's Museum.