Lots of Travel, a Wedding, and a Birthday

I'm home on a Sunday night for what seems like the first time in ages, so travel- (and hence, laundry- and to-do-list and sleep-catchup) saturated have been the past few weeks. I've been gone a lot for work, with Seth holding down the fort and apparently pulling off the impossible: burning F+F out on pizza. 

Now Seth's snoring on the couch mid-Western and F+F crashed hard after a "Mom travel guilt"-induced trip to the Natural Sciences Museum and Pullen Park, 

and I'm enjoying a few seconds of sipping a semi-decent sauv blanc and scrolling through the list of birthdays and occasions and thank yous and ballet classes and garbage pickups we've missed, in flagrant violation of my recent plan to lose ten pounds by not drinking and get my sh*t together. 

Maybe tomorrow. 

At any rate, the most recent whirlwind included Valentine's Day, which we celebrated in "holy cow this weather is amazing" style (plus some original twists by F+F, including this completely self-prompted guitar-playing outfit and session),

and then a much-anticipated (by two out of the four of us) race for the airport

and a blissful long weekend in Colorado Springs, once we survived what was truly horrendous travel. (My commitment to Frontier Airlines may or may not have taken a hit, and long weekend ski travel can suck it.) But we eventually made it to our airbnb in the foothills, complete with saltwater hot tub

and this view:

and spent our pre-wedding downtime surprising Handsome Ford with this day of his dreams on the Royal Gorge Railroad.

He was quick to point out that this one was not robbed by "bandits," and Seth and I enjoyed the fact that it had a bar

while F+F delighted in getting to hang out with the (real) conductor.

We also got to enjoy some "our kids have already forgotten about West Point winters" snow moments,

and hit up the hilarious Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, which for no reason had this amazing kids' fake rodeo exhibit.

Plus we had enough much-needed r&r time for early morning kid performances like whatever the heck was going on here:

On Sunday, after a lovely weekend of warmth and hospitality and inclusiveness, Ranj & Jason were married at the stunning Garden of the Gods Resort, and they let Finley steal the show,

gave us a reason to get dressed up,

and threw a killer party enjoyed by all.

We were grateful for and rejuvenated by our weekend of love and laughter and panoramic views in Colorado.

And then on the way home, after an obscenely early flight, we celebrated Seth's birthday with lunch at a Charlotte biergarten and a trip to Bass Pro Shops where he- true to form- refused to let F+F win the games.

Cheers to new beginnings, old habits, and a guy who loves his family madly (obviously, having put up with long weekend travel) but has serious issues with his kids' shooting posture, even where Big Buck Hunter and plastic rifles are concerned. Happy 36th, Seth.

Germany, and Catching Up.

Guess that goes to show you what having kids does for you. I have literally tens of thousands of pictures of F+F, stored in purchased iCloud space somewhere I don't completely understand and cluttering more than one iDevice. 

And yet I spent five days in Germany, managing to drink some German beer and squeeze in a quick Bad Tolz road trip to see old friends, and I took like four. And two of them were of food. 

It was a whirlwind of awful travel and a worse conference schedule- involving daily bus transit and way too much spaetzle- but still nice to get back to a place I've loved since I was a kid. (My only other stops there since high school having been either on my way to a war or returning from one, neither being a time for much fun.) Plus Army travel routed me through Atlanta on Super Bowl weekend, making for a real "there's no place like home!" moment when I finally made it.

Luckily, Grandma Jayne came to save the day

and the kids had a blast skipping school in favor of snuggle time. If I hadn't brought home kinder eggs, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have known I was gone.

I got back just in time for ballet and a trip to the children's museum (this is Ford "stopping a bad guy," because he is almost always Dash Incredible these days),

and to make the little heathens go pick up trash with Jayne and I at the Cape Fear Trail. Which was a real sh*tshow.

Seth had been smoking meat for days upon my return (I'm not sure they ate anything else in my absence), and we threw a wild kid Super Bowl Party

at which they acted terrible with their friends and mostly eschewed pants.

Since then it's been a frenzy of work catchup, sprinkled with a birthday party or two

holiday prep (slash cleanup),

and a farewell to Grandma that involved tears (mine) and a couple summer-like days warm enough for- if not the pool- the hot tub, before she had to go back to subzero North Dakota temps.

Plus a wild night at Chuck E. Cheese (Seth & Jayne's pick)

and lots of snuggles.

All in all, I'm behind on almost everything (including this blog) but the Niemans are having a lovely, unseasonably warm, Grandma-brightened, February.

Photo of the week, since I neglected to take any of either Jayne or Germany, is this one of, you know, your everyday Sunday night with F+F's posse. They like to dress (mostly) for BBQ night.

An Unseasonably Warm and Unusually Snow-Free MLK Weekend.

It's kind of crazy that I could even think about the gift of a four day weekend and not immediately start looking at travel websites... but a month-plus of holiday travel and upended schedules had really taken a toll on our sanity, our routine, and our travel budget. The kids wanted to be home. So I reluctantly capitulated, and it wound up being a nice couple days to catch our breaths, catch up with laundry, and enjoy the unseasonably balmy weather.

Friday I also wound up having to work for a few hours, and the kids came with me and loved every second of terrorizing my super-secure building (the guard literally chased us down because he had neglected to search Ford's pockets), discovering the Fort Bragg library, and gorging at the food court. (Um, hello, Boston Market kids' meals might mean I never cook again.) And then we fled north to see Aunt Nicole's chickens

and help ourselves to organic broccoli from her garden, which Ford regarded with the expected amount of suspicion and Finley ate directly from the stalk.

Saturday was the day we had agreed to haul 2 hours west to Spencer, NC, home of the NC Transportation Museum, for the day of Ford's dreams. It more than lived up to the hype. Ford got to hand his prized ticket to the "'ductor" and go for a ride,

drive restored cabooses and engineer simulators,

and wander through a beautifully preserved roundhouse, where we watched our train get put into its shed after the ride, a la Thomas. (Seth and I were arguably more impressed than the kids.)

Sunday we recovered from our long if incredible pilgrimage, which included nutella waffles and looked like this until about noon:

and later featured hours at the park enjoying 50 degree weather

followed by Valentine's crafts and homemade carrot cake.

And for Monday's grand finale, we all slept until 9am (after a late night watching football playoffs), and then made the terrible decision to attend the "community heroes" day at the Raleigh Children's Museum. Which was insanely crowded but did involve real firefighters, a community service project,

and some hilarious costume changes. Even if it left Seth and I hating every single other parent/ child combo in the universe.

Still we made it home in time for movie/ fireplace time, for Ford to learn (to our dismay) that there were carrots in carrot cake (!), and for Finley to knock out one of her front teeth dancing naked in the kitchen. All in all, we had a banner four-day weekend enjoying our kids, our time off, and home sweet home.

It may not have been a ski weekend in Vail, which it seems like every single one of my friends enjoyed, but it was warm and it was funny and it was downtime that we really need sometimes (at least until F+F are both old enough to dump at ski school.) Hope everyone who got the holiday enjoyed every second.